garden-o-rama

recently, we paid a team of four men to severly whack the crap out of our yard. here is a list to suggest what i mean:

• completely yanked all rose bushes. rose bushes are a tool of the devil and must be stopped.
  
• removed all scorched ferns. we had way too many and since we removed this one really big tree, they were all a tangled mass of burned plant matter. boo.
  
• eased up on the tigerlily action. we had what was quickly becoming a large unruly mass of tigerlilies [which casey hates anyway] spewing from under our magnificent burning bush, preventing the sun from getting to areas of our nice new sod.
  
• de-weed-ified. in some areas, the sheer mass of weed growth was simply no match for your phaneromaniacal friend. our amigos went to town.
  
• bye-bye peach tree. yes, it was, at one time, a gorgeous tree with bright fuscia flowers, but it fell into the house [klassily propped up with a length of plywood], had limbs removed while other branches just plain died.

now, the yard is eerily empty. i would hate to see the faces on the couple who lived here before us if they saw what we've done. our yard was quite the native jungle, a magnificent and unruly mess of native wildflowers [many weeds] when we moved in. not so much anymore.

faced with a clean slate, i ran out and got you grow girl: the groundbreaking guide to gardening by gayla trail. if you think all gardening books are for suburban old ladies with loads of cash, land, and time, you should check this out. if you like all diy projects labeled with a difficulty rating, you should check this out. if all you have is a fire escape, you should check this out.

can't wait to fire up the vermicomposter!