TIPTOEING THROUGH THE BACKYARD

Spring is here people…best one we’ve had for at least 3 years. This year there will be nuts galore on the oak, hickory, and beech trees! The pickings for the squirrels have been sparse the last 2 or 3 years, because heavy rains came every time just as the trees tried to release their prized pollen. No baby trees were made and the squirrels and chipmunks had to dip into their reserves or range further from home. Incidentally, there haven’t been too many new baby squirrels around either.

However, I suspect that this year the acorns, hickory, and beech nuts will be piling up in the driveway and bouncing off my metal roof! I suspect too that there will be many new baby squirrels and chipmunks chasing each other in the yard. Good thing Baylee is getting a little old to chase them far, or she would bring back their little pelts for me to pick up and toss in the garbage!

If you look closely to the left of the top merged photo, you can just make out Judy pulling weeds out of her yellow cannas bed, while I keep watch! Well, someone had to keep Baylee occupied, otherwise she would be lying right in front of Judy and mashing down all the young green shoots! You can see in her eyes that she could care less about flowers!

The azaleas, both in front and out back, have been there since the mid-seventies, pretty much as long as the old tire swing! Judy will not let me trim back the flower laden bushes and shape them up. So, they grow pretty much wild, as does the rest of the yard.

Jeff commented once that we must work our butts off in the yard, but the truth is, we do very little besides pick up dead limbs, cut up the trees that occasionally get blown down, and mow. We don’t really weed or mulch, we just mow very close and sit on the deck and admire God’s good works. After all, they were growing pretty well before man came along to corral and bunch them up into tight little color groups!

I don’t fertilize or aerate, like Corey, I just keep it mowed and mulch back in the fall leaves. I don’t know if it’s true or not, but I remember reading something about how trees use up the soil in a yard and actually lower its level over time if you didn’t add back in what was used up! Makes good sense, and I figure that’s all the fertilizing it needs. It also makes for less raking!

Oh, I do trim off low hanging limbs, especially the ones that slap my hat off, waking me up, from time to time, while I mow, or those that poke me in the chins or ribs! I hate it when that happens! I also keep my grape vine pruned back, but I have yet to have a crop survive the birds…and I don’t really care. It’s not like I’m going to make wine or anything! I get a couple off each year, as I make my mowing rounds, and that’s about it.

The other merged shots either look toward the back of the house, or toward the lake, which has not filled up yet, but we can see the water getting closer every day. Once a spring the water covers the backyard up to the azalea line, and the carp come in and roll in their love tumbles in the grass! Its TVA land up to that mark anyway, but I mow everything down to the shore anyway. I keep hoping someone will give me one of those Florida air-boats and I can come screaming in off the lake and up into the yard! What a hoot that would be!

Well, thanks for walking around with me and enjoying spring. I’d love to share it with you any time – free of charge…’course you could bring some beer!