The Only Child Diaries Podcast
The Only Child Diaries Podcast
The Brochure on Battling My Hedge
While winter lingers, I'm on a mission to infuse a little spring cheer by revitalizing my garden's aging hedge with new plants. From my weekend adventures at the local nursery to the delightful (and sometimes prickly) surprises hidden within my hedge, this episode is packed with garden insights, and a bit of gardening tips – even if some YouTube advice doesn't quite fit our unique climate.
Tune in to hear tales of overcoming stubborn oak growth, the art of maneuvering a giant plant pot with a little help from kind strangers, and the unexpected challenges of navigating outdated hedge plants. Whether you're an only child or simply someone who appreciates life's quirky moments, this episode promises to brighten your day with relatable insights on adulting and a humorous take on life's little trials. So grab your gardening gloves and a cup of tea, and join me for a delightful romp through the trials and triumphs of garden life.
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Now I am. If you haven't met me in person, I'm a fairly substantial woman. I am not a petite person. Welcome to the Only Child Diaries podcast. I'm your host, tracy Wallace. Have you ever felt like you didn't receive the how-to brochure on life, that you didn't get enough guidance about major life issues? So did I. You don't have to be an only child to feel this way. In my podcast, we'll explore some of the best ways to better navigate adulting, while doing so with humor and light. Welcome everyone to the Only Child Diaries podcast.
Speaker 1:Today, I'm going to talk about battling my hedge. Yes, it's another gardening episode. We're heading towards spring. We're not really close to spring, actually, we're only less than a month into winter, but I'm trying to manifest spring as much as possible. Our evenings are still pretty cool, or cold, depending on your definition of cold. The days, well, some days are fairly nice, at least for a while. But last week we had a pretty significant amount of rain for us and the ground has been fairly wet here, fairly soaked. So I wanted to take advantage of that to replace one of the dead plants in our hedge.
Speaker 1:Now, I've always used YouTube to watch music videos from the 80s, I'll admit it and to catch up on some current events, like the Queen's funeral. I couldn't be there in person to walk through the line to pay my respects to her, so Bill and I sat for hours sometimes and just watched people file through the line to go past her casket and see the changing of the guard and all that. But I've never really watched YouTube for DIY ideas about gardening. I mean, about gardening, I mean, why did I not think of that? So I started doing that recently, looking at ideas for perennials and annuals and gardening tips and things to do, gardening hacks. Right Now you have to be careful, because a lot of the gardening videos don't really translate to us here in Southern California. They just don't. Some of the plants would never survive here and some of them, well, you can't even buy. So I've been watching these videos and getting some ideas and I did find a couple of good videos about what kind of privacy hedges, if you will, plants to purchase.
Speaker 1:So I went to my local nursery this weekend Saturday and I looked around and found some of the choices that they had there. In addition, I was looking for a large pot to plant my second Japanese maple in, and it's quite a process, because the pot that I need would be way too large for me to kind of cart around too much. I was able to move it, but, let's face it, getting it onto the cart and then getting into the car. Well, I wanted to save my back as much as possible. So there were some very nice young men I say young men, but there were some very nice young men that helped me in that process and, fortunate for us, when I came home I asked Bill if he would help me. And well, to say that he rolled his eyes is kind of an exaggeration, but he did sort of roll his eyes. He was happy to help, but his back is very bad. So we were out there at the car trying to figure out how best to get it out of the back of my SUV and get it into the backyard and, fortunate for us, one of our neighbors was walking by with their dogs and said do you need some help? And we said yes, so that was a lot easier. So that was a lot easier.
Speaker 1:Anyway, I decided today because I have it off for President original hedge. I remember it when I was a kid, being pretty mature at that point. So we're talking. Some of these plants are old, I mean, I would say, older than 70 years plus. Some of them have suffered with disease and they're dead wood. I've tried to thin that out as much as I can. Some of the oak trees in the area have deposited acorns within the hedge, so there's new oak oak growth that's trying to make its way into the hedge, which is kind of annoying because it's prickly and it doesn't really grow like a hedge would. And then there's some old mock orange in the hedge itself. So I've purchased some new mock orange that I've planted in the front part of the hedge. The hedge itself is, I would guess it's, 100 feet long. Yeah, so this Texas privet I decided to put.
Speaker 1:Well, first of all, I decided to just get one and see how it goes, because even though they say sun and shade and hardy, even though they say sun and shade and, you know, hardy whatever, sometimes I've tried these things out and they don't really flourish where I decide to put them. So I decided to just get one and let's see how it goes. Right, I don't want to get a whole bunch and then put out, or a whole bunch and then pull out the dead stuff which does provide somewhat of a screen, and then find out that the new plants are going to die and then I have to do it all over again anyway. So I went back there and, yes, the ground is wet until at least down a foot. Still, it rained, at least what least four or five days ago, so that's still wet. That was good. I had my long handled nippers, I had my hoe, which has two sides to it, which is very beneficial, and I had my rake to pull out some of the dried leaves and whatnot, and my gloves and my phone so I could listen to some music and my Diet Coke, and I went to it.
Speaker 1:Now I am, if you haven't met me in person, I'm a fairly substantial woman, I am not a petite person and when I got down into the roots say four or five, six inches, at least on one side, what I try to do is step on it and what's left of it and step on it and try to push it out, and that it was stuck, just like when I tried to plant a mock orange earlier last year. It was like it wasn't going to go anywhere and it's such a frustrating experience. So anyway, I kept at it. I cut the roots, which were probably some of them were at least an inch in diameter Dead but still hardy, still not giving up it's a test of wills, is what it is and finally got to the point where I was able to step on it, basically put my whole weight on it and it gave up. So that's, I think that's fairly impressive. That tells you how, how ensconced this root system was.
Speaker 1:And then it was time to dig in, uh, to create a hole for the new plant, which is more work. Keep digging. I cheated because last time, when I planted the last plant in the hedge, I decided to sit on the ground, take my little trowel too and work on it. And I have an auger which is probably about 18 inches long, and an auger, if you're not familiar with it, is something that you put on a drill and you can drill into the dirt and it helps you to loosen the soil and create a hole, right. The problem is that you, like in this case, you're going to run into roots so you can loosen the soil and then, when you hit the roots and you have to cut the roots. But it does help. It's better than it's one of my tools of expertise I've learned. You're just, you're not going to just go out and dig a hole. It's just not that easy and I'm not a man, so I have to do it backwards. I guess I don't know how a man would do it, but that's how I do it. And then the drill ran out of. Anyway, got that done, got it in the ground, very proud of myself, very sore.
Speaker 1:Yesterday I decided to go and get my next COVID booster. I had been putting that off for some reason. Bill and I went and he got his COVID and his flu. He just loves to live on the edge. Let me tell you he's used to doing that. I am not and I cannot do two shots at the same time, because I'm just a little bit more sensitive and I've had some reactions to shots, like the chills and feeling yucky, and so when we went, and he had both of them, I just got the flu shot, because I figured the flu shot was, you know, fairly important, thinking that I would go back fairly soon and get my COVID booster.
Speaker 1:And one thing after another, you don't do it. And so, anyway, I went yesterday and my arm is really, really sore and then I made the mistake of bumping into um, ouch, bumping into the door jam a couple times and I feel like you know it's not bad, like if I don't touch it or you know nothing touches it, I'm, I'm okay, but I feel like somebody punched me in the arm. But I'm, I'm very pro we're both very pro vaccine and I'm not feeling weird any other way. I don't feel sick or tired or anything else today, but I do feel kind of sore and usually when I'm sore I'll take a Motrin or an Advil. Tylenol doesn't do much for me, but they say don't take Advil, don't take Motrin for a few days because it reduces the effectiveness of the vaccine. So my arm hurts, my back hurts.
Speaker 1:Now I did, okay, I did cheat, I was starting to tell you this. Last time I sat on the ground right and which was fine, but because of my knee replacements, it's not like I can just turn around and kneel on my knees and then pull myself up, because my knees, when you have knee replacements and I don't know if this is everybody, but this is certainly me my knees cannot take any pressure. So try to get up off the ground without using your knees to right to balance on. It's very awkward looking and I look like I don't know what I look like. So I cheated this time and I have to laugh because I feel so old. But I cheated and I put a folding chair there next to the hole where that was, planting the hedge the Texas privet and that worked out pretty well.
Speaker 1:But I'm still sore, my back hurts, my hands hurt, my yeah, I'm just, I'm ouch. So, but I did it, I planted it and they say it's fast growing. I don't know what that means exactly, but we'll see. So that's yeah, that's all I've got for today. I'm going to go and lick my wounds now. Go and lick my wounds now and next week. Well, we'll tackle another topic together. I hope you'll join me. If you like this episode, please follow the Only Child Diaries podcast on Apple Podcasts or other platforms you might listen on and consider rating Only Child Diaries and writing a review. It helps others to find us. Please share it with a friend you think might like it as well. Visit my Instagram page Only Child Diaries or Facebook Only Child Diaries Podcast. Thanks for listening. I'm Tracy Wallace and these are the Only Child Diaries.
