New Fence 2019

I keep record of garden work for my own sake, not so much for others' since I'm not a True Gardener. As a holy relative reminds me, "It is your season to grow children, not plants!" Let's just say that it is good our HOA requires landscapes to look "woodsy and natural" because I can't tend to much.

The work this week centered around replacing the split rail fence. I have resisted Chris' reminders for approimately five years because that is how long I had been growing my beautiful, yellow-blooming Carolina jessamine vine along my front fence. If we replaced the fence, I'd lose my vine. However, the year finally came when even I had to acquiesce about the rotting, falling down fence.

BEFORE PICTURES: The vine and shrubbery at the top of the driveway had created a complete privacy wall to the back yard.

I spent a morning cutting off the vines. I was able to save the two actual plants, keeping them two to three feet high so I can train them on the new fence. I also trimmed away the shrubbery because the fence company told me that their men needed a two to three-foot wide clearance to work.

The end result of all my crawling on all fours and pruning was a handsome, but very naked fence.

The next morning, I tackled the much longer, 100-foot span of fence adjoining our neighbors. I took no photos of that project, but it involved even cutting down a small tree, cutting back overgrown trees, and trimming back a privacy hedge.

Then 109 bags of bark arrived to refresh our paths and add padded safety beneath our swingset. I think we've only updated the bark twice in 11 years here and, with this many toes running on them, it could use updating a lot more than that!

So, on the third morning, the children and I spread the mulch, which was hard work physically but sweet for my heart. At times, I would catch my kids singing folk songs together while they worked, and that pretty much makes life worth living for a mama who generally hears way too much bickering.

Give a three-year-old a trowel and he will busily occupy himself for a long time.

Chris pointed out to me that, come fall fire season, we will have to clear a 10-foot radius from the fire pit. But for now, I will leave the pretty wood chips.

Wood chips too close to fire pit

Shady lunch table out back

Oregon grape and Lenten roses

I was plumb tuckered out after all those mornings and was very grateful to sit in the soothing back yard drinking coffee with my feet elevated so I could read my current obsession: "Pudd'nhead Wilson" (1894) by the inimitable Mark Twain.

On the fourth day, the workmen arrived to demolition the old and install the new fence. It was difficult to teach school that morning!

Watching workmen out the window

The new gates may  not match, but they do automatically close, which means neither my neighbors nor my children will ever have to listen to me shouting, "Shut the gate! No, SHUT THE GATE! Why do you never shut the gate? Your baby brother is running down toward the road again!"