Since I started to write these blog stories I’ve noticed that there is so much to write about… it has become impossible not to recognize all the stories that continuously surround us in our day to day lives. I could – if given the time for reflection – write six or seven separate stories about the incidents that happened on my school bus just last night!
Today, I was downloading some pictures from my camera to prepare a story about the work I did in my garden last weekend. While doing this, I noticed that I have two other folders filled with other pictures… sadly, I’m getting further and further behind. I’m going to try to do some catch up over this next week – so let’s begin…
Between my backyard and my neighbour’s there is a wire fence with five outcroppings of Trumpetvines that are very old.
This spring, I decided to give all of them a well-needed trim. I started by cutting out all of the dead limbs and vines. By the time I was done I had a vast mountain of trimmings filling my backyard.
For the rest of the vines/branches that weren’t dead, I trimmed them to just in front of the second sprout of leaves that had started to bud. You can see that the leaves are very small at this time of year… but that soon changed.
I gathered the branches and took them into my (not yet planted) vegetable patch and burned them. They burned very easily and my fire only lasted for about twenty minutes. After the fire had gone out I spread the ash over the soil until it was cold. The hot ashes burned the roots and seeds of the weeds (just below the surface of the soil) that would have soon grown in that area of my garden – which is a good, good thing!!! Then, I dug the ash – with some additional compost – into the soil to add nitrogen that aids in growing of plants and veggies.
Just a few weeks later, the Trumpetvine started to fill in, with many new and healthy vines. It’s funny to watch this type of vine grow cuz the new vines begin to grow skyward and then they become too long and too full of leaves that gravity takes over and bends the vines towards the Earth.
By the beginning of July, the vines had created a solid wall of green, offering privacy between my neighbour and me. In the bottom left of this photo you will notice the patch of Day Lilies that I planted last year. This was their second year and so the amount of flowers that blossomed had increased many fold, when compared to the first year. If you look really, really closely, you just might see the flower stem of a variety of cactus that is about to bloom.
Here it is, now in bloom – both the cactus and the Trumpetvine!!!
Since I had so harshly pruned the vine this spring, most of the plant’s energy went into renewing the vine growth. When the flowers blossomed it was indeed, a glorious sight to behold… but the amount of blossoms were not as fruitful as I had witnessed two years ago. I imagine that next year this vine/hedge will fill in until it is almost solid red with flowers.
I love getting close-up shots of flowers and I was disappointed to realize that I didn’t take any of the beautiful red flowers of the Trumpetvine.
I did, however, get a photo of the cactus flowers. Very beautiful!!!! They made me feel like christmas in July – with the white flowers that looked like snow-covered bells with a backdrop of red and green reminiscent of a christmas tree – but without the snow. LOL!!!
Jim
Today, I was downloading some pictures from my camera to prepare a story about the work I did in my garden last weekend. While doing this, I noticed that I have two other folders filled with other pictures… sadly, I’m getting further and further behind. I’m going to try to do some catch up over this next week – so let’s begin…
Between my backyard and my neighbour’s there is a wire fence with five outcroppings of Trumpetvines that are very old.
This spring, I decided to give all of them a well-needed trim. I started by cutting out all of the dead limbs and vines. By the time I was done I had a vast mountain of trimmings filling my backyard.
For the rest of the vines/branches that weren’t dead, I trimmed them to just in front of the second sprout of leaves that had started to bud. You can see that the leaves are very small at this time of year… but that soon changed.
I gathered the branches and took them into my (not yet planted) vegetable patch and burned them. They burned very easily and my fire only lasted for about twenty minutes. After the fire had gone out I spread the ash over the soil until it was cold. The hot ashes burned the roots and seeds of the weeds (just below the surface of the soil) that would have soon grown in that area of my garden – which is a good, good thing!!! Then, I dug the ash – with some additional compost – into the soil to add nitrogen that aids in growing of plants and veggies.
Just a few weeks later, the Trumpetvine started to fill in, with many new and healthy vines. It’s funny to watch this type of vine grow cuz the new vines begin to grow skyward and then they become too long and too full of leaves that gravity takes over and bends the vines towards the Earth.
By the beginning of July, the vines had created a solid wall of green, offering privacy between my neighbour and me. In the bottom left of this photo you will notice the patch of Day Lilies that I planted last year. This was their second year and so the amount of flowers that blossomed had increased many fold, when compared to the first year. If you look really, really closely, you just might see the flower stem of a variety of cactus that is about to bloom.
Here it is, now in bloom – both the cactus and the Trumpetvine!!!
Since I had so harshly pruned the vine this spring, most of the plant’s energy went into renewing the vine growth. When the flowers blossomed it was indeed, a glorious sight to behold… but the amount of blossoms were not as fruitful as I had witnessed two years ago. I imagine that next year this vine/hedge will fill in until it is almost solid red with flowers.
I love getting close-up shots of flowers and I was disappointed to realize that I didn’t take any of the beautiful red flowers of the Trumpetvine.
I did, however, get a photo of the cactus flowers. Very beautiful!!!! They made me feel like christmas in July – with the white flowers that looked like snow-covered bells with a backdrop of red and green reminiscent of a christmas tree – but without the snow. LOL!!!
Jim
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