Monsoonal rebloom

My yellow palo verde has regrown its leaves. The orange honeysuckle is now in bright orange bloom as well as the Texas sage. Two days of intermittent rain was all it took. Even my potato bush is finally blooming its purple blossoms.

Our Bermuda grass is lush green across the yard.

I volunteered at the county extension office again yesterday for 3.5 hours. It was steady work, from knowing why an apple tree's leaves are curling upward to black spots on cherry leaves or how to determine a ripe watermelon. I probably won't be volunteering as much now that school's back in session.

While I was at the office an elderly woman came by to donate her young fruitless mulberry tree. "I'm sure someone will want to take it home" said Joyce, the UA office manager, and that "someone" was me. Now I have TWO potted mulberries in my front yard. The new one has two cutoff branches. The elderly woman told me she uprooted it because it was growing under a rose bush and her husband had twice cut its branches back. These trees are fast growers and make excellent shade trees, but does our yard have room for one more tree?

The stray willow tree popping up on the west side of the house will be competing with the larger mesquite tree nearby in another five years. If anything, we won't be lacking shade on the southwestern side of the house!

I stopped at KMart after my volunteer shift and bought a bunch of plastic containers for 75% off. Garden stores in town are discounting all their garden ware; something that didn't happen until Labor Day weekend.

The puncture vine is still growing rather profusely in the back yard. Just when I think I've pulled an entire patch of that stuff, new yellow flowers pop up elsewhere. It's a never ending chore!

Today I planted two more small strawberry transplants. That's fine with me because I also picked up four more long planters ideal for the strawberries, from KMart. We are going to be feasting on those luscious fruits next summer. (Well, at least I will be).