Rain..... and mulch.......

.... but not necessarily in that order.   We bought five more bags of mulch yesterday so I could finish off the rest of the flowerbeds.  I am determined this time to have at least six or seven inches of mulch in those beds, in the hope of smothering any weeds that decide to make an appearance.  We'll see if this method works.

As I spread a bag of mulch in one section of the box garden, my two outside cats were playing in the other section.  You would think this mulch had catnip sprinkled all over it, the way Mickey and Gatsby were rolling around in it.  I'm sure they were very much entertained, between the new mulch and watching their city-mama wearing old clothes and plastic gloves and lugging bags of mulch around the yard while trying not to break a nail.

Just as I was putting the rake back into the garage, the sky opened up and rain started to come out of the sky.... wonder of wonders.... we're actually having a rainy cloudy day.  The cats ran into the garage, and I came into the house, but not before admiring the new mulch in the flowerbeds.  The box garden looks pretty again.... not a weed in sight..... and the azaleas are even starting to bloom once more. If this over-the-top mulching doesn't work, then I just don't know what the solution will be... other than to fill up the flowerbeds with concrete and call it a day.

Around the backyard deck, there is a very narrow flowerbed that goes all around that decking.  When we first moved here, the original owners had violets planted there.... all purple and green and it looked so pretty against the white railing of the deck.  Our first winter in the country was a frigid nightmare, with the Texas temperatures hitting all-time lows and breaking all existing records..... all of the violets froze and the plants looked like cooked spinach.  I pulled them all up, and just left the flowerbeds empty for a year. I was determined back then not to put my hands into this fire-ant-filled soil. (So much for determination.)

I planted white petunias all along that narrow flowerbed.... it looked wonderful for a while, and with new mulch and constant weed-pulling, the petunias multiplied. Wonderful.  Until we went traveling........... and the weeds smothered the petunias to within an inch of their little blooming lives.  I pulled up the petunias, or what was left of them.... added more mulch... and filled that flowerbed with white ceramic ducks from the thrift store.  I refuse to pay retail for garden ornaments that will either get faded by the sun or broken by the cats (or raccoons, armadillos, possums, etc).

Being that the narrow flowerbed around the deck doesn't have to be watered now, the weeds aren't growing. The ducks look very cute..... the lack of flowers in that particular flowerbed doesn't matter to me.  Fewer flowers, less watering, less work in the yard.  And what can be cuter than little white ducks that always look happy?

The box garden is much larger and wider than the narrow bed around the deck.  I can't fill up that box garden with cute little white ceramic ducks if those plants die. I would need something much bigger than ducks to fill up that space with non-water-drinking accents.  I have my fingers crossed that the plants thrive in the box garden and the deep mulch keeps the weeds at bay.  But maybe I should keep an eye out for white ceramic elephants at the thrift store... just in case.