Carrollton Yard – January 2024 (1)
/The temperature was in the 70s…in January! But the plants in my parents’ Carrollton yard were still in winter state. As I walked around the yard, I found myself thinking about whether this would be the last time to photograph the plants. I latched onto the fruitless mulberry trees – thinking at first that I would look closely at the joints of the small stems to the big branches…but then I noticed all the places where larger limbs had been cut over the years with the wound healing in various ways. Somehow, they reminded me of elephant eyes.
There were at least 8 mulberries when my parents bought the house 33 years ago. They were large trees but got larger over the years. One was the “climbing tree” for grandchild in the first decade they lived in the house. Now the trees are nearing the end of their lives; 3 have been cut down before they could fall – their trunks hollowed out with decay; their larger limbs were cut and were burned in the fireplace in recent years. A red oak, sweet gum, and pecan are getting big enough to take over the shading of the garden as the mulberries succumb.
Yaupon hollies were already growing on both corners of the front of the house 33 years ago and have been kept trimmed as ornamentals. There were still plenty of berries…I wondered when the birds would discover them!
A few nandina bushes remain. The berries are pretty…but toxic to birds.
The canna leaves from last summer were golden spotlighted by the sun…I noted the green of some bulbs coming up through the debris already. One of my sisters is determined to clean out the old leaves….have the beds in good shape for the next owner of the house.
More about the Carrollton yard tomorrow…
