Garden update

Quite a few things going on in the backyard and of course, it's taken me a while to get it all together.  So here it is.  Let's start with... a new spot for Groot!  I managed to lean him on this tree stump:

The boys' flowers seem to be doing quite well.  Maybe because Mommy has been watering them :-P

Maybe these flowers enticed me to update our tablecloth.  I got really tired of it moving around as it is not a fitted one:

Although I'm still not 100% happy with this new one.  It not as bright as thought it would be. Our lights are on in this dining area pretty much all day!

In the meantime, Graham has been so excited about his new book.  I love how he goes out to the yard to read:

Charlie is still working on his tricks on the trampoline:

I did have the boys help me with the some pruning:

Well, not exactly the trimming part as Charlie struggled to even pick up the pruning shears:

Almost tall enough!

Hopefully I didn't over do it.  Ha ha!  This tree did give us some good figs last season:

And still no nectarine from this one!  Maybe this year??!  This one I definitely pruned aggressively:

The apple tree is still awaiting its fate with the sheers.  Hardly any apples this past season either!

Still trying to figure out what to do with this part of the yard.   It's looking pretty sad:

So I decided to use the extra 2 macramé to hang a couple of pots.  Maybe this might work for those plants?  Both of those plants were almost dead not that long ago:

And I moved this other hanging basket towards the back where I could connect the sprinkler.  Hopefully the new Hydrangea that I bought will eventually get big enough to hide that sprinkler line.  Eventually... before it dies.  Ha ha! I do love Hydrangeas and this is my first attempt planting some:

I replaced the Jasmine by the water barrel with another one - this one with yellow flowers.  Maybe this one will grow a bit more??? I didn't get very far with the last one as I want it to wrap around the downspout:

Couple of the plants in the back weren't doing so well, so I'm moving those to the front instead.  Always trial-and-error in these yards.  Ha ha!

Speaking of front yard, someone or something stole one of the shoes!!! How bizarre??!

As long as Bobby still enjoys sitting out in the back patio, reading his papers... all is good :-D

Spring onions anyone??? I finally decided to throw most of these out and just save a couple of stalks.  Although I just discovered that ladybugs love the flowers from these spring onions and I've already thrown them out!  :-(

And look how this flower is blooming behind the other fig tree.  So beautiful!!!

Nature is so amazing...

And unfortunately, aphids are NOT so amazing.  I think this plant is suffering from an aphid infestation. I was debating about saving the one good side but I'm glad I dug the whole thing out:

Even the sprinkler line was icky.  Blah!!! I sprayed the entire area with bug spray and after a few days dug up the soil and threw that all out too.  Hopefully that will be end of that!

And if only clovers were some sort of edible microgreens...  (is it??!), we would be quite healthy eating it!  There's so much clover in the garden.  Another task to sort out:

I finally bought what is called the "Kangaroo Paw" plant.  It's reddish flowers on top are like fuzzy paws and supposedly they attract hummingbirds? I'm not sure how as they don't seem like they would:

The lantana flowers have been infected with black mold spots on the leaves so I had to trim off a lot of it.  Although these plants are pretty hardy and almost all of them have come back even after looking pretty dead.  But I did see this "nest"??!

Talk about an awesome camouflage! I still have no idea what is living in there??!  And no, I did not want to find out.  Although could it be some sort of chrysalis??

Here's the example of the "dead" lantana... new leaves!!!

This area is slowly but surely coming together. I like the new splash of white little flowers. If only plants grew a bit quicker so I can enjoy the bigger blooms now!

Speaking of bloom... we finally have flowers on our orange trees!!!  The leaves are not looking its best so hopefully these flowers will survive?! The timing seems a bit off although what do I know about when things should flower.  Ha ha!  

I mean, there's even snow and freezing temperatures in Texas!  So if I were a plant, I would probably be all confused too!  But these aphids are back in full force. Thankfully I did spot a ladybug right where the aphids are.  I hope the ladybug is super hungry!!! And maybe it will bring more friends too!

These aphids were on the milkweed as well.  I just trimmed the stem off this one as the milkweed needed pruning anyway:

Phew!!! That's it for now for the garden update! I'm hoping to get some Neem oil later.  That's suppose to help with all these aphids.  Blah!