Monday, March 21, 2011

My backyard tragedy

As you can see in my header, I have a beautiful little Japanese maple tree in our backyard.  So, I was horrified when I went outside to de-leaf and de-crap our planting beds last weekend and discovered this:
A huge branch was snapped off my beloved tree, which was a gift from my mom in 2009. 
And a few other smaller ones also fell off.
And now my poor little tree looks like this.
I hope losing such a large portion of branches doesn't cause problems for the tree?  I can only imagine this had something to do with Snowmaggedon, or maybe some fatass squirrel was jumping onto the branches, I'm not sure.  I'm also not sure what I was smoking when I left all this mess last fall: 
This area usually looks nice and tidy, like this....
It looked like the Silver Reed grasses were coming to strangle me with their tenticles! 
It took me hours to cut everything down, and clean up the mounds of leaves from the ground.  I think it's extremely unfair that we have NO large trees in our front or back yard, yet we have leaves EVERYWHERE!  BAH!
Glimerace the frog was pretty much buried by the time I got the lawn bag out.  Stupid leaves!
The only good thing I saw during my cleanup was this:
My hydrangeas are already starting to bud!  Champions, I tell ya.  I'm guessing I still have about 48 hours of cleanup ahead of me on the other sides of the backyard....
Tub full of mud and water?  Oh, hell no!  Sara from last fall: you suck. 

29 comments:

  1. I'd take your backyard over mine any day. You have grass. I am envious.

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  2. Oh my gosh, that looks like our backyard drama! Phx got like three unexpected freezes this winter and that really set our plants back. Of course, we were just getting things how we wanted them right before that... and now back to square one...okay square two... but still. I don't think we out and out lost anything, but things aren't very pretty right now. It will all look good again soon, I'm sure, though!

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  3. Such a messy job but is there anything better than getting the yard cleaned up for SPRING!? I think your tree will be fine!

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  4. Gotta love that Spring time clean up! Sorry to hear [and see] about your maple... I lol'd about the fat ass squirrel comment, although it would totally suck if that was the cause, it would be kind of funny just to see a really fat ass squirrel.

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  5. I raked up last year's leaves on the weekend too. Look at it that they were cozy winter coverage for your plants and now you are taking them off so they can breathe ... much better than thinking you were a slacker!!!

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  6. Ha! Ha! About the squirrel!...It wasn't mine! Mine is puny...and hungry. But not hungry enough to do any climbing I'm sure!...Your backyard, it cleaned up nice! I mean...YOU cleaned it up nice! ^_^

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  7. I hope your tree bounces back. I think they're hardy trees so all is not lost. I'm dealing with the same clean up this spring--truthfully, I don't know when to cut back plants so I just left them all. Now I have half dead, half new growth plants--not fun!

    On a funny gardening side note: I was babysitting my nieces the other day and I decided to go outside and pull up weeds. They wanted to help but I sent them off looking for four leaf clovers instead. I should have been watching because a few minutes later my 4 year old niece runs up saying "Aunt Karrie, look at this big weed I found!"--it was a mum I planted last year. haha!

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  8. I have a similar situation. My neighbor has a huge, old tree that is very brittle. It is constantly dropping twigs, sticks and leaves in my lawn. Yet, I get no shade from this damn thing.

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  9. We have to head out into our backyard this weekend. It's a chore, but when done, and everything is blooming and we can sit out and enjoy a glass of wine while sitting by the pond, it is well worth it. Hope your maple survives. Be sure to put some pruning sealer on the spots the branches broke off so no insects/disease gets in.

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  10. So sorry about your poor little tree! I do feel inspired to do some landscaping though as we have nothing, literally nothing in our backyard... =[

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  11. Oh no, what a disaster, and poor tree...get it together woman! LOL

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  12. If it makes you feel any better, birds and animals like a bit of a mess over the winter--it gives them shelter. So go ahead and be smug at dinner parties about not pruning so much last fall.

    I'm sorry about the maple. Fingers crossed it recovers!

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  13. Sad about your Japanese maple!! We have one in our front yard that was a gift from my parents - great minds think alike. :)

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  14. So sad for your tree, but I'm sure it will be fine. Love to see that glimpse of green though. I took a look around our yard this morning and my lilac has developed buds, and some lilies are poking up through the ground. Too bad we are going to get another dusting of snow tonight :(

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  15. I hoep your tree comes back stronger than ever -- I feel you on the back yard clean up!! Ours needs to be mowed bad, I'm hoping for sunshine this weekend and normal height grass...

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  16. i hope your tree comes back! they're so beautiful. but i have no patience for gardening, i tell you. i have to leave it to the hubby-- it frustrates me too much!

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  17. Your Japanese Maple should be fine. Just make sure to baby it for a little while until it heals up. I'm jealous that you can grow them over there. We aren't that far away but everyone in my garden club has had not luck keeping them alive. Bummer.

    The leaves are very healthy for the plants both as mulch and if you don't rake them nutrients. They look messy in the beds though. I started a leaf mold pile last year (rake up leaves, shred with either a lawn mower or a weed whacker in a trash can, and put in a pile over winter). When they are shredded they decompose faster and what you get is very rich black compost! It's called black gold in the gardening community and people pay big bucks for it. If you have space for a small pile you should try it out!

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  18. Aw, I'm sad that you have so much hard work ahead of you, but your writing cracks me up! You and your fatass squirrels. :o) Kudos to you for your efforts; my backyard is SO white trash right now, it's shameful.

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  19. After a muddy winter and lots of games of fetch, my backyard is hopeless. Just worn in grass-less mud trails from where Nemo ran over and over again. Completely and utterly hopeless. Thankfully no one sees our backyard but us.

    Love your frog.

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  20. I have the exact same "tub" of mud water in my back yard. Hehe...

    Sorry to hear about the broken branches. We lost some HUGE branches on a tree...they are now laying in the yard and I am not sure what to do with them. It was the result of a big heavy snow storm.

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  21. Sorry to hear about your tree! I hope it will be ok! I did actually laugh out loud at the fatass squirrel comment.

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  22. The budding hydrangeas are a sign of spring. Your yard will soon be filled with new life!!!

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  23. The budding hydrangeas are a sign of spring. Your yard will soon be filled with new life!!!

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  24. The budding hydrangeas are a sign of spring. Your yard will soon be filled with new life!!!

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  25. I meant it so much I commented THREE times!!!!

    #bloggerfail.

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  26. Ha ha! I am mad at myself for not dealing with all of the leaves last fall either! Oh well. That's what spring is for, right! PS. I posted on a hilarious gardening story today... I'm a total idiot : )

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  27. Oh no! That's really sad about your tree. I'm hoping our Japanese Maple recovers this spring.... it was looking pretty sad by last fall, after some scorching heat.

    Just think of how pretty it will all be again once everything starts blooming!

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  28. oh no! my dad's maple had the same issue this past winter. I hope yours makes it OK they are too pretty!

    I don't even want to think about yard work... it's nearly spring here in the South and it's time to get moving and I have no motivation. I wonder if I can pay off the boyfriend ;)

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Thanks so much for reading....your comments mean a lot to me!
Sara