Solving Problems with Problems

My leaf problem:
Dedicated readers may remember that I have a lot of trees and that they love to spill tons of leaves into my yard every fall. Although I do my best to mow frequently, and thus mulch leaves in the process, there are always large piles of leaves gathering on my back porch (which is walled in), against my fence, and in any other nook and cranny they can find. It would probably be best to take care of my leaf issue in the fall, but I tend to like to procrastinate......for years. So those piles of leaves are getting quite large as we move into year 3 in our little rural paradise. My issue was what to do with all those leaves. I know they could fill many, many yard waste bags, as was made evident during one of my half-assed attempts to clean up the back porch last year. I filled up almost ten bags, and my porch isn't even that large. For some reason, my neighbors never put out yard waste bags. They have the added advantage of not having fences, so their leaves blow away (or against my fence). I don't want to be the neighborhood yard waste bag pariah.

My mulch problem:
During our first year in the house, we put down wood mulch in our garden and our flowerbeds to keep weeds away. When it came time to clean and prepare them for planting the next year, we had the fun task of cleaning out and dealing with lovely chunks of wood. We decided to do no wood mulch the following year, but I was too late putting down hay. Weeds were everywhere (as evidenced by earlier posts) and our plants suffered from not having good mulch to retain moisture.

The solution:
During late spring, I stumbled across a pin on Pinterest titled "Mulch Alternatives." It was as if mother nature was smiling down upon me and pointing me in the right direction. One of the more viable options it gave was using leaves. The leaves would have to mulched, though, to let air and moisture get to the soil. My dad had talked about his leaf mulching machine, so I asked to borrow it. One a warm sunny day, I mulched up all the leaves on our back patio and those stuck between our two fenced garden plots. I made a dent in some of the leaves piled against our fence. There is still work to be done and leaves to be mulched, but I have turned two problems into a solution!

The wonderful electric leaf mulcher. Good thing we have a lot of extension cords.

An assortment of leaves between the gardens. Who knew we had a walkway?!

The plants are digging their new mulch. Green beans to the right and front. Peppers in the middle. Cucs in the back.

Front flower beds: surprisingly attractive with alternative mulch

Let the 2014 season begin!

I have a confession. I led a very suburban life this winter. How can you not? Kansas was cold, so I would drive to work in my heated car, drive back home to my heated house, and then sit on my pre-heated couch (cats are very useful) watching Netflix. When I wanted to workout, I would drive to the gym and go to an overly heated spin class. That was basically my winter and early spring. Despite eating delicious homemade canned tomato sauce and knitting up a storm, it was pretty suburban.

We did break up the monotony by going to Italy, but we went to the tourist cities (Venice, Florence, and Rome). Although beautiful, fun, and full of history, Italy really brought home how much we love wide open spaces and nature and how much we dislike crowds of people.

Gladiatoring tour groups in the Colosseum!

Warm weather has come, and we're easing back into going outside and enjoying the longer days. Yet, even as my garden is planted and growing strong (a post to come), suburban issues arise. I worry if  I'm letting my grass get too high because despite the lack of an HOA, our neighbors sure are out there once, even twice, a week mowing. I worry that our lawn has a lot of weeds. I don't know why. The neighbor to the east of us only has weeds. The neighbor on our other side has a company come out to fertilize and weed. There are cracks in our driveway from a cold winter. I thought these were things I wouldn't have to worry about as much when we moved away from perfectly coiffed lawns and homes 6.5 feet apart.

Longer work days and teaching more classes has contributed to this overall stress, BUT Friday was my turn around point. It was the day that inspired me to come back and write. I had had a very long week of work (I'm teaching three classes this summer, which is a first), and I had not had anytime outside. I was always in the classroom or tutoring one-on-one in a windowless room. Friday was my day off, and I knew I needed a bike ride. My road bike was in the shop, so I got my oft neglected hybrid out (yes, I have more than one bike and I know this sounds very suburban). This bike doesn't have a speedometer hooked up. I could have turned on my Map My Ride app on my phone to see my speed, but I didn't. I could have strapped on my heart rate monitor to see how many calories I rode, but I didn't. I JUST RODE. I rode past chickens and cows and fields and horses and creeks. I don't know how fast I went up that huge hill, but I don't think the miniature horses that I rode past we're judging me.

If those miniature horses we're going to judge me, it should be for taking pictures while biking.

I can't see this without Dixie Chicks singing "Wide Open Spaces!"

And thus begins the 2014 season of a suburban girl seeking rural life. I'm gardening, knitting, canning, and biking through the countryside. Here's what's happening this year......