That’s an IKEA PS Cabinet.
My mom painted all the paintings, except the two on the mantle.
Check out this furious bee.
But I’m pretty sure she’s sworn a blood oath against me and and mine.
I can’t think of a green thumb joke but I think you can salvage that by just kinda snipping off the ends of those leaves and letting the little sproots root? I’m not a succulent expert
You may recall my tree-bushes that sprouted from tree stumps:
Well, since that photo was taken (June 2nd) they had between doubled and tripled in volume, with the one closest to the house nearly doubling in height. They seemed really crowded, some leaves looked bad, a bunch of very large weeds were mixed in, and I counted at least three distinct clusters in the group closest to the house. Last night I got frustrated about something else, and took it out on the tree-bushes.
I forgot to take an after-shot of the house one, but here’s what’s left of the group by the shed.
Before I trimmed (massacred?) it, the entire space between the shed and what’s left was all tree. Here’s the remnants of that:
The other group had two maple clusters, and what I’m guessing is a tulip tree? The leaf identifiers online came up with that, and it’s what the leaves look most similar to that I’ve found. Here’s an example leaf from it:
The tulip tree looked healthiest, and also I had never seen one before, so we made the decision to keep it and cut the rest. I will upload a picture of it later tonight if the weather holds.
I also trimmed the peach tree a lot; I don’t really think it’s long for this world to begin with (nor is it in an ideal spot in the yard). But it looks like my parents never really trimmed it to begin with, so its growth is all lopsided.
To be honest, I don’t really expect these trees to be viable long-term, given that they all seem to be growing out of old tree stumps and precarious angles. After a certain point, I think they’d be really vulnerable to splitting with some of the more violent wind storms we get. I also had less than no idea what I was doing last night, so for all I know I could have just 100% doomed them to die quickly.
It also looks like we have a lot of what I think is pokeweed in the backyard, which is toxic, and our dogs like to snack on the plants out back. Looks like I’ll be spending my evening eradicating those (thankfully it’s no longer 90 degrees out!).
Besides that stuff, my husband worked on the front/side of the house to clean up the bushes there. Our next door neighbors are selling their house, and it felt wrong to have our adjoining side look like garbage. I don’t recall what exactly these are, but basically every year my parents would cut them nearly to the ground and they’d come back full force. He removed what must have been two or three years worth of dead leaves from between them, and a metric crapton of smaller weeds. We filled up well over a dozen lawn bags.
My husband and I have basically decided that we’re not going to stay in the house past the 5-year mark we’re already committed to. I’m not sure how that will affect what we decide to do to the house, but there are some things that just need to get done. Main ones being yard soil repair, basement wall, kitchen (floor and walls at least), air ducts cleaning, lower roof replacement, and siding (the siding has asbestos in it, so I’m pretty sure the only thing we can do is paint it). It’s a lot, but I’ve for the most part stopped freaking out about the house; I’m viewing it now as an opportunity to learn about home-ownership without actually being financially responsible for big things breaking. E.g., during a heavy downpour a week or so ago, a guest noticed that water was dripping through the overhang over our front door onto the doorframe. Turns out the gutters were 100% backed up black leaf gunk.
Lots of weeds creeping into my sproots, not happy about it!
“I do say, human, this is quite belittling. Put me down this instant that I may resume hopping.”
I’m planting mums (my favorite flower) asymmetrically on no sleep. Editing with pics when I’m done.
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I did not get enough mums