one step closer to becoming like ardie

i was a gardening slave this weekend! and i’m pleased to announce that our backyard is significantly less white trash as a result. no more mounds of trash, bright pink bathtubs and overgrown flowerbeds lingering around. unfortunately the green ardie port and sad tin shed will keep us in touch with our WT side a little longer. oh well.

back to the gardening. like most things with bungalowhutch – i have no idea what i’m doing when it comes to gardening. this was evidenced by debating long and hard about what was a weed and what was a plant.  i also don’t have any proper tools. i used to but thanks to finding our gardening box in the basement with some weed killer chemical having leaked over the last 9 months destroying everything in the box – i don’t anymore.  the sad tin shed came to the rescue when i found a broken mini shovel and a teeny tiny rake that probably has a real garden tool name that i don’t know.

needless to say it was a rough start. but i gardened people. i gardened for like 15 hours to be exact. clearly i’m feeling proud about my one step to closer to becoming more like ardie.  who, by the way, our neighbors informed us used to work all day and then come home and garden til 10 at night. yikes!

here’s a few things i learned while gardening for close to 15 hours…

1. there is a reason people don’t garden in flip flops.

2. you should wear sunscreen unless you want the perfect outline of a tank top on your back.

3. bugs are gross and everywhere and worms are just as fat and juicy as i remember them as a kid.

4. it is hard to tell the difference between weeds and plants – but we already talked about that one didn’t we?

5. gardening is a workout. and i am very sore from said workout.

6. gardening is kinda lonely so it helps to talk on speaker phone.

7. iphones overheat in the sun and shut down with mean messages about overheating.

8. rose thorns are very sharp and dangerous.

9. dogs are useless when it comes to gardening.

10. mulch makes everything look 100 times better.

so maybe i didn’t learn a ton, but it’s a start. i’m one step closer to becoming a real, live gardener. and tho my track record says everything will be dead in about six weeks, i’m realllly hoping that just due to the fact that ardie gardened this yard for 50+ years prior to my taking over, means that the plants have been well trained not to die.

 we have big plans for this yard someday that don’t include most of what you see. so until the days of a real garage and less concrete come about i’m hoping this mini makeover will do.

i’ll leave you with some visuals for your monday pleasure. fyi – the after pics we’re taken this morning after a random hailstorm. that’s why the roses seem a bit traumatized.

this is where it started.

yikes.

ardie would roll over in her grave if she saw these pics.

clearing out this alone took about 3 hours - i left what i thought might be real plants? do you think they are weeds?

end of day 1

does this like hours and hours of work to anyone? i swear it was...

no thanks to this one who could hardly be bothered to lift his head for the photo.

treasure i found buried in the weeds. i shall call him lambie.

supplies to liven things up.

the finished product! you can't even see ardie's love for concrete anymore thanks to the magic of mulch.

better? i'm thinking the plant falling over should have been in the weed category.

still jungle-esque but hopefully a less scary jungle. and look! no more junk yard in the ardie port!!

bye bye tub, and old pipes, and nasty wet carpet and ugly nasty wood. p.s. - don't ask where it went.

we can eat outside again!

and lounge around without having to avoid eye contact with the yard.

someone just woke up from sleeping while others were slaving.

i spy lambie!

please don't die pretty flowers

thanks for the roses ardie!

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wonderful and scary things

oopsies. i’ve committed blogland death by not blogging for two weeks! so you’ve stopped following…it’s not like i was making the big bucks on this thing as planned. besides – i’m sure my mom is still reading. and mr. hutch will take a glance  because he fears the dreaded…”YOU DIDN’T READ MY BLOG!?!??!”

who said two readers isn’t nice.

so in attempt to come back from death – you should know some wonderful and scary things going on around here.

first – the wonderful. (simply because the scary is more dramatic -always a better note to end on.)

FLOWERS!! ardie’s garden is LOVELY! we can even see it’s beauty in the midst of the jungle we’ve let overgrow it. more importantly – we can pick the flowers. i love fresh flowers in bungalowhutch and plucking them from our (ardie’s)  garden beats paying an arm & a leg for them. currently in bloom are some bright pink and peach peonies and some even brighter pink and peach roses. here’s a few snaps via instagram.

not so lovely and more on the scary side? welllll…..we were flash cleaning our house today and mr. hutch ran downstairs to  sometimes scary unfinished basement to put some stuff away when he found a birdie hanging out on his tool bench. he tried to “shoo” it back outside but it insensibly squawked at him instead. i was afraid to go down there ’cause all i could picture was the bird attacking me. (he thought it was a baby bird that hadn’t yet learned how to fly). anyways – for about 20 minutes i heard the shuffle of brooms, buckets, and squawks when finally mr. hutch emerged running outside with a bucket using the broom as a lid to release the bird. scary? perhaps not, but then check this out:

we like to eat din din outside in the summer. it just makes sense (no. that’s not the scary part either). so we’re sitting outside leisurely enjoying the feast i had prepared when all of the sudden attack of the angry birds ensued. oscar (the construction dog the trouble making dog) had been tormenting the baby bird that mr. hutch had recently released from the captivity of the dungeon. its momma wasn’t having ANY of it. she made some shrill noises and literally the next thing you know there were dozens of black birds swarming to our back yard perching on anything they saw fit (i might be exaggerating if i said one was on my head) and sqwaking as if the world was ending. i secretly wanted to dash inside picturing them coming at me all at once and pecking me to death. luckily the doorbell rang (literally – have i told you about our old fashion doorbell?)  and we conveniently had the excuse we needed to grab the remains of our feast, escape the mass of angry birds preparing to attack any minute, and finish eating inside like it was no big deal – we weren’t scared. but let me tell you. it was scary.

the innocent looking instigator

needless to say. oscar is under tight watch until the wittle babie bwirdie werns to fly.

the moral of the story? i dunno. don’t not blog for two weeks so you don’t end up blogging about angry birds? don’t’ download angry birds for an app? do more work around the house?

it’s the weekend – you pick.

happy weekend!!

dear ardie

dear ardie –

can i have your green thumb? mine is brown. and i’m pretty sure you don’t need yours anymore.

you have left us with such a beautiful garden all around the house. it’s the talk of the block. and i’m feeling a lot of pressure because i really don’t know what to do with it. i think you’ve been mad at us for not watering it and asked god to make it rain the last week…i’ll try to get better at that so that you don’t make it rain all the time.

did you not know we would be garden illiterate. mr. hutch asked what kind of flowers those were (in the picture). i was only kinda sure when i said tulips. (don’t tell my grandma – ’cause i’m dutch and should know that!) then this weekend i had to ask my mom the difference between plants that were alive and plants that were dead. i couldn’t tell.

it’s bad ardie. and i’m very scared that i’m going to kill your plants. especially because i consider us friends. our neighbor told us all about your friends across the street – minie, archie (who has passed) and davie and how you guys used to be best buds. i know my name doesn’t end in “ie” but it could if i spelled it like the cheese.

sometimes our front door pops open randomly – and i know it’s you. mr. hutch thinks i’m crazy, but i don’t care. we can still be friends. assuming i don’t kill your garden.

sincerely –

the girl with the brown hair and brown thumb living in your house.

p.s. – sorry about what i did to the fireplace.

pps – betty didn’t send you an easter card. i think she’s mad…

ardie’s garden on the side of our house – you should see the backyard….