EATING CROW

 

GRIN AND BARE IT.  We had left the GREEN VELVET BOXWOOD in the back of our little car that's like a station wagon over night.  When I opened the door of the car to load more things in it to take to the COTTAGE I caught a whiff of a stinky odor like cat urine coming off the shrubs we bought the night before. 

What a blessing to not have already planted them in the flowerbed near the porch where we'd be eventually sitting.  I walked back into the house to tell my Husband about the odor and he thought I was pulling his leg because of all the work we had done looking for shrubs the day before.  Read up on shrubs that put off unpleasant odors like most of the BOXWOODS except GREEN VELVET BOXWOOD, we'd decided on this type.

We decided to return these to HOME DEPOT and get our money back.  The big dilemma was, so what kind of bushes should we get?  All parts of Yew is extremely poisonous.  Didn't want this in our yard.  Euonymus attracts flies due to a sticky residue they put off.  It wouldn't be pleasant swatting flies away while on the porch or entering the house.  Barberry may have lovely blossoms, but some say they put off a rare odor like human semen.  I didn't want evergreens because they put off the same urine smell as boxwoods.  SOOOO we decided to keep shrubs away from the front of the house where the porch is and return Heirloom Irises to the flowerbed.

All of that discovery made us better educated with landscaping.  There will be no BOXWOODS at the COTTAGE.  I'm eating crow.  I thought I had this all figured out.  Still the beds need cleared of tree roots that run deep.  Hubby will help me with this part as I believe there is a need for more muscle to get these dug out.  We'll purchase potting soil in the morning and I can spread it after the roots are removed in the next few days.

I was gung-ho to take the BOXWOODS over to the COTTAGE the night we got them, but my Husband said we'd do it tomorrow as he was too tired to travel anymore.  It's good that we did this because if we had taken them over as soon as I had wanted to, the smell would not have accumulated yet and we would have gone ahead planting them when the smell would have later made it's presence known.  We'd been out of luck taking the shrubs back to Home Depot.  We would have been sitting outside smelling the bad odor thinking cats had used the bushes for a toilet.

My vision of bushes out front of the COTTAGE will not take place this year.  Maybe never as I don't think my choices will be acceptable for avoiding nasty odors and situations.  

I have my choice between bushes that put off an odor of cat urine,  attracts flies, is extremely poisonous or smells similar to human semen.  None are desirable.  Back to the drawing board to rethink this one.  Irises it is.  The Heirloom ones I will be planting have a pleasant fragrance like bubble gum.  

We went over to the COTTAGE to gather the yard clippings from working on the flowerbeds I had piled in the yard.  I took an old clear shower curtain that I keep in the car for laying down in the interior to help protect it from dirt when hauling landscaping items like potting soil to lay it down on top of the clippings to gather up for a trash haul.  I carried it to the back end of the car to haul to the landfill.

When unloading the trash, I saw something wiggle under the curtain when dumping the clippings.  It was a small snake that had made a home in the clippings.  I called my Husband over and asked if that was a snake or a worm?  He shook the curtain and sure enough it was a snake.  I shuttered.  I had carried the clippings with this little snake in it and transported it to the landfill.

We'll have to be on the look out when raking the yard or tidying up the other flowerbeds because chances are there are more tiny snakes in the yard.  I'm not a fan. 

Not a fan of eating crow either.  Spitting out feathers isn't much fun.  Better safe than sorry though.  I'm glad we didn't go to all the work of planting bushes that would eventually smell like cats had used them for a toilet.  Relieved we didn't make this mistake.  

Flowers it is.  Bushes are lovely, but I don't think we should have them so close to the porch where we'd be sitting.  Lesson learned.  Praise the LORD.  

~d