HFM

This weekend, Adrienne continued to work in the yard. I was out & about, so was not able to document it, but she was very busy digging, & hoeing, & weed-whacking. She also cleared a space for me to plant some snap peas in the backyard. Peas go here, along the fence! She was also kind enough to document the planting of the peas for us: Me, heroically hoeing with one hand. Digging little holes for my future pea plants. Ready for peas! The clover in the top right of the photo is what has been covering the whole yard, up until Adrienne got at it last week. In it goes! Note the dirt on my fingers -- this is proof of my hard work. Now I have to water them every day & try to resist digging them up to see what is happening in there. According to the packet, they should start poking through the dirt in another week or two, & then I have to wait a whole month before there are any peas to eat. It's a little ridiculous, in my opinion. I want peas now.

She's finally calling it quits! It was five hours total she was out there. Someone is going to sleep well tonight. Here's the end result: For comparison, this is from one of the roses posts this month: And then, bloodied & weary, she came back in, bearing more gardening gifts: Now off to a well-deserved shower & beer!

I swear, she's been digging around out there for 6 hours already. Third bag almost full! Brick border edging has gone into the Haunted Garden Shed. Opening up bag number four! First thing in bag four: bye bye begonia!

I was inside the sun porch, a couple feet from the door, & all of a sudden I smelled something good. I poked my head outside & saw that Adrienne was at the foot of the stairs, holding mint!

It looks so much bigger without all those weeds! Look! She found lemon verbena!

The second bag is already almost full. I hope she finds some treasure! So far it's just all this brick garden edging & the paving stones from before. I wonder what will happen next. I'm not sure this bodes well...

Goodbye Rosebush... This little patch of dirt won't quickly forget you... And neither will Adrienne.

Adrienne has set to work on the backyard! "After I'm done, I'm going to join an angry mob & storm a castle!" Debris! A stack of paving stones that had been scattered throughout the yard. Bundle of ivy that had been all over the fence, pulling it down. She tied it together with...ivy! Fence that had been plagued by aforementioned beautiful, yet destructive ivy. The ivy was trying to strangle this poor bush! It's so pulled-down & pulled-over from the ivy, that you can see light from the neighbor's yard underneath the fence. She found this hoe in the Haunted Garden Shed. Buy 1 House, Get 1 Hoe Free! It took no time at all fill a whole garden debris bag! Ingenious method for opening the next bag. Look! I'm helping!

Jon, of New Couch fame, came over for dinner one day. He made dessert. World, meet Mr. PopTart.com.

On Saturday morning, Adrienne got up early (8:30!) & set out for battle against The Monster Dandelions. After some rain last week, their stalks were about the diameter of a quarter & they had reached 5 feet in height -- which is taller than Adrienne, incidentally -- &, frankly, we were becoming that house on the block. So out she went with her cup of coffee & a paper leaf/garden bag. Here she is, hard at work: "You're next, hydrangeas!" Notice how the fence hinges open. While Adrienne was waging her heroic campaign, the daughter of the elderly woman across the street happened by & mentioned that she had been the one to put those hinges on. Apparently Jackie, who must have been in her 60s or 70s at that point, was always climbing over the fence to do the gardening in the little yard patch. The daughter-from-across-the-street, was convinced Jackie would break a leg doing that, so she offered to put the hinges on. Here is the little yard patch, in the af...

The same yellow roses, one day later! Amanda, I think I heard their stomachs growling while I was out there taking these photos.

From a barren Mars-scape, to an overgrown jungle of rosebushes & wildflowers:

An overcast sunset, over the neighbors' houses in back of us.

update: just found out they're actually plum blossoms! Exploding Cherry Blossoms!

See what I mean about the dandelions? "How on earth am I going to get these out of here?"