Backyard Gardening

The jasmine vine on the side of the house was too close and it has always been my suspicion that rats were using it to climb into the attic. I decided that today was the day. Originally, I thought that maybe I could just trim it down but once I started trimming, I discovered that the branches were intertwined with the wooden lattice. And I wasn't surprised to see Christmas lights inside. In other words, it was one twisted mess.

Step one was to remove it. That was a big pain not just because there was a lot of vine to remove, but it was a tangled clump that required a lot of effort to separate and cut into smaller pieces. Fortunately, the yard waste container was empty. After about an hour, I got the vine removed and began loading it into the container.

I quickly realized that the container would not hold all the clippings so I used the sledge hammer to compress it. That wasn't good enough so I stood on top and began jumping up and down with Fluffy watching from a shaded area nearby. I was a sweaty mess when I finally got it tamped down. I pulled my leg over the container to step on the ladder but I missed the step and lost my balance. The container began to tip over and like a slow motion movie, I tipped over with it, falling on a piece of marble. The fall was slow enough for me to prepare so it was only a small bruise on my elbow. I got up and brushed myself off. Fluffy was busy tearing apart a tennis ball to bother looking over.

Step 2 was to dig a hole for a replacement bush. The bush I had picked out was one on the side of the house in a planter. Gold River is built on river rock so about a foot down, I started to hit large rocks. This slowed my progress but I was not going to accept defeat. After chipping and banging away, I dug a decent size hole that was large enough for the bush.
Last step was the easiest. I took some compost and threw it into the hole. The bush fit snuggly and I covered it up and then soaked it with the hose. Mission completed.