I've been doing it wrong!

A few weeks ago, my husband and I traveled back to Ohio to visit our friends/neighbors before we took off for the west coast. It was a whirlwind trip with every minute spent hanging out with friends. All in all, a great trip.

One of our visits was with Joe and Rebecca, our neighbors we met while they were on "bat watch" several years ago. Funny story, including comments about Hunter S. Thompson and whether or not the bats were really there... but I digress. Rebecca and Joe have a three year old, Taran, and a new baby, Callie. Taran decided that I should help him weed the front yard, so off we went.

It turns out, I've been doing it wrong all this time. Taran was quite determined to show me how to correctly weed a yard. First, you start by grabbing the weeds dad (Joe) pulled from the back yard earlier that morning.  You carefully carry those to the front steps and set them down gently. Then, you find a comfortable seat on the front steps and find the perfect spot among the flowers to dig a hole. Start digging! Once the ground is appropriately scratched up, take the head of the weeds and place them carefully in the hole. The roots will show quite clearly. Congratulations! You have now successfully weeded the front bed.

Who knew?!

So, dear readers, I am sharing the correct method of weeding with all of you. Good luck, and may your beds be weed free.

Fire ants vs. Dandelions

Today was spent weeding a couple of beds that looked like a cage fight between ants and weeds. I joined in the fray with a hand held tool at first, but after getting an ant bite on my hand and realizing how soft the soil was after all the rain, I quickly determined that I could get more done from afar. So, hoe in hand, I joined the conflict.

In the battle between the weeds and the insects, lines were clearly drawn. The ants owned the back wall of the bed, while the taproots held the middle ground. However, in one instance, they formed a symbiotic relationship. I'm not sure who was there first, but the dandelions (3, to be specific), were growing straight through the ant mounds. It makes sense, I guess. The ants make the soil light and frothy, making it easy for the weeds to create their long, deep, carrot-like roots.

Regardless, I had the hoe! So, in this battle, I won. That, and the bucket of fire ant killer we spread around the area.  (Insert evil laugh here.)  Really, I'm not a violent person, but those fire ants have had it in for me since I moved back to Georgia a couple of years ago. I get scars where the damn things bite me. So, payback is hell, little creatures!

The Loss of Youth

Ah, Spring is upon us. Spring, the season of rebirth; the season of flowers, baby birds and showers; the season of, dare we say it... gardening.

For the last two years, when gardening season arrived, I had two young helpers to assist with mowing and weeding. But not this year.  The young master Alex, is weeks away from graduating high school and is generally too busy to come mow.  Little miss KG, the haiku composing weeder, has now turned 15 and has a boyfriend.  Obviously, that makes her unable to do yard work.  That, and the fact that she doesn't have a pressing need for cash.

Sigh, the loss of youth. Or, in this case, the loss of paid child labor.  Now, if Alex is busy, I have to (get to?) do it myself.  I'm not a fan of the weed eater (too many flying projectiles near my eyes), so Brian does that part. Seriously, I'd rather pay them to come hang out and do yard work with us because it is so much more fun with them around to play with. And, there is less work for everyone.

Alas, youth is gone.


Note to readers: Alex did come mow last week.  This blog was written in my head about a month ago. It just got put into writing today, after a gentle prod from my favorite brother-in-law. 

Grass Lawn

We have a pretty large yard, a good portion of which is still grass.  I use the word grass loosely, since the main body of the grass is Bermuda (see previous rants, I mean posts about Devil's grass), but really most of the lawn is made up of weeds.  This year, I decided to do something about the grass because it looks particularly ratty.  There are multiple types of weeds in there, along with a few bare patches where the fire ants were particularly invasive. The obvious answer to our problem was to hire a lawn service.  So, I had two come out to give us estimates.

Both companies came out to the house and looked at the lawn, but neither actually took the time to come talk to us about the lawn to find out what we wanted.  These were the two highest rated companies in the area, and the only two which were really recommended by others.  Hmmmm.

Each lawn service left a list of things they would do for the yard (weed and feed, pre-emergent, etc.), along with a month by month timeline in which they would perform our lawn maintenance. Their lists were identical, so I popped out to the garage and looked at the bags of stuff we had out there from when my brother helped landscape the property.  Check it out!  We had pre-emergent, weed and feed, lime, and every other thing listed on the timeline from the lawn service companies.  Hooray!  We also have the spreader tool to use, which is so much easier than trying to evenly distribute by hand.

So, instead of paying 40-ish dollars each month for a lawn service, we're going do-it-yourself for free.  We have loads more time than money these days, so it just made more sense.  March is already done (it took no more than 15 minutes) and we have our list up for the next few months. Of course, the real issue was never the money or the service, but was instead the crappy looking lawn.  Wish us luck as we fight the good fight to make the parts of lawn that are still lawn look green, rich and, well, grassy.  If it doesn't work out, I may end up calling the yard service.

The In and Out Game

For years, our various dogs have played the in and out game. You know the one... we put them out, they want back in. We let them in, they want to be out. It is a favorite of theirs and can go on indefinitely.

Up until now, I thought this was an animal game only. But this year, our potted plants are joining in the fun.  On a beautiful spring day, they want to be alive and well watered, so I let them out of the garage and tell them to go play in the sun, while I bathe their winter hardened roots with water.  In the evening, they are worried about frost and want to come back in. But by noon the next day, when the sun is shining and the breeze is soft, out they want to go again.   Maybe it wouldn't be so bad if I didn't have to pick them up and carry them (or pull them along like an ungainly child in a wagon)., but there you have it. Who knew that these silly houseplants would be needier than a pet?

We have lots of potted plants on the front and back patios. Most of them are semi-tropical, so they have to come inside every winter. Last Wednesday  was a beautiful spring day, which was the perfect day to start these plants on their way out of dormancy. We realized, while pulling them out of the garage, that many of them were terribly root bound. Good thing we just bought three bags of potting soil!

Brian and I started with the unidentified tree. It took quite a bit of cajoling on our part to pull that giant root ball from its pot. Once it was out, Brian worked on separating the roots, while I tried to water it into submission. After a long struggle, we succeeded in giving it some breathing space and getting it replanted. After that, we repotted several others, including a Norfolk pine and an Umbrella plant, along with a geranium and some unidentified green leafy house plant things.

After the repotting, we placed them out, hoping to leave them there for awhile. But no, there was a frost warning, so back in they went. In and out. In and out. Tonight they are staying outside. At 50 degrees and drizzling, I think they can just man up and stay there.

Oak Trees

Did you know that there are over 15 kinds of oak trees in the state of Georgia? Of those, the ones in my yard are of the kind that drop their top leaves in the fall, the middle leaves in the winter, and the bottom giant skirt of leaves only when new leaves come to push them out. Which means that raking is an endless bundle of joy and fun from October through the end of March.

Over the last 3 days, we've raked, pulled, vacuumed and swept leaves out of their winter hiding places and added them to the huge pile of leaves next to our compost cage. The compost is held in a 4 foot cube of hardware cloth, 1/2 inch mesh, with an open bottom and top. The pile of leaves next to it is at least 3 times the size of the cage and taunts the cage and its inability to hold the leaves. Really, they are vile.

Of course, the new leaves haven't started to push the old leaves off the trees, yet.  I expect it will happen in the next three weeks.  Just in time to get leaves stuck in all the new spring growth around the yard.

Dumb old oak trees.

MIA: I'm Back! Leaves.

Wow, it looks like I haven't done any gardening since late August.  If only that were the case. Actually September was blissfully empty of yard work, as was most of October.  But then came the leaves, the acorns and then, finally, the frost. After that, more leaves, more leaves and more leaves.

It was a very nice fall this year, with mild temperatures, both night and day.  We've only had a couple of frosty nights so far and it is already December 4th.  Most nights are in the mid-40's, which means very little frost damage.  I ended up pulling my Sunpatients in early November because they were looking a bit leggy, not because they were really ready to go.  I got impatient.  It is fall, dammit. It is time for pansies. So now the bed is full of pansies and the summer plants are rotting in the compost bin.

I really didn't mind pulling out the old plants and replacing with the new seasonal offerings.  Although, it is easier to do if there is rain.  Sadly, this fall was pretty dry, but the soaker hose helped keep things moist. The really hellish part of fall gardening is the leaves.

Did I mention the leaves? We have MANY oak trees in our yard, along with pine, tulip poplar, sweetgum, wild cherry, maple and others.  That is a WHOLE LOT of leaves.  The oak trees have several varieties and they all lose their leaves at different times.  We still have trees full of leaves that won't fall until Spring.  How twisted is that???? Evil trees... perhaps in league with the Devil's grass. Hmmm.

So lately I've learned to use a leaf blower, a lawn mower as mulching tool, and rakes in multiple sizes for various tasks.  Whatever happened to the days of making a giant pile and having your big brother deal with it?  I miss those days.Our compost bin is now overrun with leaves... about 5 times the size of the bin (3 x 3 x 3) , plus the whole of the lower back yard which has about a 1 foot layer of leaves. Yikes!

So, think of me when you see leaves falling picturesquely from the sky. Know that we are seeing the same thing here. Me and my trusty rake.