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Re: Weekend Plans?
Meeting with my financial advisor and meeting up for our monthly dinner outing.
Is it me or has it been dead on here this week?
We really don't have anything planned per se but I'll wing it. The weather has been really humid so not much outdoor activity:
Friday- Gym, a few errands maybe?
Saturday- I think it will be raining, so probably going through more boxes in the basement from the move
Sunday- Cleaning day? I think the weather will be better so maybe some mini golf or paddleboarding
We'll be going out to eat a couple of times this weekend for H's birthday, hanging out with friends, doing some fun summer stuff around town and hopefully getting yardwork and housework done. I have a list of tasks to do and would love to make progress on some of them---need to stay motivated and not fall into a dvr watching trap!
We also have BnB guests coming this weekend for some nice extra side money.
Doing a couple lunch mystery shops this weekend. One today and one on Sunday.
My H told me this morning we need to go to one our rental houses on Saturday and trim back some trees. But, I need to have a further discussion with him about that. Like a lot of you have mentioned, it is also miserably hot and humid in my area. I can't hang in that heat for very long! I'd rather hire it out or, if at all possible, push it off until September. We'll see.
I didn't say it, but was thinking, "You want me to clear brush...in 93 degree heat and high humidity...excuse me? Have you met me?, lol."
Um. It's 93 degrees and humid enough you can swim through it and I'm still sick!
Tomorrow I'm going out to my parents' to help box and move more stuff into storage.
Sunday I'm going to the Braves v. White Sox game in the city. It should be a good time and I'm going with a group from work. I pretty much hate the White Sox, but I like to tailgate and I like baseball, so it'll be fun.
Today is my mom's actual birthday so happy hour at Bahama Breeze followed by the real life of pets movie. She is pretty excited about it!
I work my second job this weekend. Then I just want to continue cleaning, unpacking, organizing, and purging from our move a few weeks ago.
Nothing else is really planned so we will see what we can find to do in order to avoid cleaning and stuff.
Direct quote from the man himself: "A branch here and there is ok, but save major structural pruning for the very early spring (pre-buds) or fall. An exception is hollies, just because they are so hardy. Summer is fine for hollies." A lot of household foundation plantings are really hardy, so I wouldn't panic or anything. Just something to keep in mind for the future. He also qualifies his advice as most relevant to the northeast and other regions with distinct seasons.
Yes, I totally don't get the appeal of classic American holly. One came with our house and it grows out of control and hurts to touch. H has to lop off half of it ever year. No thanks. I do like winterberry holly but that's a very different animal. I planted a few of those by choice.
This house, there's one behind the house. The house is on a crawl space that I can stand up in, so the first floor from the back of the house is about 7ft or so off ground level. The bush was taller than I was standing inside. So I figure that made it at least 13-14ft. I lopped it down to about 5ft or so.
The biggest issue with the last two houses I've bought is the prior owners or the owners before them were all the "master gardeners". Planted a lot of nice stuff, but the people right before me didn't take care of it and now I'm having to majorly cut it back. Some of it was just planted way too close to the house.
We are in a very similar situation with our landscaping! The home was owned by an old Italian man who was probably very meticulous for around 25 years, and then by a single woman who travelled often for work before us. Our foundation plantings were completely overgrown, including a few rose bushes. Luckily, everything has rebounded to health nicely, including the roses, just with some pruning and TLC. It helps that H really knows what he's doing!
My first house....the owners two owners prior were the master gardeners. The people after them that I bought the house from pretty much let most of it go. One of them was out to sea a lot (military? shipping?) and the spouse would go and see them when they could get off. So I guess they did the bare minimal. I cut back a lot of things and did what I could with the rest. Some things didn't survive the cutting.
The house I'm in now, the original owners setup all these elaborate beds with plants that I'm sure looked great when they planted them, but the plants matured and are too big for where they're at. They moved out and rented the house since 2008. Not sure how many renters they had or if it was the same one all the time, but the ones that were there before I moved in did nothing from what I heard. After they left, the owners hired a service that came in drastically cut some stuff back to make it look "nice" for sale.
Since moving in, I had all the gumball trees taken out, and a massive juniper bush cluster (way overgrown and half dead). I also took out a bunch of these purple needle bushes. They go through gloves and didn't need our toddler son getting into those. Plus cutting the holly in half that I mentioned earlier. Also had these massive bamboo/willow things. I ground cut them with the idea if they died I didn't care. Can't kill those either apparently. So I've been maintaining them and they look a lot better than they did.
That would be fun! Sorry you have bamboo. A lot of people don't realize when they plant it that it's horribly invasive and nearly impossible to kill. Best left for little vases indoors!
That seems like a good approach. As crunchy as I tend to be, some plants just need Roundup! We've been doing a similar thing to this ugly Asian bittersweet that just won't quit.