I relate to the futility of this scene at the end of Saving Private Ryan every time I position myself by the side of my Bermuda-grass-infested barrel cactus with my large pliers in-hand. I have learned my lessons painfully over the years and found this to be the ‘almost’ perfect extraction tool.

I say ‘almost’ as you can never actually defeat the roots of this grass by pulling at them.

“We will fight Bermuda in the berms, we will fight it in the planting-beds, we will fight it…etc.”

Propped up against my satsuma tree, thoroughly defeated (and usually wounded myself),

I feel like repeatedly squirting a water gun filled with ‘RoundUp’ at it in a last ditch attempt at conquering my enemy, but of course that would be futile and only result in killing the cactus.

My only tactic at this point, as it has been for years, is to inhibit it spreading.

“Aye, extracting the grass from the barrel cactus killed me son…but your gloves are new William. Have the courage to use them…

wait, are you asleep?”

“That is a bit of a stretch even for me ESP?”

Don’t you have some bugs to jump on?

Dramatic Anole?

Moving swiftly along:

Here is another great full-sun, fire / ice combination, the view from my front window.

Nerium oleander ‘Hardy Red’ and  ‘silver king’ artemesia.

Remember all the pick, pick, picking?

Well there has been a lot of developments on these wild sunflowers over the past week.

They have grown, a lot.

Standing proud now at about nine feet tall with small flowers they will make a complete mess when I finally extract them, but for now they are home to many creatures.

Of course there are these, (don’t think about the proboscis, don’t think about the proboscis, don’t th…),

and plenty of these.

Ladybugs, (or ladybirds in the UK), lay their eggs where there is a plentiful supply of aphids to feast on, the ants appear to like them too.

The whole ladybug development cycle was visible on these sunflowers:

Ladybug Larva

Pupa

It takes a few days to turn red.

No Bear, it has not ‘ripened’!

Finally:

 Jerusalem Sage,

Phlomis fruticosa

 

continues to put on a fine display, as do the Jewels of Opar:

Here is a shot of the tiny flowers mentioned in my previous post.

Inland sea oats developing seed heads, and I promise the last shot of this duranta, for a while.

Stay Tuned for:

“Two to Tango”

 

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