Gosh it feels good to get back out in the garden. There's enough snow melted that I can start on some of the pre-Spring cleaning tasks that have been on my mind since the snow started flying so many months ago. Actually there are only a few piles on the north facing walls of the garage and house, so while there are a few spots I can't get to, there's a lot of stuff I can do.
I trimmed down some shrubs in the back yard that I've been meaning to hack back since we moved in 5 years ago. The problem is that these shrubs were a huge attraction for nesting birds (specifically the grackles) and by the time I remembered to trim them, they were full of nesting birds. Not wanting to be a truly heartless baby bird killing monster, I let them be for the season, vowing to trim the bushes once the birds had fledged, only to have the task escape my mind.
I then set about tackling my most hated garden task. Not because it's difficult, it's not. It doesn't involve heavy lifting or manual labor, but I detest it, even more than scooping dog poop out of the back yard. I hate it because it's the result of carelessness of others. The task? Picking up all the trash in the yard. This is the single worst time for it too. All the snow has melted, leaving behind 5 months of accumulated detritus and rubbish. It's ugly.
I didn't even need to go find a bag for all the trash, there was one conveniently located in a shrub in the yard. Our house is on a corner, a straight shot from a main thoroughfare to the park and swimming pool. Not the best location for remaining trash free. Every day I'm out in the yard in summertime I'm picking up trash. My work outside shorts have designated trash pockets that I empty every time I walk past the trash can. I've often wondered how much I would accumulate if I saved up a years' worth of garbage I pick up from my yard, but that would probably just bum me out.
Here's a super ugly picture of my yard. No leaves on the trees, no Spring cleanup has taken place. It's brown, leafless, dirty, in need of a good raking and tidying up. I share this picture because I'm not afraid to show the ugly side of the garden too, somewhere a gardener is giving me mad props for my honesty. Plus there was some cool alignment of the trash in the shrubs down the shrub line.
An energy drink can, a Styrofoam cup, and tucked under the right side of the bush is a plastic baggie filled with an assortment of pro-Jesus pamphlets. I could have sworn that Jesus and/or the Bible might have mentioned something about not throwing thine crap in thy neighbors' yard, but I might be mistaken on that one.
Just a 10 minute tour of the yard yielded me a plastic shopping bag full of trash. It's stuff like this that makes me hate other people more than I already do. But at least it only happens every day during the Spring/Summer/Fall seasons.
I trimmed down some shrubs in the back yard that I've been meaning to hack back since we moved in 5 years ago. The problem is that these shrubs were a huge attraction for nesting birds (specifically the grackles) and by the time I remembered to trim them, they were full of nesting birds. Not wanting to be a truly heartless baby bird killing monster, I let them be for the season, vowing to trim the bushes once the birds had fledged, only to have the task escape my mind.
I then set about tackling my most hated garden task. Not because it's difficult, it's not. It doesn't involve heavy lifting or manual labor, but I detest it, even more than scooping dog poop out of the back yard. I hate it because it's the result of carelessness of others. The task? Picking up all the trash in the yard. This is the single worst time for it too. All the snow has melted, leaving behind 5 months of accumulated detritus and rubbish. It's ugly.
1 comment:
I hear you. Here it's mostly the kids walking home from the high school. Soda cans, beer cans, candy wrappers, plus the occasional plastic bags blown in by the wind.
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