Pulling out the sharp blades of grass that come up in the gravel and the rocks. I’m in AZ, There is no soil. Sure you can buy a bag of soil or sand and throw it in the yard. But the next day it’s gravel and rocks.
Reactivating the sprinklers — turn on the main water valve, check each line in turn to find any geysers, then re-program the timer (because the cheap thing invariably loses its programming over the winter).
Pruning the apple tree is also annoying. It grows way too tall, making me climb around in it to get to the high branches.
I have a teenager now; I wonder if he could be trusted to prune it safely.
@xobzoo I feel your pain. We have a dozen fruit trees, so spring pruning is a chore. My wife climbs the tripod orchard ladder to prune the upper branches, I catch the lower stuff with a pole pruner and pick up and dispose of the trimmings. PITA, but when the fruit ripens it makes it worth it (in a good year anyway).
If anyone ever tries to convince you to plant a Kentucky Coffee tree, tell them to stick their idea up their nose & turn it sideways. Now not only am I cleaning up massive amounts of sticks in the fall, but also seed pods (no, not coffee) all Winter long…and there’s still a ton on the trees (I have two) too.
@Kyeh@sillyheathen Don’t be silly; kiwis are birds, not trees.
It’ll look more like this:
(although my sources tell me that kiwis have 3 toes per foot)
I have to agree with cleaning all my neighbors crap that falls in my yard. Actually had the top of a tree fall into my backyard. They would not even answer the door. Fortunately out of 4 houses that border mine, they are the only problem. (The latest is letting a Chinese Tallow grow right on the fence line. I am willing to help pay to remove it even though it is on their property but some people suck}
@hchavers And it’s not like using a pressure washer is something that can be handed off to some random helper. That mistake caused an extra hour of additional work to be needed when the rando used the spot stream to write his name in the surface of the deck at a location where I was on the season-opening cleanup crew. I was able to make it almost imperceptible by careful application of a narrow fan spray across the glitched area, feathering the edges to hide the region better. Nothing good came of that extra effort, unfortunately.
Raking.
Picking up the 3+ months worth of dogshit in the back yard. That’s the worst.
Pulling out the sharp blades of grass that come up in the gravel and the rocks. I’m in AZ, There is no soil. Sure you can buy a bag of soil or sand and throw it in the yard. But the next day it’s gravel and rocks.
Reactivating the sprinklers — turn on the main water valve, check each line in turn to find any geysers, then re-program the timer (because the cheap thing invariably loses its programming over the winter).
Pruning the apple tree is also annoying. It grows way too tall, making me climb around in it to get to the high branches.
I have a teenager now; I wonder if he could be trusted to prune it safely.
@xobzoo I feel your pain. We have a dozen fruit trees, so spring pruning is a chore. My wife climbs the tripod orchard ladder to prune the upper branches, I catch the lower stuff with a pole pruner and pick up and dispose of the trimmings. PITA, but when the fruit ripens it makes it worth it (in a good year anyway).
All of the above and more
If anyone ever tries to convince you to plant a Kentucky Coffee tree, tell them to stick their idea up their nose & turn it sideways. Now not only am I cleaning up massive amounts of sticks in the fall, but also seed pods (no, not coffee) all Winter long…and there’s still a ton on the trees (I have two) too.
Raking the leaves in my yard again that blew from my neighbor’s who was too lazy to rake them last fall
Trying to distiguish dog shit from dead leaves in low light.
Moving a massive kiwi so I can rebuild the murder shed.
@sillyheathen A kiwi tree?!
@Kyeh @sillyheathen Don’t be silly; kiwis are birds, not trees.
It’ll look more like this:
(although my sources tell me that kiwis have 3 toes per foot)
I have to agree with cleaning all my neighbors crap that falls in my yard. Actually had the top of a tree fall into my backyard. They would not even answer the door. Fortunately out of 4 houses that border mine, they are the only problem. (The latest is letting a Chinese Tallow grow right on the fence line. I am willing to help pay to remove it even though it is on their property but some people suck}
@mdrcoast I feel you hard on that one. It’s how we wound up with bamboo, bind weed and crazy blackberries on our property.
Pulling weeds
Cleaning off the dust and pollen from the outdoor kitchen including the grill, counter, table, and chairs.
The pressure washer is heavy. When it gets out of control, it makes a really big mess.
@hchavers And it’s not like using a pressure washer is something that can be handed off to some random helper. That mistake caused an extra hour of additional work to be needed when the rando used the spot stream to write his name in the surface of the deck at a location where I was on the season-opening cleanup crew. I was able to make it almost imperceptible by careful application of a narrow fan spray across the glitched area, feathering the edges to hide the region better. Nothing good came of that extra effort, unfortunately.