As I tossed back a handful of ibuprofen and crawled into bed Saturday night I felt pretty damn good about the progress I had made. With any luck I'll feel the same way tonight. But despite the elusive extra hour of sleep I supposedly enjoyed by setting back the clocks last night, I'm tired.
Although I don't get quite as many leaves as I did before taking out the giant backyard Sycamore, I still get alot of leaves. Leaves appear to be impossible to quantify so suffice it to say I get alot. Part of the problem is likely a result of having a heavily planted garden on all four sides of my house. Leaves fall, and instead of blowing into my neighbor's yards they get trapped in mine. Naturally my neighbor's leaves blow into my yard and get trapped there too.
So while I'm spending entire weekends in November lugging load after load of leaf and garden waste to the street, my neighbors are firing up their leaf blowers on a Saturday morning for an hour and and calling it good for the week.
Fortunately my town collects leaves at the curb to compost at the transfer station. I take full advantage of this service and toss in an additional ton of pine needles from my driveway and back garden and a few tons of fall garden cleanup debris. Nobody seems to notice so it's all good. Unfortunately I don't have the room on my property to compost this much volume.
Our first collection isn't scheduled until the week of November 12th. Occasionally the town pleasantly surprises me with an off schedule pickup (when it comes to fall cleanup it's the little things). Perhaps they do this because a town truck happens to venture down my street to this:
 |
| The curb in front of my house. Currently 75 feet of leaves piled a couple of feet high and a few feet wide. |
And this:
 |
| The cul de sac curb of my side yard. Another 30 feet or so of leaves piled high. |
And this:
 |
| Continuing around the cul de sac on the other side of my driveway |
Like many things in life there's good news and bad news. The good news is in addition to moving all of this debris off my property, I also got both fountains drained, a good portion of the garden cut back, and the lawn areas mowed for what I hope will be the last time. And at 4:30 tonight I felt confident enough with my accomplishments to call it quits and leave my house for the first time all weekend. Destination Starbucks for my first Caramel Brulee Latte of the season. Tra la la la la! Without it I likely would have succumbed to this new "fall back" schedule and been asleep by now.
On the bad news front, I'm nowhere close to done. Half the leaves are still on the oak trees that line my driveway and I barely touched the east side of the house or the curb gardens. Some cannas and dahlias still need to be dug and dried, and plants are waiting in the garage to be re potted and stored in the house. A few perennials are kicking around waiting to be planted and if possible I'd really like to shuffle some plants around. All I can do is keep my fingers crossed that the weekend weather holds up going forward.
Happy Fall!
Sue~
I'm tired just thinking about all that work you're doing! I'm a slacker and seem eternally doomed to spring garden clean ups.
ReplyDeleteLisa, I can't wait til spring because the town only picks up in the fall. The few times I have left part of it til spring I regretted it. Now my motto is "just do it!". :)
DeleteMaybe I'm just too old, or more likely lazy. I just can't do the work needed when it is in the low 30sF! My leaves are easier to grind up and move about than yours, given that I can use my riding mower and attached wagon, but I have so much needed caging of plants to be done still as well as mounding if roses and other plants. You can't even wear gloves for these jobs. They say sunny days for much of next week, but still, only highs in the low 40s. BRRRRRR!
ReplyDeleteSo I bought a jar of instant cocoa...
A lady has to sacrifice sometimes.
So far, so good on the temperature front. I don't usually wear gloves and my hands took a bit of a beating. You know your hands need help when hand cream stings.
DeleteIf I were you I'd be adding something to that cocoa and it wouldn't be marshmallows :).
Wowzer, you are the energizer bunny. We did a lot of cleanup here this weeend as well. My back is informing me I did a bit too much. I've got to cut the borders back still, spray some rodent repellent and plant a couple shrubs. I still have to deal with a garage full of plants too. Sigh. I'm ready to be done with all of it and spend some quality time in my tent, LOL
ReplyDeleteMy goal is to be done by Thanksgiving. If the weekend weather holds out and I don't poop out, I should be able to get it done.
DeleteSue, you are amazing. Repeat. Amazing. I detect a certain glee in your reporting of all the hard work you did. You are probably one of those folks who even enjoys exercising and lifting weights until the sweat soaks your clothes all the way through . . .
ReplyDeleteWho told you, Jack?
DeleteSue, leaf rustling is one of the worst garden chores, and you make the pain live. No treat is too excessive after this kind of grunt work.
ReplyDeleteYou're right, Lee. Next weekend I'm going to bypass Starbucks and head right to the liquor store :).
DeleteHappy Fall to you too! Don't worry, you're much farther along than we are! Thanks for all the inspiration!
ReplyDeleteYou sure got a lot done! May I suggest hot cocoa (home made with half and half and maybe white chocolate)mixed with peppermint schnapps? Makes me feel warm just thinking about it and you can never be too good to yourself!
ReplyDeleteIt's strange to me that you can pile your leaves and yard waste at the side of the road like that. Here we have yard waste dumpsters that are emptied of their contents every other week year round. It's a nice and free service but it's kind of a pain to have to cut everything down to fit inside the dumpster. No branches may protrude, lid must close all the way because they're mechanically elevated and dumped into a truck.
I'm such a sloth that I run over the leaves with the mulching mower and call that good. The beds won't be ready for a big clean up for a while so they usually just get left alone, the horrible mess falls over on itself and when I can't stand the sight of it any more, I cover it with manure mulch & call it organic gardening.
Good for you! I try to get out there on the weekend when I can...but the rain can make raking a bit of a folly! And you're not alone...somehow, it seems that every leaf that blows down our street gets sucked into my garden and sidewalk...sigh.
ReplyDelete