The back yard

I like to go back and look at previous months' blog postings. In August, 2009, I wrote only two posts for the whole month, so this post puts me ahead for August, 2010. In August, 2009,
I posted photos of my new gate and the still-unfinished garage. In August, 2008, I was almost through with the backyard landscaping project, and I posted photos of that.

As I've mentioned before, I can't post pictures here with the iPad, so no photos today. But I'll describe the back yard as it looks now for you. First of all, many of the plants have gotten so big they're now kind of crowded together. Others, meanwhile, have died, so there are some blank spots around. The dwarf blue palmetto I planted in 2008 is now suddenly growing extremely fast, and looks like it will be bigger than I ever thought it would be. I'm wondering if there's a way to divide and spread this plant.

The crape myrtles also need to be pruned back, but I'm not sure whether I should do this now or wait until fall.

A lot of grass — what we used to call 'johnson grass' — has come up in the cracks bewteen the patio flagstones. I've spent some time pulling it up, but it's been extremely hot outside, and my back has not been amenable to the effort. So, there's still a lot out there.

The back yard looks pretty cluttered, especially compared to how neat and orderly it looked two years ago.