Garden Girl

Buying a house, or even buying property that someone once tended is a surprise grab bag of goodies.
When we moved to our not yet named Fig Tree Cottage lot last Jan., I noted the stumps of trees that had been razed so the last home that was here could be towed out. I couldn’t identify what these stumps were, let alone know if they’d endure after such abuse.
Heck, I didn’t know what the Bradford Pear in the front yard was (I’ve urged Mr. Garden Girl to buy me some books for my b-day to help me know my native CenTex birds, bugs & plant life).
The 3 Red Oaks I inherited, I knew would need some pruning of dead wood by experts, but they seemed otherwise healthy.
The stumps tho… well, I thought it was sad since some of them had clearly been large mature trees, but I resigned myself to possibly having them removed.
& so they sat like an old chest from an unknown ancestor, locked away in the attic.
But summer has brought me keys for that chest.
The huge stump in front now is a profusion of willow branches (perfect for a cottonwood borer to emerge from, it seems). I’m afraid it will have to go when we build our screened in deck.
3 stumps near the house have shot up, in spite of our record heat & the dryness, and proved themselves to be Crepe Myrtle (a tree I love, tho I usually prefer the purple & white varieties & I’m pretty sure these will all be hot pink). There’s a mature Crepe Myrtle on the edge of our lot now that is just raining down its profusion of delicate, showy, Asian blooms.
The stump bushes & the mini rose out back are all being treated with a mix of baking soda, Garrett Juice, and dish soap dissolved in water to address some powdery mildew (poor stressed things).

I’m definitely going to keep the Crepe Myrtles near the house, if I can.
I don’t know if they’ll ever be full trees again after what they’ve survived, but I’d at least love to get them into healthy blooming bushes.
Thru these plants I feel a connection to the couple who lived here before us, who we never met, but have been told stories about by neighbors.
They are a legacy and I feel like I’m honoring the lives of that couple & continuing their story by nurturing the trees & the rose bush.

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