Yard Work!

Hola!  It's been so busy here.  Whenever the weather has permitted since our wonderful warm streak of about 10 days where we sometimes hit 70F ended, I've been outside working the winter and pandemic blahs away.  Whew!  The result is a front yard that has fresh mulch and leaves cleaned out of everything and the lawn, which had exploded in growth, had it's first haircut on Friday 4/16.

I was so tired out after shoving my electric lawnmower for more than an hour I didn't have any ooomph left to attempt doing the trimming, let alone the edging I really want to do and that is really needs.  I did get the trimming done the next day, but the edging will have to wait.

After I got the grass trimmed all around the front yard on Saturday, I pulled the electric mower back out and plowed away at the backyard.  Whew!  I thought I had kept myself in pretty fair shape over the winter because I didn't gain any weight and exercised daily, but boy oh boy, I was aching after I finished mowing that back yard.  But it looks good - if I didn't look at the areas where the mower is too large to fit and a lot of trimming needed to be done.

Which brings me to today, Sunday - the day of rest, peace and quiet, right?  Except people who work (I'm retired so I don't worry about what day it is), who didn't get out on Friday like I did to cut their front lawns or backyards, and people who didn't get out and do it on Saturday, although I heard mowers going throughout the day, decided to get out and do it today before the temperature plunges back down again and we may get freezing rain/snow overnight tonight or possibly tomorrow.  I wonder how far the sound of a power lawn mower travels when there isn't a strong breeze?  More mowers were going this morning as I waited until a respectable 9 a.m. to go out and start trimming the backyard.  

What a chore!  But I got it done and cleaned up part of the refuse left behind afterward while I was waiting for a visit from a rep of a local company that specializes in tree and shrub trimming.

Here's my beautiful Japanese maple in summer 2020. 
As you can see, it's far too large for the space and already
this year the branches have gotten even taller, more full
and are rubbing against the rain gutters, the siding and the roof.

Yep - I decided - sob sob sob - to have my Japanese maple in the backyard garden area removed, as it was planted far too close to the house.  I can't really handle the pruning that it needs yearly to keep it in control by myself any longer, I have to face it, I'm not as young or strong as I used to be - and the six years I've been in this home I've noticed the difference as each birthday has passed.  This year I'll be 70 - in 4 scant months. I will replace the Japanese maple with a smaller specimen tree that I will plant out in the lawn area of my back yard, because I do love their gorgeous colors and form. It will be able to grow freely out there.

Here's a photo of the flowering cherry in July 2020.  You can see

how much it's encroaching on the house and nearly totally covering one

of my bedroom windows, as well as hitting the gutter and the roof.

The beautiful flowering cherry that the former owners planted far too close to the house for its ultimate size (and it's still growing) - I couldn't bear to take that down yet. What on earth could I ever replace it with?  Instead of the drastic measure of either removing the tree completely or pollarding it, we're going to limb up the tree quite a bit to raise the canopy, do a severe cut back along the house side so branches are no longer scraping against the house and on the roof, try and balance it as much as possible from street and side views, and do a lot of trimming/thinning out of branches on the inside of the tree to let more sunlight come through to the struggling lawn areas and plants growing underneath.  I'm prepared to do this for the next two to three years since to keep the tree healthy we shouldn't remove more than a third of it at a time.  Fingers crossed I don't have to make the sad decision to have the tree removed in a few years.

Summer 2020 - this is after vigorous spring pruning by me earlier
in the season.  It grew even more after this photo was taken.  You can see 
how it is rubbing against the rain gutters, the side of the house and is above
the roof.  It also hangs out over the driveway.  Just a matter of
time before it completely overtakes the space.

The purple - whatever it is - (I've called it a purple plum) that anchors the other side of the house next to the driveway, oh my.  It grows faster than I can keep up with.  The arborist suggested digging it out and trying to transplant it but there is a beautiful peony shrub (planted by the previous owner) coming up all around the base of that tree/shrub now and I just couldn't do it - plus I don't want it planted anywhere in the front or backyard - nowhere to go with it.  So, we settled on extensive trimming and we'll see how it goes over the next year.  I may have to have them come out every year from now on and continue to trim back those two trees (or one tree and one shrub-that has pretensions to turning into a tree).  

The two giant pines on the other side of the driveway will get a haircut so there are no branches hanging down too low over the driveway and some broken branches (from various windstorms) on the interior of the trees will be removed.  

I'm also having some trimming work done on the arborvitaes in the backyard so they are not encroaching over my neighbor's narrow walkway between my fence and the side of his garage, or scraping on his roof.  Heaven forbid, I don't want him out there on a ladder hacking away at my beautiful trees!  

Total cost:  $550.  Not inexpensive, but for the amount of work that needs to be done, a really good price.  Having it done by a trained crew also saves me a lot of work that emotionally I would find difficult to do (I'm such a wussy), that I don't have the proper equipment to do for myself (or the know-how), or the strength to be able to do for myself anyway.

I have to say, I was very impressed with the owner of the business, who came out on a Sunday to see me. I didn't expect that, but he called within less than hour after HomeAdvisors notified him on Saturday that I would like to receive a quote for the work that I wanted done.  He's young and has started up a fairly new company, but he knows his stuff.  After years of watching gardening shows and home improvement and landscaping shows, I've learned a lot, and I saw quickly that he knew what he was talking about.  

The work will be done sometime next week.  I'm not limited as to time, so it will really depend upon the weather, which may be turning nasty on us.

Meanwhile, I've been working off and on as weather and time has permitted to try and get the garden beds in the backyard cleaned out.  What a chore!  My first priority is to make sure the front and sides of the house that people view as they drive by or walk by are in pristine condition.  As I've been out working during the past 3 weeks or so, I've received so many complements from neighbors walking by the house.  Just amazing, and very gratifying, I have to say.

The poor backyard is always at the end of the list.  But it's getting there, pant pant pant...

New Year, New Season, New Hope

 Hola everyone!  I hope you are all well and have made it through the Year from Hell No. 2 - 2020.  Shame on me for not having posted anything since December 2020, wow.  Time is passing much too quickly.

I've been busy doing spring cleaning inside - and outside, I've put in a lot of hours.  We had an incredible streak of far above normal warm weather for about 10 days and I worked outside daily for at least a couple of hours each day.  We had a lot of wind storms in March.  This year March did come in like a lion and go out like a lamb, and April has brought April showers.  No flowers yet other than a small patch of wild violets (sooooo pretty!) but boy oh boy, the rain we've received sure has greened up the lawn and with the warm weather, perennials are bursting through the earth much earlier than usual including through layer upon layer of still unraked molding leaves in the flower beds I haven't had a chance to clean out.  It's been raining for the past 3 plus days, off and on, and the garden beds are too wet and soggy to work in and the lawn is too wet and soggy to walk on, even though it already needs to be cut!   

I've been limited to running out whenever the rain halts for a few hours to sweep up the patio every few days and the driveway.  I am, however, hopeful that all the rain will wash away a lot of the gunk that was left behind by city crews in March who were a few houses down on the street fixing yet another burst water pipe.  Boy, we sure do need that Infrastructure Bill.  Milwaukee water pipes are over 100 years old, and showing their age.  Because of the pandemic our tax base has been decimated and we don't have the funds to do a wholesale repiping of the city, even though it needs repiping  - badly.  This is the second burst pipe in about 18 months, and the subsequent mess of inches of clay, small rocks and stones left behind in the gutters for we the homeowners to deal with.  Thus far I haven't touched the gunk, hoping first that melting feet high snow banks would wash most of the stuff away (nope); and then that the rains would wash most of the stuff away (nope).  Sigh.

Every year there seems to be more to do, but it could just be that I'm slower now than I was 6 years ago when I moved into this, my "retirement" home.  This year I'm facing 70 head on - and I DO NOT LIKE IT ONE BIT.

Sooooo - let me show you a few things:

Welcome to the new color palette for my living room decor for spring and summer 2021.  It's done already, I worked on it off and on last month, but I haven't taken photos of it yet.  I promise I'll post them.  It's the brightest and most "unlike me" decor I've ever introduced into any of my beloved Maisons Newton.  It makes my eyes pop every time I enter my living room, and I LOVE it!  I keep thinking this must have something to do with psychological damage I unknowingly sustained during the 13 plus months of pandemic hunkering down.  Ya think?