The Hubby doesn't like gardening. (Actually neither do I as I have a tendency to kill plants). But more than his dislike of gardening is his dislike of a messy garden. He hates long grass and weeds and straggly branches and things that grow too fast. And leaves. He really hates leaves falling all over the lawn and the driveway mussin' it all up. In previous years he's spent hours cleaning them all up only to come out the following morning to find that a fresh fall had occurred and it was leaf central again.
This year he waited as long as he could bear it and he left those pesky leaves pile up. Yesterday he'd had enough and set to work to make the place presentable again. He worked so hard and practically filled up a wheelie bin (such a waste of good leaves - we really have to get a composter) and when I went outside to see all he had done it was looking fabulous. The surprising thing though was that the Magnolia tree in the front and the cherry blossom tree in the back were almost completely devoid of leaves.
"Was it very windy or something last night? I'm sure those trees had tons of leaves yesterday."
"No. But they have had a good shaking."
I mulled over that last statement before answering.
"You physically shook all the leaves off the tree yourself didn't you? So you'd only have to do this once?"
"Yes I did."
"Good thinking."
I'm all for time and labour-saving. No point in doing a job twice if you only need to do it once, now is there?
As darkness fell and we were sitting down to watch a bit of telly later, Hubby went to pull the curtains.
"Oh for £%*&'s sake! The bloody garden is covered in bloody leaves again!"
Apparently the other trees on our road had leaves too.
8 comments:
Poor husband. All of that clever effort.
He should just go up and down the street shaking everyone else's trees, too!
I'm with Kiersten!! The darned wind foils our efforts every time.
My hubby can't stand it either. We have a neighbor who doesn't take care of her yard, and she has a yard FULL of trees. We have a fence, so I am ashamed to admit that hubby tends to rake up all the leaves on that side of the yard and dump them over the fence.
Naughty man.
Dang it! Leaves can be obnoxious. I have yet to live in a house where I have to rake them up, so for me they are just pretty and part of Fall.
That's pretty darn funny! he he.
You tell this story well! Nice punchline, although not a nice thing for hubby!
Just this afternoon, I was thinking how mucky all of the fallen leaves are beginning to look. How brown and sodden. I don't feel the slightest bit inclined to do anything about it, though! I'm strictly a summer gardener.
I love the tree shaking thing. What a scream!
Our neighborhood is basically parkland with houses here and there - the sheer volume of leaves in the fall makes JB crazy man. He would SO love to shake the trees of their leaves. He'll love this story. No joke.
LOL! I'm all for tree shaking to get rid of errant leaves - that's if the shaking I do actually has any effect - which it doesn't on the large trees around here. At least you only get leaf fall once a year - with a mass of evergreens I have leaf central all year round.
Poor Hubby indeed Kiersten- unfortunately those other trees were not accessible. I can't imagine him knocking on doors to ask the neighbours if can shake their trees. They'd think he was off his rocker!
Yes MIS very naughty indeed and very very clever!
Natalie I love the dropping leaves and I guess if they stayed crunchy it wouldn't matter but in our soggy climate they tend to go all slippery and gooey. They end up looking like sludge! Ew!
Ello I shouldn't have, I know - but it made me laugh too!
Thanks Bee! And as for winter gardening - I hear ya!
Robin maybe this obsession with leaves is a British thing? I would love to see JB tackle the Virginia park land!
Oh I hate those pine-needle drops AV - they ruin our soil too apparently (something to do with the pH). Still this time next year you'll be having a proper Autumn.
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