Wednesday, September 4, 2013

Packing a Machete and Buckets Full of Naked Ladies

Even though Mr. W and I have owned our new house for a year, we're still getting a grip on all the "gear" we need to successfully live here. Back in Hollywood, city-living gear included things like fuel-efficient cars, deadbolts, and hiking shorts with enough pockets for your keys, phone, and sometimes sunscreen. The musts in our new parts are a tad different.

This weekend, we added a rototiller and machete to our arsenal of country-living equipment.

The women working at Home Depot didn't even know what Mr. W was talking about when he told them he wanted to buy the discounted rototiller in front of the store. And when the checkout guy at OSH scanned the machete, he laughed and said, "Who're you guys killing this weekend?" Apparently even though the new gear seems customary for these parts, it's not...

I look forward to seeing Mr. W in action with his Crocodile Dundee weapon. I think he'll need a special hat to complete the ensemble. Here he is rototilling the side yard where we plan to create a raised bed garden at some point in the near future.

Mr. W was covered in dust after this but I think he had fun playing with his new toy.

Last week, I received another crucial item for our new circumstances: Garden boots. Flip flops just leave your feet way too dirty and although sneakers work pretty well, I figured these would be handy in the winter when things get wet and muddy. They also offer greater protection against lizards or giant spiders that decide to run across my feet while I'm weeding.

Yes I got polka-dotted boots. Just because a girl is getting
dirty doesn't mean she can't look cute doing it.

Speaking of weeding, while I was sweating away in the front yard Monday, our neighbors drove up in their golf cart (bearing fresh melons from their garden—gotta love that) and taught me that the bulbs I keep finding all over the yard are called Naked Ladies.

The worst looking naked ladies I've ever seen...
Seriously, these bulbs are the bane of my existence. They multiply like ants on a candy bar and are such a pain in the ass to dig up. Why not leave them alone, you ask? Because the plants they produce die off when the weather is warm and leave mounds upon mounds of scraggly, dried up leaves everywhere. So I've been digging up hundreds of them since the spring.

Our green waste bin has been filled to the brim pretty much every weekend
since we bought the house. It was a delight to fill it with the lady bulbs.

Amidst the garden tools we brought up from Hollywood, I discovered a little handheld pickaxe and after using it to pluck a bunch of these babies from the dirt, I literally said aloud, "Pickaxe, where have you been all my life?!" Country gear. It's the best.

I think we'll probably be working on our property until the day we die. Or perhaps become bedridden from straining too much in the garden, but it's not a bad backdrop for such hard work.

Midcentury rambler, how I love you so. Maybe not your old driveway, but the rest
of you for sure.

Please disregard the dead grass in the corner. I'm still mastering the sprinkler situation.

Fuchsias were my favorite flowers when I was a little girl. I think I called them
"fairy flowers." They kind of look like little dancing fairies, don't they?

I'm sure I'll be posting a bajillion more pictures and stories about our transformations to the yards. We have many dirty days ahead of us. Hopefully no one loses any limbs under the swipe of the machete...

For another perspective on gardening, hop over to The Path to Wonderful and check out my latest post.

13 comments:

  1. Let's not forget the bug spray too

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    1. I think we need to maybe invest in full-blow bug suits. Like beekeeper suits. Or astronaut ones.

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  2. I love reading about your new adventures!! What a beautiful home!

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    1. Thanks! It's definitely coming along. And will keep getting better and better (fingers crossed) in the years to come.

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  3. Are the Naked Ladies a weed or are they something someone intentionally planted?

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    1. I'm not exactly sure, actually. I wouldn't say they're a weed but I have seen them growing in random fields and off the side of the freeway - and I'm pretty certain no one planted them there. I would guess that the ones in our yard were put there intentionally, but they've just taken over way too much!

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  4. "Green waste bin" ... that's what they're calling a compost bin these days? Interesting! =)

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    1. Do they call them compost bins in Chicago? I know that's what the city uses them for but for some reason we call them green waste out here. In addition to filling ours weekly, we have a giant freestanding compost pile in our side yard, plus a tumbler composter, and a dome one. We crazy like that...

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  5. You have quite a lot of land to tend to. I keep forgetting about our front area because we never come up that way (we're back door people). The other day I realized a blackberry bush had grown too close to the front steps making it perilous for folks to come up to our front door. Oops! I think we might need to be better gardeners. I'll take my lessons from you!

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    1. Haha those blackberry bushes will getcha! We have a rogue berry bush in the yard that seems to grow gigantic when no one is looking. And yes, there's a lot of land here....lord help us...

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  6. While I am not exactly a city dweller, now I kind of want to move to a place with more land and yard work just so I can get those boots! But I can probably get the boots anyway, huh?

    Oh, and maybe a little-known thing about me? I love to mow. Push mower, tractor, whatever, I love it. So when I visit, I will be happy to take some work off your hands! :)

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  7. I love those boots! I could totally justify buying them even though we only have 1/2 an acre. There are so many creepy-crawlies compared to SoCal. When we first moved in there was a garden snake in our basement. I thought to myself "what the hell did I get myself into with all this land" HAHAHAHA

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  8. I love/hate country living. It's a ton of work but it's so gorgeous. WTF is up with those weird bulbs? Are they naturally occurring?

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Well, whatdya think?