6:17 p.m. - 2003-01-11
Taming Of The Jungle
Bruce and I were like Tarzan and Jane today, ie: the King and Queen of the Jungle. Yup, we worked in the jungle backyard, even though it was "just freezing cold!" That's a direct quote from our Newschannel 19 "The Severe Weather Station" weather person. In Alabama "just freezing cold!" translates to about 45 degrees.
I'm not used to the cold anymore, after three years here. But my niece gave me her old down vest at Christmas so I was braced for 45 degree weather, and out we went. Ooooh, it was an invigorating day! You know, you actually get really hot and sweaty when you're hauling around big sticks and things, even in "just freezing cold!" weather.
We started by hauling out the piles of English Ivy I had pulled up in the back terrace (I need to update to Gold just so I can put a map of our land on here...) and hauling out the old rebar and dead plastic stuff and auto parts that were hidden underneath. Below all of that we uncovered a beautiful and picturesque brick pathway and a couple of raised flower beds that were overgrown with more English Ivy (this stuff is like the bane of my existence....) and bush honeysuckle (ditto), so we pulled all that out, too. Next week we'll dig this whole area out and get it ready for.....dun dutta dut da!!! The Native Plant Garden!!!! Yay!!
And then approximately 1/127th of the jungle will have been put straight.
Bruce was feeling like He Man so he decided to chop down a dying tree that was impinging on our Mystery Spruce-Fir. The Mystery Spruce-Fir is my second favorite tree on the property, but I have no idea what kind of tree it actually is. It's gotten embarrassing because everyone who sees it asks what it is and me, the supposed big plant expert, has to say "Uh.....duh.....I dunno. Big...Sprucey....Fir thingey...." It's huge but it has more branches on one side than the other because of the dying tree that had fallen over into it. Bruce and I agreed that the dying tree had to go.
So while he did the chopping thing, I dug up the second half of the little square garden outside the guest room window. This little garden is a raised bed made with old railroad ties, and eventually I want to put really colourful flowers in it so that our guests can be treated to a riot of colour when they look out the window. If you visit this year, though, you'll be treated to a riot of spinach, because I'm desperate to plant a bunny food garden in February and this is the only spot that has even a prayer of being ready that soon.
Yeah, I said I was going to plant spinach in February. Welcome to Alabama!!
0 comments
