Everybody sing along with me. “240 bags of mulch on the wall… 240 bags of mulch. Take one down pass it around, 239 bags of mulch on the wall…”
Saturday was spent buying bags of mulch on sale at a local hardware store and spreading it out on our flower beds around the house. J and his parents made three trips to the store and unloaded 240 bags of mulch around our house. A HUGE thank you to my inlaws for delivering all those bags and unloading them! Thank you thank you thank you.
Just last week we had a landscaper come out and fix our sprinkler system and he gave us a once over then asked if we knew what all it would take to maintain our yard by ourselves. After Saturday I think it’s fair to say we have been completely immersed in the landscape maintenance reality of this new house. And we are totally unprepared for it, I’m sorry to say. After spreading all this we were so spent that I worried we might need to rent a crane to hoist us out of bed the next day. Out of shape much?
Still, bags of mulch are better than shoveling a giant pile of it from the bed of a truck and trailer. We got a scoop of it for our mailbox flower beds a last year and I swore we’d never do that again. Raking mulch over mulch for twenty feet is dang near impossible when your upper body strength is equivalent to a noodle.
It was a lot of mulch, but we managed to do it. So proud of us! Looking at these pics I realize I should have blown off the driveway and made it look more presentable but I was too dead to move so I just snapped these quick pics before I fell out from exhaustion.
I’m being a drama queen. J did the majority of the work by lifting the bags and carrying them around the house then ripping them open and dumping out 40 lbs of mulch (or more since it was wet). I mainly just stood there with a rake and knocked over all the piles until it was evenly distributed.
We gave Garrett the duty of picking up the empty bags and putting them in the bag pile near the garbage can. I’d yell “BAG PILE!” every time he needed to pick one and he would run and pick it up. He’s a great helper!
To get G to open his mouth when I brush his teeth at night I name all the foods he’s eaten that day and then we scrub them out. That night we were brushing and I said “What else is in there?” and he goes “MULCH!”
I think he might have strayed from Bag Pile duty to have a little snack.
Yum.
Credit – Beth Bryan