Where Have I Been Lately?

The Tablescaper‘s new blog link up is called “Oh, the Places I’ve Been,” and we are encouraged to share stories of travels on our blogs to link up. I have not been anywhere exotic or unusual lately, but I do have a couple of anecdotes about where I have been.

First, I have been to Camp Lake Stephens in Oxford, MS, to visit my son and daughter-in-law. OK, I know I’m his mom and everything, but Russell has put a really great video of summer camp on the website. Click on the link and play the video. What kid wouldn’t want to go to camp after viewing that!

We had a really wonderful visit. The weather was perfect for sitting out on their deck watching the hummingbirds flutter around their feeder.

We played with Wendell. Russell says that Wendell gets a lot of mail from campers. He said that Wendell is spelled every way imaginable. Russell calls himself Wendell’s dad, and the letters will ask “How’s your dad?” or “How’s your owner?’ or even “How’s your boss?”

We ate some great food.

We toured the new pergola and restored library building at camp. For more details of our day, click here. It was a wonderful day, and we had a great time.

Second, I have been in my yard. I started Monday doing the spring yard work (detailed here). On Monday, I picked up sticks, raked, and spruced up the flower pots in the front.

On Tuesday, I did more raking and limb pruning. I finally had the part of the yard that passersby can see from the street looking decent. The side and back, however, still need a lot of attention.

Yesterday, I worked in the small flower beds at the side door (detailed here). Today I worked in the flower bed that is between the driveway and the house. Let me begin by saying that this bed in the bane of my [gardening] existence.

When we first moved here (’94, I think), this bed was full of huge holly trees and some nandina bushes. Those hollies were really ugly, and we spent a lot of time getting them out of there. In case you don’t know, holly trees have very hardy root systems. Every year when I get in that flower bed in the spring, I have some holly sprigs to get out from those leftover roots. After almost 20 years, I still found a small holly sprout this morning that I disposed of.

I’ve mentioned previously that I live on a red clay hill, and this bed is almost solid clay. I cannot even name the things that I have tried in this bed over the years, but almost nothing survives (except holly). After much trial and error, I finally found out that hostas do well in this clay. So this bed now has some hostas in addition to the nandinas.

The ground space in this bed is not attractive at all, so I thought that I would try a ground cover. I tried a few, but nothing would survive the clay environment. On one try, I planted ajuga. I remembered my mother having it in one of our flower beds when I was a kid. Finally, something works! The ajuga lives, and right now it is blooming. However, what you see in the photo above is about all that ajuga has done in about 15 years. By now you would think that it should have spread to cover the entire bed, but it doesn’t. It hasn’t died, true, but it has just been sitting in the same spot for all these years. So now this bed contains ajuga, nandinas, and hostas.

Another bad characteristic of the flower bed is its location. The above photo is the other side of the driveway with the huge oak trees.

This bed stays covered with leaves all during the fall and winter. There is just no need in trying to clean out this bed until spring gets here-wasted energy. So this morning I spring cleaned this flower bed. I was out over four hours, and still did not finish. Remember not only were there leaves to deal with but also dozens of little oak trees to pull up from the acorns that managed to sprout over the season, holly sprigs to pull up, and lots and lots of acorns to remove. In addition, I even saw a stray poison ivy sprig. I pulled it up because it was too windy today to spray Round Up, but I will be on the lookout for it in the future.

So after an exhausting morning and early afternoon, I had a cleaned-out bed. The hostas have started coming up, and I need to get some more to fill in since the bed still looks really sparse.

I love this bed with no leaves in it and the little oak trees removed, but it really is still not very pretty to look at. But until I think of something else, it will have to do. If anyone has any ideas for plants to grow in a shady red clay yard, let me know.

I wanted you to see the tree pictured above. It is probably the oldest one in our yard, and it is huge. Sorry, a picture just does not give you the full effect. David thinks that it might be over 100 years old. I wouldn’t find that hard to believe. The oaks and pecans in my yard are huge, which is why I buy plants for the shade and have a front yard full of acorns for a good part of the year.

I also snapped some photos of the azaleas. These are the ones that didn’t get destroyed by last week’s rain.

Since more rain is coming in tonight, I figure that this will be the best that they will look this season.

I’ve enjoyed the nice weather all week with highs in the mid-eighties every day. However, thunderstorms are moving in tonight, and we are under a tornado watch right now. The temps will drop back with highs in the low sixties, so I am glad that I have had these four days of yard work. After the weather warms up again next week, I am sure that I will have much more work to do after those storms.

In a nutshell, that’s where I’ve been–in my yard. It’s been very tiring but very rewarding getting all of this work done.

I am joining: A Stroll Thru Life for Tabletop Tuesday (vignettes, tabletops, tablescapes), Home and Garden Thursday at A Delightsome Life (decorating, gardening, recipes, collecting), Vintage Thingie Thursday at Colorado Lady,   Sunny Simple Life (decorating, projects), Between Naps on the Porch for Tablescape Thursday (tablescapes) and Metamorphosis Monday, Masterpiece Monday at Boogieboard Cottage (crafts, home decor, thrifty finds),  Cozy Little House for Tweak it Tuesday (deocrating, garden, projects),  Under the Table and Dreaming for Sunday Showcase (any project or idea made by you this week), Gratitude Sunday at A La Carte, The Charm of Home for Home Sweet Home (home & garden), Cuisine Kathleen for Let’s Dish (tablescapes), Treasure Hunt Thursday at From My Front Porch to Yours,  Make the Scene Monday at Alderberry Hill (home decor, projects, recipes), Cottage Style at Lavender Garden,   The Tablescaper for Seasonal Sunday (tablescapes),The Thrifty Groove for Thrifty Things Friday (thrifty decorating, tablescapes), What’s It Wednesday at Ivy and Elephants; Weekend Bloggy Reading at Serenity Now (recipes, crafts, home décor), Meet Me Monday at You Are Talking Too Much (projects, decorating, recipes),  Spotlight Saturday at Classy Clutter (recipes, crafts, home décor), Feathered Nest Friday at French Country Cottage (decorating, crafts), Frugalicious Friday at Finding Fabulous, Pink Saturday at How Sweet the Sound (anything pink),You’re Gonna Love It Tuesdays at Kathe with an E (recipes, crafts, home décor), Mop it Up Monday at I Should Be Mopping the Floor (projects, decor, recipes), Wow Us Wednesdays at Savvy Southern Style (recipes, crafts, home décor),  Make it Pretty Monday at The Dedicated House (decor, projects),Wow Us Wednesdays at Savvy Southern Style,  Farmhouse Style at Green Eggs & Goats,  Creative Things at The Vintage Farmhouse,  Flaunt it Friday at Chic on a Shoestring (decor, projects, recipes),  Tuesday’s Treasures at Uncommon Suburbia (projects, decorating, recipes),  Return to Loveliness at A Delightsome Life (home decor, projects), Centerpiece Wednesday at The Style Sisters (centerpieces),Open House Party at No Minimalist Here (crafts, home décor), Time Travel Thursday at The Brambleberry Cottage (memories, projects), Tips and Tidbits at The Stone Gable(projects, home décor, recipes),Thursday Favorite Things at Katherine’s Corner (projects, home décor, recipes), Sizzle into Summer at DIY by Design (home décor, projects)