Merry Christmas 2009

Tis the season to clear the garden...fa-lala-lala-lalala

It is amazing what a friend with a chain saw can to do help out the cause. Two more Zapote trees are now fire wood stacked on the street for neighbors to take and a big pile of small branches for the new little chipper. Persimmon trees came down too, after about a month of picking the 15 or so trees we had and giving them away, we are trying to get the yard to a point that Mom has plenty to share with friends, neighbors and church members and not a full time job.

It is sad to see some of them go, as young plants they were my dads pride and joy, but a decade of neglect and no pruning had left the garden over grown by a few trees that turned out to be pests (zapotes) and permissions that were 30 feet in the air. We have to remind ourselves that even though he would hate the sound of the chain saw........he would have never meant the yard to get this out of control.

The neighbors across the street came home from their vacation and about had a heart attack when they saw the formerly 12 foot hedge down to about 5 feet. I had cut the strawberry quava hedge down to about 8 feet a couple of years ago rather than die like my dad figured it would do, it grew with a vengeance and put out more fruit than ever, unfortunately about 12 feet off the ground! We had just pulled out the saw when the Fed's pulled up with his fruit fly traps, a bit of promising that we were going to cut it right now, got him to put the traps in other trees and not have these off limits to touch for a few months. We are now busy cleaning up the garden (and the view for the neighbors) and getting ready for spring planting. Mom should have the vegetable garden that she always wanted and it will be safer than in the past. All the old wire is getting pulled up, all the old rusty fencing is being replaced, real gates, new terraces, easy access to the fruit trees and should she fall in the garden, she will be visible from the street. A real concern since she is 86 and does not see as well as she used too and still wants to climb ladders.