Picking up Sticks

 I have never been someone who has had a really nice yard. In my previous two marriages my husband always took care of the yard. Our yards were fine enough, my last house with my second husband had the nicest yard. We had a lawn treatment service and a sprinkler system. All that really needed to be done was mowing, edging and trimming the bushes. When I married Dwayne he took care of the yard at first. But then I made a mistake...I made a case for quitting my job to be a "household engineer" (everyone is some kind of engineer in Huntsville!). I told him I would mow the lawn (among other household jobs) so that his weekends would be freer in the summer. That lasted a few years actually. He remembers it very differently but I vividly remember listening to The Marathon Show and I'm Here to Win by Chris McCormack while mowing. 

I can't tell you why I stopped. Maybe it was when I started coaching a lot of adults and my kids' team. I just didn't have the time or energy to get it done. Dwayne hired a guy to mow for us. Throughout all this time we had a lawn treatment service but no sprinkler system.

Our yard just continually got uglier and uglier. We had three trees in the backyard and one in the front that just got bigger and biggeer-shading the grass. We cut one of the trees in the backyard down because it wasn't growing well. One of the other two was a River Birch. It was a beautiful tree, but, unbeknownst to us it was leaching all the nutrients out of the ground making the dirt HIGHLY acidic. Last spring we had a long discussion about whether or not to cut the tree down or keep it and try to figure out how to make the grass grow. We decided to keep it and put the work in...and, no kidding, that very weekend the TREE BLEW DOWN in a storm! (You can see how the yard under it was all DIRT!)

Well....since then I have been trying VERY hard to make our yard look better. I added some natural rock edging to make flower beds, I've planted A LOT of flowers and plants, we limed the yard to bring the Ph to where it needed to be and I put out some grass seed. The yard has REALLY come A LONG way....and it still has a LONG way to go before I will be willing to call it a "nice yard".

I have no idea what kind of tree the only remaining one is in our backyard, but it's really pretty. We limbed it up so that most of the grass does at least get some sun throughout the day. I made a big rock circle around the base. I added a bird feeder and birdbath and planted Ajuga. It's one of my favorite things about my backyard now.

Except...

That tree really drops a lot of little limbs any time the wind blows. Combined with the Crepe Myrtles that line the back fence, we end up with A LOT of little sticks all over the yard.

I didn't seem to notice or mind when I didn't really care what the yard looked like, but now that I do, these sticks are the bane of my aspiring gardening existence. 

Last spring, when I realized the sticks were an issue, I asked Dwayne not to mow until I picked them up. He didn't wait. We ended up with A TON of chopped up sticks ALL OVER THE YARD! They weren't small enough to "feed" the yard (maybe that's not even a thing?), but they were barely big enough to pick up! I walked the yard in a grid pattern with a bucket for HOURS trying to get them all up....believing this was crucial to the health of my yard.

Here's what I noticed. When I started, I picked up the big sticks and barely noticed the really small ones. But as the larger ones were collected the little ones seemed to "grow" so I'd go back over the yard again, picking those up. But as I did this I began to notice the tiny little twigs that I had not seen before...and as I picked up those twigs then I noticed the weeds! As I have started dealing with the weeds I have begun to also focus on overseeding and feeding the grass...learning how to water it and cut it properly.

I think back to those years when we first lived here...I had NO IDEA the River Birch was actually causing harm to the health of the dirt. I NEVER paid attention to those sticks (that were being copped up by the mower and probably causing additional "damage"). I never even thought about watering the yard, or how to mow it properly. 

Let me tell you...taking care of our bodies is just the same. Most people have little habits that are at best not optimal but at worst they are causing unseen damage that eventually is not only seen but felt! When you feel unhealthy (from chronic issues, I don't mean from something like a stomach bug) it won't be a quick fix to reverse the process and "get healthy". It will be much like "picking up sticks".

If you are having an issue with your yard, I can't really help with that because I'm a true beginner and I don't plan to do a deep dive into learning all the things I would need to know in order to help someone else have a nice-looking yard. But if you are noticing some "sticks in your yard" when it comes to how you are feeling, reach out to me. I have spent the last year becoming a Nutrition Coach and a Functional Nutrition Counselor. I'm still learning. I'm not a doctor. I'm not a nutritionist or registered dietician, but I can help you "pick up sticks" and move you in the right direction.

Thanks for stopping by and sticking around (no pun intended!)