Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Leaf me alone
A few weeks ago, the brick in my backyard started attracting a cover of leaves. I thought this was a bit odd, since aren't leaves supposed to fall in, well, the fall? I swept them up and put them in the green trash bin, which is for organic waste (it's composted).

More leaves fell. More sweeping. More leaves. At this point, I figured something had to be wrong; I was also starting to feel some empathy for gardeners who use leaf blowers, which I have railed against for years. Maybe the big oak tree in the backyard had some dead branches that needed to be removed. I called a tree guy.

photo

The tree guy, who had maintained the tree for the house's previous owners, looked up and pronounced the tree healthy. He said it wouldn't need pruning again 'til the fall. "Look at that," he said, pointing to a brown clump far up in the tree. "That's a squirrel nest."

Yes, it turns out squirrels are to blame for my leaf woes. They have been chomping branches in order to gather material for their nests, in the process killing them off and causing brown leaves to tumble to the ground. The tree guy seemed sanguine about it, with kind of a "whaddaya gonna do?" shrug. I guess I'm in for a summer of sweeping.

The previous occupants had a couple people come in twice a month to do the gardening; I am going to try to do it myself, figuring that it'll be a nice, healthy thing to do, and hopefully 15-30 minutes a day will keep it under control. So far, I've tried going out with a set of clippers to cut away anything that looks like it doesn't belong. Still, the greenery is growing larger and bushier by the day; I stand alone against the onslaught of plants and squirrels, pruning shears in hand.
posted by 125records @ 4:18 PM  
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Name: Sue
Home: San Francisco Bay Area, California, United States
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