Weekly Yard Report

[lady_branwyn]

We finished painting the fence--huzzah! The yellow irises are flowering a second time which has never happened before. They are not fall-blooming irises so this is very strange. I wonder if the long dry spell confused them. The roof and gutters were supposedly finished on Friday, but I noticed that the downspout from the upper roof is not properly

Comments

[marta_bee]

The weather has just been odd all over - there's a crepe myrtle bush I walk past on my way to the train, usually flowers for a few weeks in May but is now flowering again as well.I don't think your irises are alone, though I'd be curious about just what exactly is causing it.

[lady_branwyn]

Interesting! My irises have been benignly neglected in the same spot for about twenty years so it isn't due to any change in cultivation. I am taking a gardening class at the local community college and will try to remember to ask the instructors about it.

[curiouswombat]

We had some things reflowering like that last year after a hot dry summer. It hasn't happened this year, though, but then it was a normal, slightly damp, summer!

And it is a good thing that you noticed the problem with the guttering.

[lady_branwyn]

Our weather has been very strange this year. I feel sorry for the farmers.
It was actually the second major goof I spotted in the new gutters. The city inspectors come on Thursday, and I am hoping they catch anything else.

[cairistiona7]

I haven't had anything blooming out of season yet, other than a couple of white clover flowers in the lawn that... I'm not sure bloom until frost? I know they bloom heavier earlier in the spring/summer, so it may be a case of a confused plant.

Good on you for having that house-inspector knowledge. I'm always sooo grateful, whenever we hire out work to be done on the house, that I've accumulated a lot of house-building/remodeling knowledge over the years of watching HGTV and having a DIY-expert hubby. I've caught contractor mistakes several times over the years that would have been expensive to correct after the fact.

[lady_branwyn]

I do a lot of online research before and during projects. It does annoy me that I hire these people then have to act as my own general contractor!
The most egregious contractor mistake at our house involved replacing the gas lamps on our patio. The installation was so ridiculously bad that I was in awe of how bad it was, both mechanically and aesthetically. So I showed up at the company's office with photos and a copy of the manufacturer's installation diagram which I'd found online. I explained the problem(s) very clearly. The second crew of installers just laughed and shook their heads at the work of their predecessor (who apparently wasn't the usual subcontractor for this task).