Year in Review

15 years ago

Well, there have been better years.........Lost both Malus Prairie Fires, apparently the Nevada summer heat was a little too much for them.

However, There are three or four whips from the 'native' crab doing quite well. I expect to see a bit more color this spring.

The master plan involving bird seed and attractive lots of birds had unintended consequences. The herds of California Quail who have taken up residence in the back yard have successfully stripped all the green off the perennials and bi-annuals (is that a word?). They also disappeared all the nitrogen bearing clover.

I figured, no problem, I'll cover the entire area in bird netting, which I did. One problem - quail travel in very large families and they apparently don't see too well, so the bird netting is rapidly becoming holier than intended because of lots of stuck quail.

Plan B is.........there is no Plan B yet.

What else...

I planned on turning my tamarisk wind break into a hedge apple wind break and had a couple dozen starts come up in the 'test' bed. I spent an hour or so carefully digging up the starts and placed them in their own individual potting containers - the ones that allow for deep roots and all looked well.

I came out an hour later and someone had carefully pulled up every start and laid it down close to the pot. I looked around and there was one jay and one mocking bird watching me. Felt like buying a shotgun.

Day Lilies -

This is kind of interesting. I wanted to get 100 or so day lilies but wanted to buy in bulk and around here there are no bulk sellers. I found a place down in Georgia that had a few varieties which purportedly do well in the heat.

Not being totally stupid, I picked up 50 instead of 100 and planted them in late July. To my surprise, they were some of the last plants to go dormant. They grew quickly and looked good. It will be interesting to see how they fare

next summer.

-dRahme

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Comments (4)

albert_135 　 39.17°N 119.76°W 4695ft.
15 years ago
And the stories are that there was snow in Vegas.

Did it really accumulate, howbeit briefly?
drahme
Original Author
15 years ago
Yes, it surely did. I have a brother in law in Henderson.

I did come up with a plan be for the quail problem:

Crock Potted Quail.
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themayocynic
15 years ago
Crazy year in our yards, too.

Backyard Bads
Artichokes got infested with earwigs. Zucchinis mated with crook-necks to have non-descript tasting offspring. Composter didn't seem to do anything so I am thinking of getting rid of it. Too much "green" in it this year. The gardenia and hydrangea we planted in the backyard died within weeks.

Backyard Goods
None really. Our veggies beds seemed to have been on various radars. However our Topsy Turvey tomato planter we got did really well.

Front yard Bad
75% of our front yard was torn up due to our geothermal heat install, which involved breaking off one of the larger branches of our newly installed Linden tree as well as covering up the other 25% of the yard (that we just graveled and added a fountain to) with the dirt dug up from dropping the geothermal wells. Peonies didn't bloom.

Front yard Good
Added a Linded tree. Finally graveled one side of the walkway and added the fountain we bought the year prior. Turned the odd corner we have into a flower bed so that people quit driving over it. The first day lillies I planted bloomed beautifully. Rhodedendron seems to like the new place we planted it much better and all the eunymous seem to finally be growing.

On-going issues
Trying to figure out what to do with this one are that seems to kill anything we try to plant in it.
drahme
Original Author
15 years ago
themayocynic, that was quite interesting. I spent 15+ years in geothermal power and would be most interested in a bit more detail on your geothermal installation. Standard heat pump design or???.

The ongoing issues issue - what works for me is digging a bit deeper. However, I do have some indian burial ground sites located throughout the acre. Coleche is generally the likely issue around here.

Out in Lyon county, grow something the first year and it looks great. Looks like hell the second year because all the nutrients got sapped out of the soil.

Douglas county, not so bad. Coleche can be a problem and when the say dig a big hole, dig a really big hole and with any luck, if there is coleche down there, you will see it and break through it.

If in doubt, Amend, Amend, Amend!

Here is a link that might be useful: Things Nevada + Some Other Stuff