We have been very busy working on our house and yard lately. Last week I did a lot of weed pulling and "installed" the 20 bags of mulch I bought at Home Depot. It felt good to do that work, and the neighbors were all happy that the corner of avenues Kirkwood and Chester is now much more visually appealing.
Our neighbor, Mr. Theodore Blackman lives in the blue-grey house across the street from us. He is the 83-year-old "elder statesman" of our corner. When he saw me starting to work on the weeds that were previously flourishing on our corner, he came over with a couple of tools and an abundance of botanic counsel. He told me how one of the stumps in our bed that is sprouting branches is a pecan tree, and he helped me prune it so it would grow up (vertically, instead of omnidirectionally). Hopefully in a few years we might be able to get enough pecans for a pie from the tree. (Pop, we’ll keep Marley out of the pie if you want to come and have some).
From this perspective you can see that I followed his advice to leave the monkey grass that naturally grows there, but trim it. I used his pocket knife for the task of trimming the grass.
I also weeded and mulched the beds in front of our house. The shrubs are much happier now, although they look like they need to be trimmed more than even my hair!
The crepe myrtle looks like it’ll make a nice comeback this year.
Unfortunately, the one remaining enemy is crabgrass. It’s just about impossible to kill without using scorched-earth practices and leaving a dead hole in the lawn. I’m still trying, though, with all the sprays available at Home Depot.
The beds in front of the house were last week’s projects. This week: the deck and front porch. We pressure-washed the wood, stained the deck and porch with water-sealer and painted the railing of the back deck white to match the front deck. It was a lot of work over several days. Doesn’t Elizabeth look cute in her SARS-mask and shades? (You’ll be glad to know neither of us contracted Sudden Acute Respiratory Syndrome).
Those masks leave a print that lasts for a long time!
Equipped with Shaklee SPF-30 sunscreen, we didn’t even burn!
And here’s the result!
(We’ll take off the tape tomorrow, but for now come to the back door!)
Doing all this house work, especially pulling weeds, reminded me of my mom, the home economics major. "Weed therapy" was one of our most dreaded tasks growing up, yet as a grownup I am glad I did it. This week, I felt connected to my mom as many of the things she valued and trained us to do finally worked their way to the surface and made our corner of Reynoldstown a little bit prettier. Now, if only those bathrooms would clean themselves…
