The Back Fence on May 7, 2017

This page shows a snapshot of the back fence area on May 7, 2017.

The west end of the back fence has a Texas lantana, a volunteer tomato plant, and a shrimp plant, mixed with St. Augustine grass. The yellow stains on the fence itself are lichen, probably Chrysothrix candelaris.

Click the photo to see it bigger!

Moving eastward, the sprawl of the shrimp plant continues, even with my cutting it back recently. The remains of a chopped-down crepe myrtle keeps sprouting new suckers. The stick on the ground is from trimming of a small goldenrain tree, as part of a major clearing between the fences. The leaves in the foreground are part of the stand of common sunflower at the northern end of the processing area. St. Augustine grass and other grasses are covering much of the ground here, replacing the star jasmine that was here when I moved in.

Next, we come to one of the small hackberry saplings along the back yard fences, mixed with St. Augustine grass and invasive tuft grasses such as dallisgrass. This is the location of the bird bath at the back end of the processing area.

As we approach Bed 1 of the garden, the mix of grasses continues.

Here you can see that Bed 1 is longer than the other beds, narrowing the walkway along the back fence. Near the left end of the photo, you can see the first tropical milkweed I planted in the yard. It dies back to the roots every winter and regrows in the spring. To the right, a big bunch of whitemouth dayflower has collected behind Bed 2. I often pull it up as I walk around, but it is a perennial and soon grows back.

In early May, 2017, I cut down a large Chinese tallow branch and some goldenrain tree saplings. I left all the wood and leaves in the area for a while, beginning in the area between Bed 2 and Bed 3, 

Behind Bed 4, we get to the area where star jasmine creeps in from between the fences through the gaps between the fence pickets. Mixed into this bramble are violet woodsorrel, dallisgrass, lawnflower, goldenrain tree seedlings, and sticks from my tree trimming.

I installed a 15 foot long wire trellis in the spring of 2015 and grew a hybrid muscadine grape on it. The trellis and plant sits between the back fence and the S and I beds. There is still plenty of room to walk behind it.

As one approaches the eastern end of the back fence, one sees another hackberry sapling and the western end of a patch of invasive basket grass mixed in with the star jasmine and dallisgrass.

At the eastern end, the basket grass dominates, with a few goldenrain tree seedlings and another hackberry poking through.