Springtime In The South

While much of the country has been buried in snow these last few days, here in the South, the weather has been absolutely glorious.  It's been chilly enough at night that I sleep really well, but warm enough during the day to make it impossible to stay inside.

After work Saturday, I got out and cleaned up my back yard, then mowed all my yards again.  This time, I took off the grass catcher, which I had used the first time I mowed.  I emptied the clippings from said grass catcher into my compost pile, and let the mulching thingy mulch.

In this endeavor, I discovered that I have a lot of weeds in my yard.  I want to use some of that Scott's Turf Builder Weed & Feed stuff, but I don't know what kind of grass I have.  It says not to use it on certain types of grass -- St. Augustine, carpetgrass, and a few more I can't remember.  I looked up on a website to try to find out what type of grass mine is, but they all look too similar for me to tell.  So, I'm thinking about overseeding my lawn.  I'm leaning towards a type of fescue that supposedly does really well in the Southern summer heat.  I'm not sure, though.

In the meantime, there is plenty of work to do around the yard.  Back in the fall, I'd put my daffodil bulbs into these two beds behind the house.

I knew this wouldn't be their permanent home, but I wanted to get them into the ground before they rotted in the bucket I was storing them in.

I wasn't in a real big hurry to move them, since they were growing well where they were -- except for my fat dog who doesn't seem to get that a flower BED isn't for sleeping in.  A couple of weeks ago, when I was chatting with my neighbor, I found this odd looking rectangle.

I decided that it would be a good place for my daffodil bed.  I've started moving them, and I think they'll do well.

The benefit to putting them here is that after the leaves die back, I can just mow it like it's a regular part of the yard.  I'm not sure what the previous owner had planted here before, but it's obvious she took some care with this bed.  The soil is so rich it's almost black, and just filled with earthworms.  I think my daffs will love it here.

This is some sort of climbing rose growing on my fence.

I know you're supposed to prune them in the fall/winter, but this one had gotten so out of hand, I went ahead and cut it back just a little.  Mostly, I cut off the parts that were sticking out into the yard, and then cut some out of the middle where it had grown so thick.  I didn't cut a lot, just enough to open things up and let the light and air in.  It's already got a couple of blooms on it.

I'm hoping to get a lot more.

That's about all I'm going to do to the yard for now.  I want to see what the previous owner had planted, and decide what I want to keep and what I want to get rid of.  I already know a couple of things I want to rip out -- like the giant elephant ear right by the back door, and that junk over by the shed.  I don't even know what it is.

As far as the inside of the house, I got all the windows in my bedroom and bathroom caulked.  This is a temporary measure.  Eventually, I want to get all the windows re-framed.  Some of the gaps between the windows and the frames were big enough to stick my finger into.  They were big enough that I should have used a backing rod before I caulked, but I didn't.  I just went over them again when the first layer of caulk set.  It has already made such a difference.  I no longer feel the cold air pouring through the windows when I'm getting ready for work, and the bedroom is so much quieter.  It doesn't sound like cars are driving through my bedroom any more.

I reckon next, I ought to do the living room windows.