I got a bit carried away with raking though, and raked the plant bed/mess corner/depression in the ground where bushes are growing. I'm not sure what the point is of that thing, but it's a half-circle hollow in the ground, with a plant-bed around it in the shape of a C (the flat-side of the half-circle is against the fence). Maybe it used to be a koi pond? Who knows. There are currently just bushes growing there, half-drowning in leaf litter, but now I've raked the C-shape bed clear and it looks a good deal more civilised. If I owned this house I'd get rid of the bushes and put some pretty flowering plants there (like marigolds/daisies etc). This just looks like somewhere snakes and spiders would make a home, which isn't very nice to look at.
While I was raking that mess, a pied butcher bird came and hung out with me. At first he was hesitant to come near if I spotted him - maybe he wasn't sure how I'd react to him (if I'd chase him away) - but we got a sort of a rapport going and I raked whole-heartedly and he ogled the ground attentively, watching for insects. It started thundering a short while later, and then he serenaded us for a bit from a high-up tree.
I then raked under the tree-wall plant bed which runs along the one side of the driveway (separating the lawn from the driveway and front porch). It's also just trees, with no flowers, and the actual bed is covered with a thick layer of leaves. Also very welcoming to spiders etc, so I raked with the energy of someone not really close to the action: the rake is nice and long! I uncovered a gap in the plant bed, which must have been a path through it. I wonder if we could trim the trees so that the gap is more visible, so we don't have to squeeze past the window to take the bin out!
I must say that although it's private having trees by the front of the house, it's also a bit odd, because you can't see or enjoy the front lawn much. Can't tell if the postman's been or if the bins are still out... but maybe if we trim the trees a little bit we can improve the view/outlook without being reprimanded by the rental agency. Maybe we could even plant some flowering plants out there!! We do seem to live in the 'wilder' house on the block as the other houses all have these prim, manicured-looking front lawn and plant beds and we just have bushes!
The back garden will take a while to look half-decent. There's a creeper plant growing in over the fence, climbing up the one tree. Gotta hack that thing back (maybe even cut it out from the outside as it's obviously been done before, unsuccessfully), and trim the lower branches of the other tree. It's a bit offputting having these spider-webby lower branches in your face when you want to weed near the tree...
We're going to have to mow, though, before finishing the weeding job. G's been weeding and I've been grass-ripping - pulling out the grassland-style grass so that the lawn-grass can grow and fill the gaps. It's quite astounding how solidly packed and close-to-the-ground some of the patches of weeds are... if it were just those plants you wouldn't even need to mow, they're that tightly packed.
But, mow we must, as the inspection is Friday. I'm going to ask whether we can get a 'green bin' (for garden-waste), to go with our yellow (recycling) bin, because at this rate, we're going to be mowing almost weekly, and raking about as much too. It's in the owners' interest to get us a bin though, as by doing the gardening, we'd actually be increasing the value of the house!!
Ok that's enough garden-talk for now... I'm probably going to settle in and stitch in a while. We might pop out to the shop though, to buy more black bags and an extension cord, so that we can mow and finish raking (yup, there were that many piles of leaves out there, and I haven't even finished raking!!)
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