Whoowee, it is a hot summer! Yesterday my indoor/outdoor thermometer registered 106 just outside the window. Still, things must be done. Mark is our yard man, but he is not a good sticker bush cutter. It's my job to keep the evil thorn-covered bougainvillea plant under control. It grows in long limbs in every direction, but never flowers.
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| This is what it looked like when I got it in a basket. |
Mark's previous cuttings left all the limbs on the ground, its long thorns dried hard and begging to pierce through my flip flops and garden gloves. As usual, the thorns won, but I got it under control and cleaned up with rake and hedge clipper! The trash can is full of old and new clippings, the ground is clear of thorny foot-finders, and the corner of our yard looks less like a snake/raccoon/creepy crawly hideout. Although I stepped carefully, I could feel the points of thorns almost piercing my skin through my shoes and had to use pliers to get the offenders out of my favorite flip flops.
I drilled a hole into the wooden eave of our house, just above the bougainvillea and near the window, to hang a
squirrel-proof bird feeder. It's so funny to watch squirrels leap from fence to the wire covered feeder, as their weight pulls the spring down and closes feeder openings. My canary's cage is near that window and he loves all the birds that frequent the feeder. Cardinals, blue jays, house wrens and tufted titmice are all greeted with a hello chirp.
A footnote on the bougainvillea: I learned that in order to have flowers, they need to be in well drained soil. Ours is in a corner of our yard that gets regular rain run-off from our roof. I also learned that they like to be root-bound, but ours has the whole yard to spread it's roots. One day, I'll dig it up and put it in a pot where it belongs and can be happily root bound, drained, and flowering.
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