This was one of those weeks when I just wanted to give up and let the weeds take over.
After more rounds of thunderstorms, exterior clean-up is still ongoing. Kudos to the City of Dallas sanitation crews for working as fast as possible to deal with all the downed trees. The week was filled with tornado watches. Fort Worth/Arlington were hit by tornadoes last Sunday and downtown Greenville (about 50 northeast of Dallas) was struck Wednesday with a mesoscale convective complex.
We certainly will not be in drought this summer after this amount of Spring rain. Magical as it is, rain has both good and bad sides: good for veggies/flowers and unfortunately just as good for weeds (bad for gardeners). The fertile soil in the gardens makes a perfect landing place for weeds. Intermittent sunshine, 95o+ temps (105o+ heat index) and humidity create perfect growing conditions for them. They come from nowhere and everywhere and never seem to go away. The will to keep pulling a few every day is waning as rapidly as the heat is rising.
With help from my kids tomorrow, we will replace the two fabric canopies destroyed by hail.
As a physical and mental cool down from the depressing weed survey, I wandered through the gardens to assess growth. I missed the first epiphyllum hookeri blooms overnight during the week; heavy flame acanthus branches are prostrate on the ground, still recovering from hail. The butterfly garden is progressing fast and a walk through the fennel was headily fragrant. Spotted both black swallowtail and yellow tiger swallowtail butterflies lingering.
Blue agave (Agave americana) is one of the most graceful and artistic plants in the garden. I’m continually fascinated by the intricate growth designs on the leaves. The plant is attributed to the Aztec goddess of longevity, Mayhuel. The name agave comes from the Greek word for illustrious; it is part of the very large asparagus family and is closely related to aloe. Blooming only once in its lifetime (15-30 years), it is considered a ‘century plant.’ Sap can be used as a vegan sweetener, and, of course, it’s what ferments to make tequila! The original single plant (a pass-along from a friend) has dozens of offspring via a shallow root system; many have been dug up and ‘passed along’ repeatedly.
What are your worst nightmare weeds and most intriguing plants??