Thursday, April 30, 2009

April showers bring May flowers (I hope!)

It rains A LOT here. At least once a week. This week, it has rained every day except yesterday. In some ways, it's nice because everything is very green, but how can you enjoy the green when it's raining all the time? Also, there aren't any wildflowers here. I miss the bluebonnets, Indian paintbrushes, and buttercups; here, we have dandelions. TONS of them! Our entire yard pretty much consists of dandelions and clover; I'm not joking. There are a few patches of actual grass. Darby spread some "Weed and Feed" yesterday, so we're hoping for the best. We can't pull the dandelions because we read that you have to dig them up to make sure you get the entire root. Ummm, no; if we did that, we'd have no yard. We did go out and snip all the heads off so that they don't go to seed and spread their seeds for next year. Ha! Within 12 hours, the heads had grown back. They are mocking us.
The one place we do have quite a bit of grass is in our flower beds. Go figure. It is embarrassing how awful our front yard looks. I am going to attempt to plant some things in the beds this weekend to spruce it up a little. Any gardeners out there got ideas for relatively cheap, low-maintenance, fast-growing perennials that like full sun? (On the days when it is sunny, our yard gets full sun; I'm hoping we have more sunny days soon!)

4 comments:

Jenn said...

April showers DO bring May flowers here (I promise), but man, April is a LOOOOONNNNNNGGGG month of rain! I'm ready for some sunshine too! Oh, and don't dandelions just drive you NUTS?? I love it when Sean brings me one and says "Mama's flower". It's hard not to remind him, "Um, no darlin, that's a stupid weed!!!" :-)

Kalyn Gensic said...

It rains all the time here, also. For the past two months, it has rained on average about every 2 to 3 days. I asked BJ when I would ever have another good hair day, and he replied "early fall". Argh!

As for some perennials that grow well in full sun, monkey grass is what we have lining our sidewalk in the front yard. In the winter, you just mow over it, and it grows back beautifully by the summer. I just posted a picture of BJ brushing Gus on my blog, and you can see how ours is currently growing back. Hope that helps!

Clint and Whitney said...

I would definitely recommend finding a good nursery in town. Even if they are too expensive, just go ask them about plants for your area. Also, check the library for books about local plants.

Mary Kay said...

Wish I were there and we could dig in the dirt together! I suggest two things. Find you a good local nursery and take a walk in your neighborhood (or one you admire) and see what seems to be flourishing! It's hard to recommend what works for me because our climate is so different. What works in Texas will probably not work for you! Ask for perennials, they will cost a little more but you don't have to plant them every year, they should come back! Take before and after pictures and keep a journal of what you plant. It will come in handy next year! I try to go back at the end of the summer and make notes in my journal as to what worked well and what didn't! Also, it is also fun to buy a few seed packets and plant some things from seeds! So rewarding!!! Good luck and happy planting!