The intent of my Good Garden Award series is to call attention to outstanding gardens that my readers can easily find and see from the street. This one goes to Renown Regional Medical Center for the landscaping around its Mill Street entrance.



It took me a while to catch on, but the Russian sage matches the Renown logo and color. I wish I'd had my camera handy when I saw an employee wearing purple scrubs walk down that sidewalk. The choice of Russian sage must have been intentional, but I don't know. Purple is one of my favorite colors, so I just enjoy it.

We were driving down the street a few weeks ago and saw a landscaper pruning the flowers off some Russian sages. That's right, cutting all the purple sprays off them. Every time I go by them now, I wonder why.



Sure, you need to cut the dead branches off in the spring, but why would anyone want to cut the flowers off now and leave them like this?

Then there's this tree. Every time I drive by it I wonder, What were they thinking????



It's been like this for more than a year; it's not going to grow back. The more I look at it, the more It looks as if the tree is holding up its hands in supplication, asking, Why? Why? Did someone decide it was yard art after they pruned it to death? It just makes me sad.

"Oh! You haven't done anything in the back yet," our visitor exclaimed last weekend as she looked out the window at this:



Ouch. We rushed to defend ourselves.

This year in back I've—

• Planted potatoes.
• Killed the whitetop.
• Hand-pulled all the flixweed.
• Hand-pulled the prickly lettuce and cheat grass in the rear area.
• "Mowed" the weeds in the former lawn several times, using the hedge trimmer when the string on the Weedeater kept jamming.
• Hand-pulled the weeds on the concrete deck.
• Smothered more weeds with carpet pad.
• Sprayed the salt grass in the "rose garden" with Roundup (took a full 2.25-gallon tank).
• Moved plants out of the corner planters on the concrete deck to the garden.
  
• Planted a few more perennials in the garden.
  
• Kept flowers and veggies alive in pots on the patio.
• Started to dig out the dirt and bark piled up against the back fences.
  

Together we've—

• Cut down several dead fruit trees and hauled them to the dump.
• Cut a large, dying branch off this cottonwood tree and cut it into firewood.
• Moved 14 rosebushes from the front yard to the back.
• Pruned the trees.
• Pulled a lot of the rocks out of the pond we're going to get rid of (we'll need a backhoe for the rest).

I shouldn't blame our visitor for not noticing the absence of a 4-foot-high weed jungle. But still—she didn't give us credit for doing anything at all. Ouch.

Some readers may remember we bought the house behind us last fall with plans to rescue it and the yard. Whether I should or not, I feel the pressure of people wondering why I haven't written much about all my gardening accomplishments since then. Big sigh.

We spent all fall working on the inside of the house and moved in the first of the year. It killed me to ignore the weeds going to seed. I did spray the whitetop in front with Roundup and spread some Preen.

I took the picture below the day after escrow closed.



One of the first things I'd done when escrow closed was tear down the Virginia creeper growing across the front of the house, and I was almost finished by the time I thought about taking this picture. I also had to plant some crocus bulbs I bought at WinCo. I wanted to be sure something would come up this spring. (Ironically, the crocuses came up but never bloomed.)

As you know, we had no spring in Northern Nevada this year. Worse than that, an illness in the family hijacked all our time, energy, and money. Besides having little time for gardening until recently, my landscaping budget went from small to none.

Still, nothing can keep me from doing something in the yard!

The roses in the planter shown above were growing out onto the sidewalk and snagged us and anyone who came to visit or work on the house. Early this spring we moved them and a dozen other rosebushes from the front yard to the back, where I decided to try to make a rose garden for the first time ever. I've never had much luck with roses (other than "pioneer" types), but these were all in the wrong places in front and I couldn't just dig them up and throw them away. I'll report on those later.

Phil also dug out the pyracantha bush (far right) for me.

As soon as we had warm weather this year, I started pulling weeds. My first priority was the county right-of-way between our front fence and the street. We have lots of dog walkers, joggers, and bicyclists, and I have pride. Unfortunately, all the cheat grass, etc. went to seed long before I finished. From there I moved to the back yard, where I'm still not finished.

At the same time, I started working on the front planter where the roses had been. First I had to remove all the sparkly white gravel (ugh) and weed blocker. I also pulled out the brick edging;  it seemed like overkill since the sidewalk provided an edge already. (I'll use the bricks somewhere else.) Then I dug in a couple of bags of compost left over from the raised bed planters at our old house.



The Mexican primroses that were already here started blooming early, and it was really encouraging to have some non-weed green and some pretty flowers. A lone chrysanthemum plant growing under a rosebush survived the bush's removal, and I moved it down the row.

For now I've placed a big pot with a Russian sage (from our old yard) where the pyracantha was. I planted baboon flowers around it; I got foliage but no blooms this year. I spent a few bucks in May on some petunias, violas, pansies, and  lobelia. (The pansies and violas died when the summer sun hit them, and the lobelia, which I'd planted around the Russian sage planter, were buried by the muskmelon vine that sprang up from a seed in the homemade compost I used there.)

I checked my Sunset guide for plants that could tolerate both sun and shade and didn't need a lot of water, and I decided to use irises and lilies of the Nile. (Lilies of the Nile are not guaranteed to survive our winters, but this is a sheltered spot. I also considered day lilies, but I'm trying to plant in groups here (rather than the one-of-each plantings I've done before). I've added grape hyacinth bulbs all along the front edge. All of these plants came from our old yard.

I have to explain about the plants in the center, between the stepping stones. That's where I planted the lilies of the Nile, but a bunch of four o'clock seeds came along with them from my old garden. I don't really want four o'clocks there; they're pretty and they're vigorous, two valuable features for someone like me, but they drop millions of seeds. I'm just letting these grow there until I can find another place for them. (They tolerate poor soil but need regular water and a little protection from cold.)

The covered porch is an awesome place for tender houseplants. Right now I have a fuchsia and a heliotrope there, and I'm looking forward to a time when I can sit on the porch surrounded by all kinds of lush, sweet-smelling flowers.

Not really. I'd be bored.

Maybe I'm weird. OK, I admit I'm compulsive. I hate to pull out plants if I don't know what they are. What if they're beautiful flowers? Sometimes they're weeds, but sometimes they're not and I'm glad I've spared them.

How about you? Do you recognize these plants?

Mystery plant 1

This is a plant we found when we bought our house last fall. Not knowing what the flowers looked like made it difficult to find in Weeds of the West, and I tentatively identified as a nasty weed called leafy spurge. Leafy spurge is very difficult to kill, so I put off doing anything about it until this year.

Mystery plant 2

This plant sprouted next to our sidewalk among the Mexican primroses this spring. I wasn't aware of anything like that in that planter last summer and fall when we bought the house, but I didn't want to take the chance of pulling it out if it was a nice flower. (And as it kept growing, I started wondering if it was a shrub.)

Mystery plant 3

This spring I dug compost into the planter along the front sidewalk and planted baboon flower bulbs. These plants with the fat leaves appeared with the narrow, spiky leaves of the baboon flowers. I came very close to pulling them, but they looked familiar and not like any weed I could remember.What would have grown there before or blown in on the wind?

Eventually I realized they looked like melon plants. Again, how the heck would melon seeds have gotten there? Oh, wait—the compost! I gave them more time to see what they turned into.

Mystery plant 4

You might have to look closely, but see those huge leaves among the dame's rocket, flax, and lamb's ears?They're maybe a foot long and 6 inches across, and they have spikes at the tips of the points.

This appeared at our old house this year. We had lived in that house for 25 years, and I had never seen anything like it.


















Ready for the answers?

Plant 1

Ta da! This is no leafy spurge—it's a showy milkweed. Some people consider it a weed—I consider it a wildflower and plan to keep it. I'm glad I never got around to hitting it with the Roundup.

Plant 2

I went through my weed book over and over trying to find this plant. It kept growing but didn't get any buds. It was really out of place in that flowerbed, but I just couldn't bear getting rid of it in case it was a good plant.

Finally I recognized the purple spots on the stems in the weed book. What was it? A common cocklebur. I say "was" because I pulled it out as soon as I knew what it was.

Plant 3

I'm sure this is a cantaloupe vine. It's loaded with yellow flowers, and it's doing a lot better than the melons did in the fancy raised planters we built at our old house! I just hope no one trips over them.

Oh, the baboon flowers? They were supposed to bloom between March and June but never did. Thanks, WinCo, I'll remember that when you put your cheap bulbs out for sale next spring.

Plant 4

I'm sad to report I don't have another picture of this plant.

When I last saw it, a few weeks ago, it was about 6 feet tall and looked menacing with those huge leaves with long thorns all around them and thorns all along the main stem. On top of it were several flower buds—thistle flower buds. They appeared to be yellow. Of course I didn't have my camera with me.

I couldn't find anything like it in my weed book. The closest, with purple flowers, is Scotch thistle, but the leaves on that aren't nearly as large.

I went back 2 days later with my camera. Our sons, who are living in our old house now, informed me they had dug it up. I was stunned.

They reminded me I'd been nagging them about the weeds and had warned them about that one especially. I probably had, but being a realistically cynical mom it had never occurred to me that the plant was in any more danger from them than the prickly lettuce they'd been ignoring.

I probably missed the opportunity of a lifetime. It must be a very rare plant. Heck, maybe I could have had it named after me. Do you think laurel busch thistle would confuse anyone?

Have you ever adopted someone else's houseplants?

I try to avoid it because I neglect houseplants so badly and I don't want to be responsible for killing someone else's. However, a couple of times it's been a choice between leaving them to die or bringing them home with me.

That's how I ended up with some of my mother-in-law's plants when she passed away in 2003. She had an unbelievable green thumb, so the responsibility was awesome. Surprisingly, most of her plants have survived my clumsy care quite well. My only explanation is they have to grow well because Rose planted them. She was that good.

This Easter cactus of hers even bloomed for me for the first time this spring; it must like the bathroom in our "new" house.

It's been nearly a year since I brought home a couple of my Aunt Alice's plants from Oregon when she had to move into assisted living. She had one of those huge Christmas or Easter cactuses, and another aunt told me it was possible it had originally been my grandmother's. How could I say no?

As you can see, it seems to be doing well here. It even bloomed (lightly) early this year!

Aunt Al's mother-in-law's tongue, on the other hand, is struggling. That's the small one on the floor behind the cactus. It was damaged by the sun on the way here, and when I repotted it I discovered it had no roots. I haven't given up on it yet.

I really don't want to tell my aunts. cousins, and siblings I killed it.

Weeds might not be as interesting as flowers or food to some. I happen to enjoy the challenge of identifying them and (occasionally) defeating them. I even find pulling them relaxing.

Maybe this "bouquet" of pulled flixweed plants couild be considered a battle trophy. (Don't worry, I bagged them up as soon as I took the picture.)

Now that it's finally sunny and calm, I have quite a backlog. As you know, we moved into this house last fall and it had been totally neglected for at least a couple of years. My current battlefield is below:





I'm trying to pull all the flixweed while the ground is still moist from the recent rains and before it goes to seed.

Whitetop, on the other hand, can't be removed by pulling or digging. About the only cure for that is Roundup.



Whitetop is considered a noxious weed by the state of Nevada, but unfortunately it got way out of control here. I need a lot of Roundup, but I will be relentless.

Remember my great carpet pad experiment? I concluded in March that carpet pad was useless for anything but sprouting seeds. I intended to roll up all the pads, but thank goodness I've been too busy (or lazy) to do that because a miracle has occurred since then! All those weed seedlings and everything else underneath it died.



I can see I'll be fighting this battle for a while, so I have to enjoy the small victories! (You can see my current effort on the right: cardboard covered with grass clippings.)

This spring just gets crazier. Look at this ash tree at our old house today.



The lower branches have small, black, crunchy leaves.

I've considered three possibilities: fire, disease, and frost. There's no other evidence of fire (or any reason to think our sons built a bonfire under it), so I gave more thought to disease and frost.

I can imagine a disease that might start at the trunk and not kill the ends of the branches right away, but there are no green leaves on the ends of the lower branches.

That leaves frost. But I'm surprised to see such a sharp dividing line, and I'm surprised the damage isn't reversed. In other words, I would expect the lower branches to be OK and the upper branches to be damaged. Isn't the air warmer next to the ground?

Another possibility is cold, heavy air sinking, but this tree is out in the open and not in a low spot.

One more clue: the ash tree at our "new" house has no leaves. I checked today, and the buds on it are black and crunchy. It has no green on it all.

Normally new leaves will come out if the early ones freeze, so I still expect the trees to be OK. But as I said, this is crazy. I'm used to waiting for May for trees to leaf out, but not June!

Spammers have been hammering this blog recently. Of course they're wasting their time since I screen comments now, and it's been kind of amusing reading them.

Some have stock comments they can cut and paste on any blog ("Write more often."), some flatter ("This is a very interesting site. The content is very informative and I am so glad that I dropped by. Thanks! "), some try to elicit a response ("Could you comment on which theme you are using or was it custom designed?"), some are clearly bored with their spamming jobs ("Tomorrow I finish university!"), some are lazy ("Unbelievable!"), and some just seem to put words together ("Who are the coupons?") .

I had to laugh at one I received this morning: "These kind of post are always inspiring and I prefer to read quality content so I happy to find many good point here in the post, writing is simply great, thank you for the post."

It was almost as long as the 2-year-old entry the spammer was trying to comment on—three lines about a woman who eats the snails she finds in her garden. Inspiring? Many good point(s)?

I thought it was a great idea—use the old carpet pad we were taking out of our "new" house to smother weeds. I thought the half inch of foam would keep out light and air, and I counted on its soaking up rain and snow and becoming too heavy to blow around. I spread it out and put rocks and pavers on the corners.

Lessons learned

1. Carpet pad does not get heavy with moisture and stay in place. The wind will lift it and move it.



2. Weeds grow better underneath the carpet pad.

In this picture, I'm lifting the carpet pad. The bright green tansymustard seedlings were underneath it; the dark green seedlings just to the right were not covered and were exposed to the cold.

I'm guessing the moisture goes right through along with air and enough light. While letting the necessities of life come through, the pad apparently provides a warm and cozy place to germinate and thrive.

I should leave some padding in place to see if the seedlings grow tall enough to push it off.





Using leaves as mulch
You'd think I'd have learned this by now, but leaves blow away.

The tansymustard is doing well here, too. I had piled leaves around this tree and had even tried to be sure they were moist enough to stay in place.

Plan B

I discovered something that gave me an idea.

It's kind of hard to tell in this photo, but when I pulled back the carpet pad here I didn't see many seedlings underneath it. I think it's because of the leaves that were trapped under the pad.

So—the pad traps the leaves in place. Rain and snow come through the pad and wet the leaves. The wet leaves weighted down by the pad smother the seedlings.

Next I am going to try spreading leaves and weighing them down with carpet pads (weighed down with more rocks, pavers, and anything other heavy item that's handy). I might have to wait until next fall to try that.

Serendipity

When I saw the lush green seedlings under the carpet pads, I thought it was unfair because I have such horrible luck when I deliberately plant seeds. But if the carpet pad works so well with weed seeds, shouldn't it work as well with flower and vegetable seeds? I'll be trying it this year.