Spidra

It’s been nearly a month since I had the physical ability and time (at the same time) to paint. Slowest. Painting. EVAH. Tonight I did 3/4 of the underpainting for the ‘Earli Autumn’ apricot, ‘Autumn Glo’ apricot and the low chill cherries. I also added more depth to the leaves of the Achillea millefolium, added the blooms and the leaf highlights.

I went to Urban Ore today. I walked because I needed the exercise. I knew if I saw something big I wanted that I would not have the strength to tote it home. I saw 3 terracotta box planters with an acanthus design. I hemmed and hawed wondering if I REALLY NEEDED them or whether I was just doing “retail therapy”. I decided I didn’t truly need them.

A couple hours later I’m doing tasks in the garden and realized that I could probably use those planters so I drove back. They were gone. Frick AND Frack. I can use a lot of other things, but those would have looked nice in the front and the front yard is more Victorian whereas funky can be in back.

When we moved in here there were two large pecan trees in the back yard. They blocked the light to a lot of things yet they didn’t earn their keep by producing nuts (it’s too cool here for pecans) so out they went. But neither of the landscapers we hired got rid of the stumps/roots the way we asked so they sucker out every year. They can produce huge masses of suckers and block the sunlight to wanted plants.

Being disabled not only means you have less physical ability to DIY – it means you have lower earning power to pay someone else to help you. So I finally had to give in and use the dreaded glyphosate (RoundUp). Glyphosate is not that effective on woody plants. But it is less toxic than a lot of herbicides people would use to get rid of woody plants so I decided to try something that was suggested to me by a lecturer at Master Gardening class – cut the plant then IMMEDIATELY swab glyphosate onto the cut.

At first I tried to get glyphosate off Freecycle because I only need to use a small amount and I didn’t want to give Monsanto any $. Unfortunately, I only got one response and the person was a phone person while I’m an email person. That didn’t work out so I broke down and bought some. I fished around in my basement for a long-handled cotton swab, put gloves on and went out to do battle.

In the past I’ve cut through bits of my drip irrigation system because it was so hard to find all the suckers and keep them free of things I DIDN’T want to cut. This time I got a little smarter. I made one pass with the pruners to cut things shorter so I could get in closer to the stump (it was a jungle, I’m telling you). Then I did a second closer pass and it was after that that I swabbed with RoundUp. But the cotton caught on the grain of the young wood. And then the cotton swab dropped inside the spray bottle of RoundUp and I couldn’t get it out without risking spilling quite a lot. So I ended up relying on the spray nozzle. And feeling EVEN GUILTIER.

However, I just finished this tiresome and tiring task. I have big heaps of pecan branches and leaves in the yard waiting to dry enough that I can send them through the chipper. Man, biomass composting may be the next big thing in energy production. Nature sure can grow a lot of crap in a very little time.

The yard already looks better. I pulled out the rampant Beach Strawberry as well as some sedge volunteer that’s been making inroads into my no-mow lawn. The plants that were shaded out by all the pecan will be happy to have some sun again.

My plants were hacked off and I’m hacked off, too. This is the third time my neighbors have weedwhacked the ‘Angel Face’ rose I have. Near the property line, not even ON the property line. They also pruned my Rosa dumalis. This happened this last Monday, I think. I saw the folks there with the weedwhacker and winced, wondering whether I should say something before anything untoward happened. But I hope the fact that they’d seen me would bring it to mind.

So last night I put a sign on the branch they had cut off for the 3rd time asking politely as I could if they could NOT cut off my roses. If they had a problem with my plants, they could talk to me. The note was gone today. I hadn’t noticed the Rosa dumalis being pruned until tonight.

I’m really angry. Last night I looked at what surveying costs and I can’t afford it. I would like to just build a fence, now. But I’m afraid to do that without legally establishing the property line for absolute sure.

I never knew how many ways a neighbor could screw with your plants until I became a homeowner.

My life has been in crisis mode for a couple weeks now. My hands aren’t feeling good, either. Some days I don’t get to garden. But when I do, I don’t have the energy left to upload pictures and write a journal entry. Actually, I can write a journal entry but since no one looks at journal entries without pictures, the needy girl in me figures it’s not worth it.

Just saw this SNL skit on Hulu.com I have to say I never thought I’d see a SNL sketch on gardening.

http://www.hulu.com/watch/16417/saturday-night-live-googly-eyes-gardener#s-p1-st-i0