Neighborhood Clean-Up

One of the many things I love about living in Salt Lake City is the Neighborhood Clean-Up. Every year, SLC residents get a flyer in the mail letting them know when they can haul all their crap to the side of the road and the city comes and picks everything up. We didn't have a ton of trash this year but we do have a lot of green waste that I was wanting to get rid of.

First is the jungle that is growing on our back fence. Underneath all that green stuff is a grape vine. The first year we moved in, I remember eating those grapes and being really excited that we had it. But then last summer, we moved out to do the renovation and it was forgotten about. This spring, I realized that whatever invasive plant that was growing over the grape vine was out of control and I was afraid that it might choke off the grape vine or prevent it from bearing fruit to its full potential. So I got to work cutting it all back.

The neighbor that we share the fence with is elderly and I don't even think she lives in her home anymore - I think it is vacant because she moved to a rest home. So hopefully, no one minded my very unskilled pruning. The only problem was that the Neighborhood Clean-Up pick-up day fell in between the super busy first week of April and Lucy's birthday so I never even got the green waste out to the curb. We do have a green waste bin that the city picks up weekly but I knew we wouldn't have enough room for everything.   

So here is the BEFORE even though I kinda already started. I think I actually started doing this on Saturday, April 7th. And then it sat there for about a month.

Here is the AFTER. I finally finished it last Saturday (April 28th - do you notice how much greener everything is?) and even threw away my whole green waste container's worth of branches so that pile of stuff was actually even bigger than what is showing in the picture. Isn't that grape vine crazy? It reminds me of the evil tree from the movie Sleepy Hollow.

Well, maybe a bit smaller. But up close, it is pretty gnarly. Hopefully, we can get some not evil grapes out of it this year.

Brandon was much more successful with the job I gave him. Notice anything missing in these pictures?

I used to have two big bushes at both ends of my front porch and I was not a fan. So I had Brandon cut them down. This is all that is left.

We still have to dig out the stumps but at least we got rid of the bulky part.

It makes the front of the house look a bit sparse but I want to do something else. Like on this little slice, I want to get rid of that rock, rip out all the grass and make it a strawberry patch. Is that weird to have in your front yard? I think that strawberries make really pretty ground cover. And somewhere, a Japanese maple - haven't decided where though.

Here are those big bushes on the curb.

My neighbors across the street inspired me after I noticed that they got rid of a couple of their big bushes too. And I figured, why don't we do that if I hate them so much. I just love driving down the street and seeing everyone get rid of trash and tidy up their yards. I don't know how much extra it costs the city to do the clean-up but I think it is so worth it to remind and give incentives by providing free pick-up so that everyone's yards and homes can look nice (or at least improved and better maintained).

And this has absolutely nothing to do with our clean-up but did you know we got a peach tree! I had a Groupon for a nursery that was expiring last fall so while we were living at Damian's house, we bought a peach tree and planted it. I was really afraid that it wouldn't make it through the winter but it did great.

 I was so excited to see it flower. And the blossoms are so pretty to look at. They are long gone now (these pictures were taken at the beginning of April) but have been replaced by some tiny little fruit. So hopefully, we will have some fresh Utah peaches this year from our backyard. I wrote about my love of Utah peach in this blog post years ago. That love has not waned at all.

So excited to work out in the yard this summer. Hopefully, there will be more pictures to come of the improvements on the outside.