A dirty job no matter how you look at it

/ May 11, 2014
New additions into the front hourglass garden.

New additions into the front hourglass garden.

Four plants now are ready to sprout in the new section of our hourglass front-yard garden in our Syracuse city neighborhood of Eastwood, the portion I dug out last fall.

My dear wife Karen and I teamed this glorious and sunny Sunday to dig in the dirt.

I used a spade to make holes for the three plants we’s purchased two weeks past at our spring favorite, Chuck Hafner’s Garden Center. In went two rose bushes and a rhododendron.

Karen used the hand spade to transplant a portion of a climbing vine that was here ascending the olive tree that has since toppled when we moved in a decade ago.

We scattered some Miracle Gro around the roots, put soil back into the holes and admired our work.

And then …

This was in one neat pile for city collectors.

This was in one neat pile for city collectors.

I had to take another shot of some dirty work somebody else accomplished in front of our house in the last day or two. I spotted the mess Saturday around dinner time.

Remember that muddy pile of old sod I deposited there for city haulers to take away for recycling?

Well, the schedule was not kept this past week.

So somebody decided they just had to drive their vehicle — looks like truck tires to me — across that pile of muddy sod and spread it around pretty good.

Here’s the link to the story about and photo of the pile of mud pre-tire-track.

Have you done any spring planting yet? Has somebody done something with a car around your house or apartment that’s made you think why, why, why?

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47 thoughts on “A dirty job no matter how you look at it”

  1. Mark,
    Some people’s Kids! I swear! Where is civility these days? If it were a truck, chances are they had a shovel in the back, and could have stopped to fix the mess…
    Many decades ago in Texas, that would have happened.

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  2. Did some garden work for awhile the other day. Pruned my rose bushes and planted. Have a big spider bite to show for my endeavors. It itches like crazy, but on the upside I’m a superhero now.

    That’s cool, I guess.

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  6. Why must people drive over piles of things? You never know what could be in that pile, and several things can come to mind. Nails or screws for instance. Pfsssssst. There goes your tire, and lesson learned.

    Regardless, whether a driver acknowledges potential hazards or not, it’s just plain rude.

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      • I’m not saying do it. I’m just saying that there could be.

        My mother, when my brother and I began driving, would tell us to be careful when driving and not to drive through obstructions. Your car could be damaged or someone could be hurt. Take a pile of leaves, and she’d remind us that we — as kids — would play in such piles of leaves. I know that’s a drastic situation, but it’s for example. It’s frightening, and that’s why we never drove purposefully reckless.

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      • I agree wholeheartedly with you and your mom.

        My reply was just planting a seed in any do-badder’s mind who might read my blog comments in a back-handed sort of way. You know, I wouldn’t do such a thing, but there might be some people out there who would!

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    • A very good point Christopher. During my years in Iraq and Afghanistan, we would NEVER drive anywhere near a pile of anything for fear of IED’s. Just this afternoon as I was returning from a trip to our local Kroger’s I saw ahead a box in the middle of the road, without even thinking I actually caught myself almost running onto the sidewalk to avoid it.

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  7. i planted this afternoon after getting back from my daughter’s house. i was covered in mud and scratches and from cleaning out the gardens and happy as a worm in dirt. as for the mystery sod driver by your house, possibly a teen or two, thinking how funny they were?

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    • Perhaps, but I am thinking more along the lines of somebody that’s annoyed that my garden recyclables take up a parking spot in front of my house. We have alternate side of the street parking, and the spots right in front of our house are prime because there is an apartment house across the way. Although there are always plenty of spots just 50 feet in either direction.

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  8. No planting this year. Though grass is growing like mad without any help from us.

    I will say I am bothered by people who do anything with their cars that involves excruciating loud noises. To quote you …. “WHY WHY WHY???!”

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    • Yesterday, at the same time that I noticed our squished and scattered pile of recyclable yard waste, I spotted across the street a little car parked exactly against the back bumper of another little car. I again exclaimed to myself why why why! But I thought better today of posting the picture I took of it,.

      Loud car noises, yes, I retort three at that, too, but it just may be a different word, Colleen.

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  10. Mark, I was in the middle of comment on this post when my brother called to tell me he was waiting to take me over to Mom’s house. Now I don’t remember what the comment was, but I will say, I love the new background you have behind this post. It made more sense this morning but I’ve had some wonderful surprises today, so I’m almost speechless.

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