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.

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

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

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.