The (Not So) Secret Garden

It’s really amazing how well our trees and plants grow in our “garden.” You would think that being in the desert would be a harsh environment for them, but with a bit of water they seem to grow like crazy. I think I have written before about how we have our backyard “maintained.” The rental company that owns the place will cut the grass and prune the trees for us if we call to have it done. Since the only way to get to the garden is through our front door to our living room, through the hall, and then to the backyard, we try to limit the number of times that the muddy lawn mower gets rolled in.

So, we went a little too long in getting our grass cut and trees pruned over the summer. Since the trees grow so full, they really shade out the grass and it starts to die. But it was time to leave for the US and we didn’t want to have the trees pruned and have the grass scorched for the 3 weeks we were gone.


While we were gone I was afraid that everything would die since we couldn’t have anyone take care of the backyard since they would have to have a key to our apartment. So, with the “eco” side of me cringing, I just turned our sprinkler on high in the middle of our backyard and we took off for the airport. It was quite a sight when we returned—everything was alive which was good, but the trees were too alive. They had started sprouting roots from the branches! I guess with the water constantly on them for almost 3 weeks it simulated an “underground” environment, so the roots started to grow. It was pretty creepy looking. I meant to get a picture but forgot to before the maintenance guys came…

The workers really seem to get a kick out of throwing the clippings over our back wall

We like the landscape maintenance crews. They’re the timeliest, happiest, and surprisingly the least smelly of the people that come work at our apartment. This time, we had them cut the grass which they do with their lawn mower and then “edge” the grass with a knife. When they started to prune back the trees to give our grass some sun, they noticed a HUGE wasps’ nest in one of the big trees. I had noticed a lot of wasps around our hose connection to the building, but had never realized that we had a nest in our tree! I guess that goes to show how little we go outside during the summer.
Once they saw the nest, the head guy left to get something to get rid of it. Meanwhile, I had to leave in order to make it to Ultimate Frisbee pick-up games that I’ve been going to about once a week now.

the hornets nest

This was our backyard when I left for frisbee...

Paul told me that when the supervisor came back he had a lighter and a dry palm frond. His plan was to light the palm frond on fire and then smoke the wasps out. Eeeek. Paul convinced them to just cut the branch so that it would fall on the other side of the wall. After a bit of what I can only imagine included a lot of hand gesturing to get this idea across. Then the group made the youngest/newest guy get up on the stool and cut off the limb. Apparently after defeating their adrenaline kicked in and they really got to pruning….

When I got home this is what I saw…

Let the sun shine through!

Aaaaaaaaaagggggghhhhhhh! Wow—they really butchered our trees. So much for the privacy from the new construction going on in the building behind us. So much for the pretty green leaves. At least our grass is growing back fuller and greener now. And the trees will grow back fairly quickly, but it can’t come soon enough.

PS The bougainvillea that R&D got us last Feb when they were out here has started to bloom this week! :)