Flowers for my mom

For my mom.

My mom asked me to take a picture of the flowers I planted in a pot on my front stoop. So, I did. Ta-da.

While I was out front taking these pictures, my tough-as-nails, 70-something neighbor was beating down my side door, cigarette and beer in hand. He had something for me. A deer sausage. Fresh from his pants pocket.

These are flowers. Pansies, marigolds and something else.

Poison Ivy Poll

The consensus is no one knows whether that mysterious plant in my yard is poison ivy or not. I've stared at it a few more times, tracing its vines and stem with my eyes. Based on my excellent visual vine mapping, I think it's a flower...but, just to be safe, I'm not going to touch it even though the poll-voters thought I should.

We'll never know.

Puny peppers

I was so excited about the lone green pepper growing in my container garden that I'd somehow led myself to believe it was giant. I'd planned my entire week's meals around it -- fajitas on Monday! Pork chops and rice on Wednesday! Salad on Friday!

You can imagine my shock on Monday when I went to pick it and realized it was the size of a super ball. It's bite-sized. Hmpf.

Wee bit of peppers

Hmpf.

The back forty

Ah, the back forty. It needs help. This part of my backyard is supposed to be a vegetable garden, but instead, I'm cultivating a healthy crop of weeds and a couple rogue trees.

I did a little clean up on this area on Sunday, but I don't have much to show for it.

Look. The area is so desolate, not even sunlight falls on it.

Limb trim

Mother Nature did a little tree trimming for me last week ( Uh, thanks, I guess). I wouldn't recommend her services. I had to recruit extra muscles and a chainsaw to finish the job she left half completed.

If a tree falls in my yard and no one hears it, does it make me annoyed?

Raise the roof

My dad has mad skillz. He knows how to do stuff. This weekend he fixed a leaky spot on my roof with varying degrees of help from my brother, my mom and me. And as a bonus, he fixed a spigot, too!

Double bonus: My mom whipped out her green thumb and planted some flowers and other vegetation around my yard.

Leaving their mark on the place.

I said, "Smile!" What I got were these loving looks.

Memorial Day Fools

An impromptu Memorial Day get-together saw me playing host and consequently scrambling to tidy my house and yard. Inside, things went into closets, laundry stayed in the dryer and the bathroom sink got wiped down with a tissue. Outside, the helicopters were swept off the porch, the most obvious weeds were pulled and twigs that posed a tripping hazard were corralled.

When it comes to me as hostess, fooling the guests is all that matters.

No patio table? No problem. How about part of an industrial shelving unit and place mats, instead? Fooled!

Croquet is OK! And, my, that flower bed looks positively weed-free. Fooled!

Order, fear and freshly cut grass

My brother claims/jokes/insinuates that I rule by order and fear. This may or may not be true. Can I help it that I like to come home to scenes like this?

I love the smell of fear.

How I spent my weekend.

My fourth of July weekend was filled with a lot of food, family, fireworks and fun (How's that for alliteration?). And that's just how I like it.

In contrast, the weekend preceding Independence day was filled with gross gutter garbage (Again, how's that for alliteration?). That's not how I like it. Since my gutters were sprouting maple trees, I figured that was a good indication they needed cleaning. Too bad my 6' step ladder isn't quite tall enough for me to safely reach the gutters. Most of the time, I ended up perched on the do-not-go-past-this-step-or-risk-injury-or-death rung of the ladder. Talk about a dirty and dangerous duty (wee! Alliteration is out of control tonight!).

Here's a shot where I'm actually practicing safety first.

V is for Victory Garden

Hey, look! My backyard now includes a little victory garden! I should just call it a vegetable garden, but that doesn't quite capture the romanticism I'm going for.

Over the weekend, Chad cleared a space for me to plant some veggies. I'm now the proud mama of six tomato plants, one zucchini plant and two zucchini seedlings. Grow, babies, grow.

V-I-C-T-O-R-Y!

Nip 'em in the bud

Gardening is not really my thing, but I do what I gotta do to make my yard somewhat presentable. The lovely little landscaped flowerbed in my front yard has been an eyesore for quite awhile. Last year, weeds took it over, and I just turned a blind eye. This year, I vowed to reclaim what's rightfully mine. So, on Sunday, I set about clearing away the Creeping Charlie, dandelions, ivy and grass that had invaded my flowerbed. Surprisingly, I found the work to be relaxing, and dare I say, enjoyable? I'm not finished yet, but I think I made some good progress.

Before

AfterAs much as I would like to say that those plants grew three-fold just by me clearing away the weeds, alas, that's not the case. These pictures were taken a couple of weeks apart.

Pick-up sticks

It's been a bit windy here lately and that means one thing for me: time to play pick-up sticks. My mature trees just can't take all of that blowing and shaking, so I end up with a yard full of tree litter. I'll most likely end up having to hack these branches into bits for the garbage men (Per our trash collectors: Brush bundles must be no more than 18 inches in diameter and no more than four (4) feet long. Bundles cannot weigh more than 40 pounds. Each bundle must have a 'Compost It' sticker attached). Awesome.

Yay. More yardwork. A covert bonfire would make me much happier.

Bloomin'

I love flowers that have enough sense to just do their own thing - like grow and be pretty year after year without so much as a kind word from me. No sissy flowers for my yard, thanks.

I guess that means I like perennials.

I hate litter bugs

I've always disliked litter bugs. But, now I just absolutely despise them. Earlier this week, I spotted four empty 2-liter bottles of strawberry pop amongst my curbside shrubs. And a few months ago, I cleared away a McDonald's bag, complete with a half-eaten burger and soggy from the rain. That's not to mention the many to-go cups and containers that seem to materialize over night by my shrubs.

I admit that the shrubs are ugly, but a junk yard they are not. This just makes me so mad! Mad enough to make me want to post my own passive-aggressive note or jam a pop bottle through a litter bug's windshield.

I feel better just by creating this.

City Sidewalks

It snowed today -- a nice thick dousing that required the good people of this fair city to do their part and clear their sidewalks. Lucky for me, I have no city sidewalks, just sidewalks that run from the street to my door, so should I so choose, I could skip shoveling entirely. I shoveled anyway, but it's nice knowing I don't have to if I don't want to.

You think that's all right?

Yeah? You think that's all right, spider? You think you can just make a web on my deck? Think that's OK?

I've been waging a war of words with the army of spiders living in my yard and garage, but it seems to have done little good. When one gets the hint and moves on to greener pastures, another one, double in size comes to replace it. I'm constantly ripping down their webs and trying to will them away, but as you can imagine that doesn't do much either. I know I should just squash them, but the whole idea of killing them makes me squeamish. Gone are the days when I used to chop lazy flies in half with a dull knife (I was eight...and perverse). Now, I can't stand the thought of feeling a little bug go "squish" under my thumb. So, until I get a stronger stomach I guess I'll just keep assaulting the spiders with my verbal battery. Take that!

You grow girl!

My backyard has several brown patches and I've meant to spread some grass seed all summer long. I finally planted some approximately 10 days ago, and look how well it's done! I was really surprised that I had anything sprout at all because I thought it was too late in the year. When I shared the good news with my dad, he said that now (fall) is actually a great time to plant grass seed since the weather is cooler and you don't have to water it as much. It's also worked out in my favor that Mother Nature has blessed us with several showers in the past week. woot woot!

You grow girl! Show 'em what your workin' with!

Project One: Tackling the Yard

Spring is in the air, yet I'm stuck doing fall clean-up. The previous owners not only left me with a lawn on the verge of becoming a prairie, but they also left me with deposits of dead leaves throughout the yard. I've carted away at least a dozen bags of leaves and twigs and other yard debris. The last remaining leaf pile was this vast expanse in the back yard:

BEFORE

AFTER

Doth mine eyes deceive me? But, that spot looks exactly the same, with or without the leaves! It's also suspiciously shallower than the rest of the yard, which has led me to believe that the previous owners had carved out that area for a brick patio. After all, there are two long rows of bricks lined up against the fence. I, however, do not want a brick patio. I'm content with my deck. So what do I do with this giant divet?
A. Lay sod
B. Fill it with dirt
C. Dig deeper and put in a swimming pool
D. Tear up the rest of my lawn to match

LOL!

Creepy!

My yard is more than an autumnal oasis; it is also a wildlife refuge. Rabbits, stray cats, and squirrels like to call it home. Technically, I've only seen a rabbit, a stray cat and a squirrel, but where there's one, there's bound to be more.

The yard is far from being in good shape, but at least I've brought it up to speed with the current season!