Big Week (little time to post)

The new Tuff Shed (named Palmhurst by me) was installed on Monday.  It looks beautiful!  It fits the yard very well, blocks the view as intended, makes my back yard feel cozy and private for the first time, and I love it.  But they didn't have time to paint the trim or install the flower boxes.  That gave me time to decide not to put a flower box under the left window (which gets in the way of the 4 foot passage way to the power company transformer...4 feet being the minimum allowable) and instead install it on the north side, on the otherwise blank wall facing the "Gazebo" area (which probably won't have a Gazebo after all, but perhaps a permeable paver patio).  Tuff Shed will come back to paint the trim and install boxes on Saturday.

The Tuff Shed installers insisted the shed be at least 2 1/2 feet from the back wall.  I had them angle it slightly so that the minimum 4 feet clearance from Lyndhurst is maintained.  So on that side, it is about 2 feet 2 inches from the wall.  Nevertheless,  is easy for me to walk behind it.  That little gap is actually another potentially useful area.  I was thinking of putting pervious pavers to prevent weed growth.

They worked all afternoon.  (I had suggested they come in the morning, but they couldn't do that.)  I ran a big fan (resting on the CPS transformer) to help keep them cool, and a friend gave them plastic cups of chilled RO water.

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Also on Monday I made the final decision on trees.  An email was sent to the planter who will pick up and plant on Friday (in addition to the 3 trees planted in July and the Palm):

Mexican Wild Olive
Texas Mountain Laurel
Yaupon Holly (x2)
Viburnum (x2)
Pomagranate (Wonderful)

And not a tree, but a non-invasive clumping bamboo (identical to one I already have).

Bambusa Multiplex Alphonse Karr

The planter's nursery may not have the bamboo, it's not on their list, so I have been looking for it elsewhere, with no success so far.  All the bamboo that was easily found in stores a few months ago seems to have disappeared.  I wonder if that's because of the bad reputation of running bamboo.

This followed a party I had on Sunday in which friends of mine discussed various plants.  That was interesting, but strangely I'm not sure it affected my final choices for various reasons.  People weren't getting the fact that I needed evergreen or semi-evergreen small tree/shrubs.

One guest got angry when I said I had a bamboo and planed to get another one.  I carefully explained that I was getting a non-invasive clumping bamboo, not a notoriously invasive running bamboo.  She was not satisfied with that, and claimed birds would spread bamboo seeds all over.  That was completely contrary to what I know about bamboo.  Bamboo doesn't spread by seeds normally (only in something like 50 year intervals does all of one variety die out and go to seeds).  When it does produce seeds (every 50 years or so) the seeds aren't very good.  And even the most heat and drought tolerant bamboo has difficulty in in central texas.  It demands irrigation here.

I asked for and got permission from neighbor to the south to plant a Texas Mountain Laurel along the fence on the south side.  It may drop a few poisonous seeds on her side of the fence, and I was worried about her dogs.  But her dogs are mature and only eat dog food she said.  A friend of hers with 4 dogs has TML's, and she likes them a lot.  Actually even if a dog happens to eat a few seeds, they usually simply pass through a healthy dog's gut unchanged.  It's when really stupid or hungry dogs eat a bunch of them that is a problem.  And yet, I've never heard of dead stray dogs being found next to TML's.  It might happen, but it's rare, dogs simply aren't interested in TML seeds.  TML is one of the trees highly recommended by the city, the power company, etc.  By the way, TML is only one of hundreds of plants with poisonous seeds.

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Also on Monday I did the last critical edging and whacking: south side of house, south side of sidewalk, north side of sidewalk, both sides of driveway, walkway to house, east side of house, north side of house.  I also whacked my way through the 4 foot weeds and Mexican Petunias on south side of my north neighbor's house that were gradually encroaching on my lawn.

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I changed to using Plant-IV for watering my oak on Wednesday morning.  The root ball was totally dry but the surrounding soil much too wet from letting the soaker run too long on Saturday night, I have now determined.  Plant-IV let me water just the root ball, which sucked up 10 gallons instantly from two Plant-IV buckets.  I was worried about the yellow leaf stems, but later determined that is the normal color.

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Several bags of topsoil acquired.  I laid down one more bag around the southwest corner of Lyndhurst on Wednesday morning.

I called sprinkler guy and confirmed Friday at 8am for sprinkler installation.