#remulching the garden

[pleasespellchimerical]

Neighbor turning a massive woodpile into woodchips, me hauling away wheelbarrow loads full of them all like Grand Theft Woodchip

and then I stepped on a wasp

and that was the end of Grand Theft Woodchip :(

[weworklandworx]

Another happy client! We trimmed up the trees removed old plants that customer did not want anymore and remulched the flower bits with brown native hardwood mulch. WeWork LandWorx, LLC. Lawn & Landscaping (512) 677-5526 Check us out on Google! https://g.co/kgs/Ln9zZS Visit us on the web @ www.weworklandworx.com ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Read our REVIEWS #leandertx #cedarparktx #cedarparktexas #leandertexas #libertyhilltx #libertyhilltexas #flowerbedpro #Landscaper #Lawnwork #landscaping #landscape #gardening #lawncare #gardendesign #lawnservice #lawncarelife #landscaper #design #outdoorliving #plants #lawncare #grass #backyard #lawnmaintenance #landscapearchitecture #hardscape #landscapers #lawnservice #mowing #lawncarelife #landscapingdesign #landscapingideas #landscapingcompany (at Leander, Texas) https://www.instagram.com/p/CosTohyuT67/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[loquaciousquark]

The tires are on the car, the tree is down and away and the stump ground, and the new fridge comes Monday. To help me cope:

Salvia in the front brick box (dark purple, light purple, and a purply orange), along with lilac fanflower on the ends, a white zinnia in the middle, and three polka dots from last year who survived the winter and therefore deserve to remain. The white azaleas in the front are also thrilled, and the new hydrangeas are putting out their first tiny buds. Grow up big and strong and fast like your sister!

At the end of the driveway: I reseated all the brick edging as it had been fairly buried over the last few years. I pulled out all the monkey grass and weeds and planted four new patriot hostas, as well as remulched. In the pots are two blue cape plumbago and a white penta in the smaller pot. I asked for deer-resistant plants this year to avoid the annual summer tragedy of deer eating my hibiscus is back to sticks. Even the strongest must I could find couldn't keep them off, yuck.

In the back box garden (whose rotted wood frame is getting replaced hopefully this week) are the established hostas and gold azalea, who's finally having a good year, as well as a new stalk of the rosemary bush which seems to be healthier than the original. This year I planted more salvia in kind of a plum magenta and medium purple, as well as two white salvia, three more of the white zinnias, and some brilliant purple celosia.

I also finally succumbed to my love of roses and snagged a spectacularly fragrant At Last rose from the nursery. I'm nervous about it, but it smells so beautiful I had to give it a shot, and the color is my favorite. That's in the front next to some dogwoods which have, alas, already finished blooming this year.

[antlersacornsandallium]

Today I woke up early to tend the garden with my spouse before the sun baked the will to live out of us both.

There was some work that needed doing badly. The tomato plants were spent and dying, blocking out the light for new corn plants. Spent blackberry canes were pruned (there are more of them yet). The summer rains have meant every weed in a mile radius is exploding with growth.

We filled the wheelbarrow 3 times with debris, and remulched about half the walkway. It was overcast, but still hot, and the sweat poured out of us. The work isnt done, but it is better now. There is space to let air and light in.

I'm starting a new full time job soon. I'm taking online courses to change fields, which is something I've wanted to do for a long time. Our dog passed last year - and the new puppy we desperately wanted for months did not work out with us and was returned to the breeder. I caught covid a few months back - my spouse has it now. Which is all to say that the past year has been tremendously stressful. It has been packed full of more emotions and Things Happening than I think has ever happened to me in one year before.

Today, as I was walking with a wheelbarrow full of rotting tomatoes and dead blackberry canes and mimosa weed, the little plastic bead of my hat's chin strap swung with every step and struck my mjolnir necklace.

Every step was a tiny metallic chime, a small strike, and I thought 'this is work too, I am working, i am creating here too with every step like a blacksmith at a forge.'

The work is dirty. It saps the energy out of me. And at some point, the work remains unfinished but I know I need to stop for the day. When I go numb in feeling, when my legs and hands are sore. There will be more work tomorrow. And there will be some days when nothing can be done but wait for seeds to sprout, wait for fruit to ripen. There will always be more work to do just ahead. It doesnt end, there is no such thing as a garden that maintains itself entirely.

But today - for today, I have done as much work as I can, and there is a little more room for air and light.

[autumn-warrior]

It is beautiful outside today! I remulched my garden area and planted this Lily!

[populationpensive]

Off

Well I last worked on last Friday and I'm off until this Saturday. I've been lucky with these long stints off lately. :-D All fine by me because my last set of 3 shifts was just stressful. My GI bleed patient ended up coding - he received 4 units of blood during the process and his already sick heart (EF 20%) really couldn't handle that. We had to float a Swan in this dude at bedside and had a transvenous pacer going. He was on 4 pressors and it was just hard to talk to the family about this. He stopped making urine in spite of being hit with all the lasix (and eventually a drip). Kidneys were just shot. Thankfully, the family understood how poor the outcomes would be and ultimately told us the patient would never want dialysis. So, compassionate extubation it was.

The hardest part of that whole thing was not necessarily talking to the family or removing the life support or even declaring the patient dead - it was having to go to the next room with a totally different demeanor and mentally pretend like I didn't just walk another family through some shit. Medicine is the only field that truly puts you in this position and it's hard for us. I really didn't get to process the day's events and the second I walked out of the building and into my car I just...slumped. I know we've all been there - it sucks. You slump, you process, you get over it. It never feels less shitty though.

So, in the mean time, I've been working through some critical care modules for work. I got signed up for the online Fundamentals of Critical Care Support course - the whole online thing is killing me. There has been some good review so that has been nice.

The weather where I am has also been nice - been able to get out on my road bike and garden. I really need to remulch my flower garden. It has been clearly neglected by the home's previous owners. Actually, I should just get that black weed blocker shit - it would save me the time of having to pull up all the dandelions and wanna be trees trying to take root there.

[sinsdaycorp]

After literally scrubbing at the old houses walls for 2 days, the realestate told my mother it wasn’t good enough, said there was still marks everywhere, said the carpet cleaner (THAT THEY TOLD US TO HIRE) didn’t do close enough to the edges, so we had to go back in and fix it, they said that the ovens grill was dirty, I lived there for 3 years and never used that grill once and I was the cook for my mother and grandmother, and if mum wants any of the bond back, we had to go back up there and scrub at everything despite it all being cleaned spotless… the garden that didn’t even have any mulch in it needed to be remulched apparently, and to top it off, the stains (apparently) in the bathroom weren’t cleaned, and my niece literally spent 2 hours in there scrubbing at that bathroom with bleach before we left. I’m so over this fucking realestate and the only reason I’m staying in this fucking town is to be close to my grandparents, but holy fuck, as soon as I get the word, I’m out of here. And murdering a realestate agent as I leave.

[dearmrsbitch]

April 13, 2019 - Tell Your Parents Off!

         Dear Prudence,        

         I am in my 20s, I’m married, and I have two young children. My husband and I are totally financially independent from my parents and live a few states away. Whenever we visit their house, we’re expected to work. I’m not talking about helping with dishes or putting a load of laundry in the dryer. My parents own four rental properties in addition to the home they live in and consistently expect our help with maintenance. We’ve ripped up carpeting, refinished floors, repainted rooms, hauled large loads to the dump, broken up chunks of rock with shovels, remulched their enormous garden—the list goes on. And we do dishes and laundry and sweeping on top of that.        

         And they’re there too, working alongside us, criticizing almost everything we do and asking us to redo it to their satisfaction. My dad bangs on our door at 7 a.m. and says, “Time to get to work.” We’re told to pack work clothes before our visits. I openly complain about being asked to do these things (I act like a teenager again), but my parents get offended and act like I’m saying I hate their hardworking way of life. It doesn’t help that my parents get jealous over how we see my husband’s parents more frequently. Of course we do! When we visit their house, we pitch in around the house, but they treat us like guests and make us feel comfortable.        

         The last two trips, I’ve gotten out of most of it by being pregnant, but my poor husband has spent entire days doing backbreaking work. He hates it. I don’t want to dread the visits, and I definitely don’t want my kids being roped into all this when they get older. I feel like it’s one thing to expect your adult children to help out around the house when they visit, but I don’t think we should be expected to do such demanding work. We have limited vacation time, and plane tickets to see them cost more than $1,000 for the four of us. What are my responsibilities as their daughter here? Can I just refuse to help without causing a fight and ruining our visit?        

         —Adult Chores       

Dear Chore Bitch,

Why are you still going to visit them?  I mean, I’m serious, if I had a friend who wanted me to pay a grand to fly across country and help them move... I would suddenly lose the ability to answer my phone.

One of the biggest issues that parents have with their kids is treating them like unpaid servants long after they’ve moved out.  Some of it is cultural bullshit, some of it is just asshole parents - like yours!  Parents often forget they’re supposed to be raising future adults, you know, like independent persons with lives and homes of their own.

This isn’t a family business you signed up for and stayed around to help with and *ahem* intend to profit from in your own time. 

They’re profiting off you and being dicks on top of it.  Don’t put up with this shit, and don’t pimp your husband out on top of it.  And don’t think they won’t start using your children as slaves the first they chance get.

There’s a big difference between grandpa and grandma teaching the kids valuable life skills and using them to tend to a business they aren’t a part of - is vast.  Unless you have a will showing that you inherit EVERYTHING, there’s no point in doing all this work for them.

They can give up their properties, or they can hire a handyman.  Know why they don’t?  They’re fucking cheap!  And you’re playing into that!

I would call them up, when you don’t have a visit planned, and talk to them.  Tell that the visits are not fun and that you don’t appreciate being made to work and not spending quality time with them.  Start with framing it that you want to spend actual time with them, as humans, you know... humaning together.  Appeal to their want to see you and their grandkids kindly first.

If that doesn’t dissuade them with kindness, then tell them you’re refusing to come out until they’re agreeing to a normal visit.  They’re free to come visit you, but you’re sick of being their pack mules.  So, ball is in their court, but you’re fine not coming out again if manual labor is all they want from you.  Seriously, you don’t need the stress.

Then, you know, stick to it.  Trust me, your kids will suffer more from hating their grandparents than not spending any time with them at all.

Probably also best to start teaching them now that their labor has value and not to just work because someone older expects them too.  It’ll serve them well in some stupid ass future internship.

Mrs. Bitch

[leatherandsoil]

How Does Your Garden Grow

Tim Kelly was whistling cheerfully as he parked his truck next to the Colonial Properties sign.  He was on the last leg of his last job for the day.  He’d all ready given the shrubs and trees a good pruning, followed by sprucing up the hanging baskets and planters outside the office for fall.  All that remained was to replant and remulch the flower bed here by the sign.  Out with the begonias, in with the fall mums.  The summer flowers, having been present for several months, were looking battered and scraggly. More than a few had gone to seed or died.  It was a simple thing to uproot them and toss them in a bucket for composting later at home. Fetching a rake from his truck, Kelly raked back the mulch to expose the dirt. He added some fresh and then put in a healthy sprinkle of fertilizer for good measure. Then he put his rake away and fetched the fall mums.  Bold reds, glowing yellows, golden bronzes.  A veritable carpet of color.  He dug with his hands, the dirt soft enough that he didn’t need a trowel.  

With the last one planted, he stood up, fetched his rake, and shuffled the mulch back into place before adding some fresh on top.  Wouldn’t do to have all the bright flowers surrounded by faded mulch.  He grinned and went around to repeat the process with the other side. 

The second side took a little longer than the first due to his catching sight of a resident outside tending her own plants. She trimmed and watered and weeded carefully.  Judging by the number of containers and the excellent condition of her plants, she was quite successful at gardening.  Kelly finished up planting and got to his feet.  He had half a dozen mums left over.  He certainly could take them home...but he had a better idea.  Placing the flat in his truck bed, he reraked the mulch back over, then added fresh before putting the rake back and grabbing the flowers.  

“Hello there!” he called, ambling in the resident’s direction.  “Lovely plants you have!”

[merpancake]

I appreciate so much that Crowley is a fussy plant guy in this. He's the one at the local garden center checking ingredient lists of fertilizers and potting soil and comparing them to a mental list of Good Enough for My Plants. Poking around after a storm to bitch about standing water and how they need a proper drainage system. Yelling at the bushes for not growing well (and then going out at night to remulch and trim them properly).

Fic proposal: Crowley vs the mint plant at the South Downs cottage (based on the infamous Mint Discourse post)

[outsidetheknow]

@ElisabethRob3 : Holidays: ✅ Windows frosted for privacy ✅ Binge watched Unbelievable (5 🌟), Apple Tree Yard (3 🌟), Godless (5🌟) & Big Little Lies 2 (4🌟) ✅ Remulched garden ✅ Dog ➡️ Drontal ✅ Downton Abbey & Ad Astra ❌ Sold unwanted washing machine & oven on Gumtree (but tried...) 8/10

@ElisabethRob3 : Holidays: ✅ Windows frosted for privacy ✅ Binge watched Unbelievable (5 🌟), Apple Tree Yard (3 🌟), Godless (5🌟) & Big Little Lies 2 (4🌟) ✅ Remulched garden ✅ Dog ➡️ Drontal ✅ Downton Abbey & Ad Astra ❌ Sold unwanted washing machine & oven on Gumtree (but tried…) 8/10

Holidays: ✅ Windows frosted for privacy ✅ Binge watched Unbelievable (5 🌟), Apple Tree Yard (3 🌟), Godless (5🌟) & Big Little Lies 2 (4🌟) ✅ Remulched garden ✅ Dog ➡️ Drontal ✅ Downton Abbey & Ad Astra ❌ Sold unwanted washing machine & oven on Gumtree (but tried…) 8/10

— Elisabeth Robertson (@ElisabethRob3) October 13, 2019

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October 13, 2019 at 11:52PM via Twitter h…