I’m still working on the street border cleanup and expansion.  Normally I would have called it quits as far as digging and transplanting go but with all the rain and overcast days I’m just trying to get  a little more done before the lazy days of summer kick in.  Today the humidity almost killed me but I did manage to push myself and got a little further.  An update is on its way but in the meantime here are a few pictures of another part of the yard.

The far reaches of the yard are left to themselves for most of the year.  I love the wild look but that opinion is not held by everyone who lives here or who peers over the fence.  It will get a rough mowing around the end of July but for now it’s full of wildflowers and bugs and butterflies and bunnies.  I was so pleased with myself for getting all the paths mown I figured I’d take a couple pictures.

This is the area behind my mother in Law’s house.  It’s a no-man’s land between her fence and the new fence surrounding the new industrial park.  About five years ago this was just bare earth but over the years I’ve seeded in some grass, thrown down some daisy and rudbeckia seed and just kept it mowed (early spring and mid summer) to keep the worst of the weeds from taking over.  Here’s the five year picture.  In the front you can see where I spread the lawn clippings I collected from another part of lawn that had gone to seed.

The worst weeds back there are creeping blackberries, Canada goldenrod, and queen anne’s lace.  I think I pulled most of the QA Lace (too invasive) but the blackberries are giving me trouble.  The kids call them “pokies” and I hate the way the runners grab your leg and razor wire a cut right in the sensitive part of your ankle.  I hate them and remember hating them myself as a kid when one got me out in the woods.

The wild black eyed susans are blooming now as well as some late oxeye daisies.  Both of these are welcome and I’ve been trying to add some other interesting stuff to keep them company.  The late summer mowing should encourage the early blooming grass to fill in, but I’ve been planting out some butterfly weed seedlings (Asclepsias tuberosa).  The first to reach blooming size is flowering this year, I hope others follow.

The chainlink fence went up last year and has cut me off from half the meadow.  There’s a possibility a gate will magically appear in the fence and I’ll again be able to give this a mow.  I’d like to be able to control what grows in back here and don’t want trees too big and too close to the fence.

Back on our side of the fence there’s a second half of the meadow called the ‘orchard’.  I planted an apple tree there this spring, hence the lofty renaming.  The grass in this section is thicker since part was already turfgrass before I started letting in all the daisies.

With the paths mowed and the edges neat I think the meadow has a nice look.  It’s popular with the younger crowd for important activities such as daisy collecting and grasshopper catching.  It’s also a great place for firefly chasing, and since July is firefly season there was a lot of path running as the kids tried to catch as many as they could.

I’ll end with a look across from the vegetable garden to the meadow…. I mean orchard…… If you look carefully through the crooked tomato trellis you might catch a glimpse of ‘the queen of the prairie’.  She guards the entrance to the orchard and admires the overgrown lawn.  Some say she’s just an old plaster statue that wouldn’t sell at an estate sale.  I say she’s our queen.

Now back to digging says the queen.