awol

I realize I have been AWOL from the ol' blog for several days. I really do have a good excuse.

Our yard has been in a state of severe neglect for at least one summer in recent memory. It took several days of hard manual labor to get it rectified. Overgrowth of legitimate plants and weeds alike had pervaded some areas while others resembled lunarscapes due to the recent drought. I pulled, cut, hacked and cleared the first offenders and invested, dug, and planted the second. Oftentimes DH would do some of this but he was laid out with allergy / flu/ bacterial ear infection. He had a painful ear, pluggy head, terrible cough, sneezing, and general grumpies to boot. He did dig the hole for the tree when he observed what a crummy digger I am. Little holes I can make all day long, but at big holes, I honestly suck. Many thanks to my extremely patient MIL who sent email after email with Landscaping for Dummies advice to this self-acknowledged dummy.

Yesterday, having gotten most of the planting and much of the trimming done, I spread 8 bales of pine straw and 2 tractor scoops of mulch. It sounds easier than it was. Make that, filled the wheelbarrow 15 times and hauled mulch down the hill, then spread it.

We used to have a truck, but no longer. Once I coughed up the cash for the Japanese maple, it took me an hour to find a friend with a truck we could borrow to get the tree home. I did think the $25 the nursery wanted to charge for delivery was reasonable, in light of the cost of gas, but I just did not want to spend anything more on the doggone tree.

Bringing home 8 bales of pine straw also presented a challenge. At first, I thought 4 would do it. My Mercedes is on the small side, and I know plenty of Mercedes snobs who would gasp at the thought of what I put mine through. We now know I can fit 4 bales of pine straw in it; 2 in the trunk and 2 in the back seat, sitting straight up like little passengers. There is room for one more back there, to tell the truth. But, I thought I just needed 4, so off we went. After spreading them, I realized I needed 4 more, so went back to Lowe's and repeated the process. Thank you Lowe's for the gift card I got in the mail, $10 off on purchase of $50. I do have a bare spot or two and plan to get 2 more bales in a few days.

The yard definitely looks better, that is, the beds look better, while the lawn itself is a tableau of fescue, chickweed, and crabgrass. I out-and-out asked DH yesterday if he will apply weed killer, seed, and feed to the grass. There was a look of panic on his face as he said, "You mean, NOW?" No, I assured him, just this spring; so the yard will look nice. "Oh," his face resumed its calm demeanor. "OK." (He thinks I will forget.)

I do have "before" pics but am not posting them. Here are the "afters." I believe I'll go sit on the porch.