Things that are harder about gardening in the city
Disposal. I grew up in a house that backed onto woods. Want to get rid of something green? Into the compost pile! By which I mean the pile of vegetable matter that we never actually used as compost.
This statement brought to you by two hours of lilac pruning and Virginia creeper removal, which ended in "I think this pile of stuff is just going to stay on the lawn for now." I did bag it up the next day, which, go me. Sadly if I want to get all of the dead wood off of the lilacs... well, no, that would be impossible for complex reasons of the plot involving retaining walls and other people's properties, unless "I've dropped a bunch of dead branches in your backyard, that's cool, right?" is going to work. But I'm still trying to decide whether I care enough to break out the stepladder to get at the top of the bushes. The whole thing was actually pretty satisfying from ground level - unlike weeding, it feels like I'm getting somewhere instead of just holding back the tide - but sadly my actual porch and house are elevated enough that the top is at eye level.
(I can already foresee that I will be battling Virginia creeper for a good long time, not least because I think some of it may actually be rooted in the neighbor's yard. Not sure yet - I didn't have it in me to crawl under the bushes to find out.)
This statement brought to you by two hours of lilac pruning and Virginia creeper removal, which ended in "I think this pile of stuff is just going to stay on the lawn for now." I did bag it up the next day, which, go me. Sadly if I want to get all of the dead wood off of the lilacs... well, no, that would be impossible for complex reasons of the plot involving retaining walls and other people's properties, unless "I've dropped a bunch of dead branches in your backyard, that's cool, right?" is going to work. But I'm still trying to decide whether I care enough to break out the stepladder to get at the top of the bushes. The whole thing was actually pretty satisfying from ground level - unlike weeding, it feels like I'm getting somewhere instead of just holding back the tide - but sadly my actual porch and house are elevated enough that the top is at eye level.
(I can already foresee that I will be battling Virginia creeper for a good long time, not least because I think some of it may actually be rooted in the neighbor's yard. Not sure yet - I didn't have it in me to crawl under the bushes to find out.)