I have closed on the house officially and have moved in and done some work. Unfortunately I do not have internet access and now that I do have it I forgot my camera so I can’t share new pictures. I was able to find out what some of the plants from my last post were and am going to write about those.
All of the hostas are staying and I’m slowly working on removing the weeds growing in among them.
Mom identified this and the other bush/tree like things as mulberry bushes, which were probably brought in by birds who eat the berries and then drop them. Because they aren’t something I want right now, all of them were pulled or cut.
I found a bloom on one of the daylilies and now know that some of them are Stella d’Oro, they will also be staying.
I still do not know what this is or if it was intentionally planted or not, but it had a strange smell and was growing over the hostas and daylillies that I wanted to keep, so it has all been dug up.
Another mulberry bush.
Sadly, the company that was caring for the house while it was on sale before I closed mowed off both peony bushes! They are both there, just very, very short. I’m hoping they will survive and come back next year.
More mulberry bushes! These were everywhere, but are all out. Thanks to several heavy rains, the soil was damp enough to pull some up by the roots. Others I had to cut off, so I may need to find some sort of stump killer or something if they come back.
This bush is looking a little better, but I’m still not sure if it is going to stay or not. If it goes, I will need some help from my dad or someone with equipment I don’t have, so won’t be done right away.
No change to these either for the same reason as above, but they will likely stay since they are healthy and look decent – unless I decide to replace them with flowers.
The sedum is coming back nicely even where it was mowed down, I can’t wait until they bloom this fall. This looks exactly like my mom’s light pink sedum (Hylotelephium spectabile), so I think that is the same. I do love sedum and may add more varieties later though!
A sharpened hoe, a lot of sweat, a good pair of gloves, and some help from mom and nearly all of these are gone. I only hacked them down and pulled them up – no chemicals, so a few are returning and I need to repeat the process, but just an hour or so of work made it look so much better!
This bush did have some damage from the thistle invasion, but it seems to be making a comeback now that the thistles are gone. I believe it is a bayberry bush. It is staying for now, however in spite of the fact that I like the color, I’m not a fan of it’s thistles.
I found out that this has a bloom that looks similar to a morning glory, but instead of a pretty flower, it is a weed, known as bindweed (Convolvulaceae) which climbs and chokes out any flower, bush, tree, etc. it comes into contact with. Much of it has been pulled up, but it is still growing in some places. The worst is where it is intertwined with the rose bush!
The blooms are gone now, but it has some buds coming back. There are several dead stems that I need to trim back and I’m fighting the bindweed above trying to grow over the rose.
This nice healthy looking mulberry bush is gone now also, no more mulberry bushes – until the birdies bring some seeds back, anyway!
Most of the dandelions are gone also, the Oxalis (yellow flower on the clover-like weed in the background) is also gone, though it is starting to come back.
The house caretakers mowed this down, but it is coming back – after mowing down my sedum and peonies, I sort of hope they got poison ivy! I’m going to have to figure out a very careful way to remove it now that it is returning.