Stuff I Gotta Do: Yard Work

If you're like me, you have a to-do list a mile long, whether it's a mental list or a written one.  Or both, as is the case with me.   For example, I've been meaning to get a pedicure for 6 months.  It's on my list, and my toes look terrible, but it's such a hassle I just keep putting it off.

Right now, my to-do list is yard-focused.  I've mentioned before that I have a really big back yard.  My little house is seated on .26 acres, which is pretty huge by Vallejo standards.  The size is great, but when I bought the house two years ago, it had long been neglected and overgrown.  Since I didn't grow up doing yard work (I have a brother, y'all), it was intimidating, so I didn't do anything with the yard the first year I lived there.  Last summer (my second summer in the house), I started doing a little here, a little there, but not much.  This year, however, I couldn't take it anymore.  I made it my goal to get 50% of that yard in shape by labor day.

And by "in shape," I mean not a total nightmare.  And by "not a total nightmare," I mean not covered in young trees with fist-sized spiders chilling in minivan-sized webs between them, and not covered in blackberry bushes, ivy, honeysuckle, and other invasive vining weeds that strangle plants.

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So here's the "right now" list.  I crossed out the ones that have already been done.

• Cut down all unnecessary trees (especially the oleander) to make room for seating areas and fruit bearing trees
• Plant a vegetable garden
• Steal back the juniper stump from the neighbor
• Clear and level the south side of the yard and plant ground cover
• Cut back the blackberry bush that is roughly the size of two A-Team vans end-to-end
• Install trellises for the existing climbing roses
• Dig up the Lilies-of-the-Nile under the bedroom windows and plant roses and lavender and other pretty things
• Clean up the flower beds that are in various locations throughout the yard
• Pull down the old random fences that are in various locations throughout the yard and serve absolutely no purpose
• Remove the corrugated plastic from the pergola and plant and train climbing flowers 

Some of these I've started doing, like clearing the yard.  I bought seeds for ground cover.  I have started cutting back the blackberry bush, but I've hardly put a dent in it.

On the other hand, the climbing roses are all falling over because the trees that were holding them up have been cut down.  So I need something to support them.

Speaking of the trees, my step-dad Ed and I, between his chainsaw and my tree loppers, have been cutting down trees like it's our job.   Check out this pile of trees.  It's about 3x that size now.

I bought a lawn mower, a leaf blower, a shovel, ax, gardening tools.  I feel so grown up.  But since I just learned how to mow a lawn, I also feel like a clueless child.

I also planted my very first vegetable garden.

And then, of course, there's the saga of the stump.  It's really just a large section of the juniper tree that used to be in my front yard.  I had it cut down back in October, while I was at work.  My neighbor, who is a chauvinistic jerk who will only speak to my parents regarding my house (which they neither live in nor pay for, but will sometimes stop by to do yard work when I'm at work), took advantage of the situation and apparently asked the tree guy if he could have the section of the tree.  The "tree guy," who is actually a friend from church and is great, probably didn't think I'd mind.  I don't blame him.  I blame my presumptuous neighbor, who didn't ask me, took it anyway, and then let that piece of tree sit in his front yard untouched for six whole months.  Every time I pulled into driveway, I'd see it there, sitting, and got madder and madder.

So one day, Ed and I - joined by a neighbor who had nothing else going on and saw us struggling - loaded that thing up on a hand truck and put it in my back yard. Wouldn't you know it, the neighbor had the nerve to march into my backyard, to ask if we took it? Lucky for him, he only found my step-dad back there, or he'd have gotten an earful from me.  Lucky for me, Ed is 6'1" and was probably holding a chain saw at the time, so I got no trouble from the neighbor, who hasn't said a word to me since.

Suburban drama.  I could have my own reality show, but only my mom would watch it, and she's pretty much already there for all the good stuff anyway (hi momma!).

In the coming weeks, I'll be sharing my vision, my progress, and since it's me, the challenges I encounter/mistakes I make.  I hope you'll tune in!