Wednesday, April 7, 2010

a hot day for hard work

Yesterday, a day when the temperature reached 90 degrees Fahrenheit, I decided to haul the branches of the juniper tree to the landfill. Since my townhouse is a middle unit, my choices were to carry the branches through the house - not possible, as they were wider than my doors and would have dropped needles along the way - or drag them around the other units, up a slope and out to the front. I hauled them out and around, two or three at a time. Many of them were as big around as my wrist and about 5-6 foot in length. Somehow, I managed to stuff all of them into the back of my van. (There are a couple of small branches left, but I can easily cut those up and put out for the recycle pickup on Friday.) The trip to the landfill was uneventful, except that the entrance is not well marked, so I overshot and had to turn around. It took about 25 minutes to get there and another 25, waiting in line to get into the place where wood is dumped. The landfill is a huge area, with different places for different materials. There is no charge for county residents bringing in yard waste. I unloaded my branches and drove home, tired but delighted to be rid of them. Yesterday, my car had a lovely smell of juniper. I suppose today it will just smell like dirty car again!

I still have some more trimming to do out back. Gonna cut that forsythia back to the ground (again!). Also will dig up various small volunteer forsythia bushes. Wherever a branch touches the ground, it roots and voila! a new plant. My advice to other gardeners, is don't put in forsythia unless you have a huge area that you want covered with bushes! The fun part will come later this spring, when I figure out what I can put in the space where the juniper tree was. It will get much more sunlight than before, so I have more options. A vine will go on the stumps of the tree, but there will be room for flowers that like sun. The rest of the backyard is a shade garden, which I love, but it will be nice to have more room for sun-loving plants. Of course, it is way too soon to plant summer flowers. I'll just dream and plan for a while.

1 comment:

Pat said...

It's nice that you'll be have a wider choice of flowers to plant back there now. I can recall you telling us how shady it used to be (and also showing us photos).