my soft spot

just a mom who plays hockey and knits

Wednesday, October 03, 2012

Boring yard update

We've been having hot-for-us weather lately (high 90s), and I realized yesterday that I couldn't remember the last time I watered my roses. Then I realized I wasn't really sure where my hose was.

So when I got up this morning, I grabbed my flashlight and did some looking. Near the back door, I finally unearthed the hose bib (so, yay) but not the hose. I vaguely remembered moving it from next to the garage to inside the side gate--but I didn't find it there, either. Looked by the garage; no dice.

I also remembered having a spare hose (bought on sale) that was still in the package. Looked around for that; also no luck. No water for the roses today. (I had hoped I could start it, set a timer for 20 mins, move it, repeat, while I got ready for the day.)

But this kicked off my gardening urges, so when I had free time at lunchtime, I came home, changed into my gardening shoes, grabbed my gloves/pruners/limb saw, and went to it. First I trimmed branches off the tree by the street, which had been rubbing my car. I adore my limb saw.

I turned my attention, next, to my lantana. I just looked it up to see if I am pruning it in the wrong month and it came up as an invasive pest in CA! Well, it holds nothing to the damned pink jasmine that overcame my fence and made it rot, nor to the wisteria that loves to creep into crevices in my house and gently rip them apart. Feh!

I trimmed the lantana, which was nearly across the sidewalk, back to the edge on my neighbor's driveway (they are very understanding), the sidewalk, and to the edged of my driveway. With pruners, this is very slow and I found myself wanting, again, a hedge trimmer. I have none, so it was grab, snip snip snip, grab, snip snip snip, shove away, repeat. At least it has a nice smell.

My neighbors in the pink house (don't judge; they rent) came out about then to put their cans out, so I asked for space in their green bin, which they allowed me to have. I carefully put three small loads of Lantana and sweepings in, being extra careful that all ends stayed in the bin, as the last time they let me, my yard boy at the time loaded theirs up so the lid wouldn't close--and the damned driver wouldn't take it because it didn't close! Argh.

I pulled some weeds then--the soil is so dry they come out so easily, hallelujah!--and filled my bin to the top. Then I heard the beautiful sound of my next-door neighbor rolling their bins out, and asked her for space. They had a mostly-empty green bin, so I was able to put lots of pulled weeds and the rest of the sweepings in their bin.

Still to do: spread some corn gluten for the millions of weed seeds that are ready to germinate at the first Fall rain, pull the rest of the weeds in the middle section, plant something in the bare patch at the curb, water the roses, get going on the weeds & pink jasmine in the side yard.

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