Tom and I should start a landscaping service in addition to our moving service.  We have spent quite a bit of time working on other people’s landscaping in the last month.

Our first call when we got to Ohio was from John and Jackie.  They had just entered into contract on a new house and wondered if we could come over to mow the lawn and fix up the landscaping at their old house.  They wanted it to look good before the realtor came to take pictures.

Now, one thing that is important to know is that Ohio has had a very dry July and August after having an exceptionally rainy spring.  Farmers weren’t able to plant until June because of all the rain in previous months.  But, by July, the ground has become hard as concrete from the lack of rain.

So Tom did the very dusty job of mowing and I pulled up weeds in the flower beds.  Jackie worked just as hard inside the house painting some trim.  John sorted some stuff out to go to the dump and finished up some projects inside.  Then we all enjoyed some Chinese food together.

Shortly after our work at John and Jackie’s, Mom and Dad called on our landscaping service.  All the landscaping is supposed to be done by employees of the retirement center where they are living.  But Covid has reduced the number of employees and getting a landscaping company has been a special challenge.

Mom and Dad do not like to wait for other people to get around to doing things, so they called up our landscaping service for several jobs.  Tom helped get and spread some mulch.  Then we all worked to clear away the brush that was blocking Mom and Dad’s view of the pond in their backyard.  Finally, Tom cleaned out the gutters.  Tom ended up cleaning out the gutters on one of the few rainy days lately, but it was the day we were there.

John and Jackie hired our landscaping service for the next job.  A few days before they closed on their new house, we all met at the house to work on the landscaping.  John wanted to clear away the brush from the garden so he could transplant his peppers to the new house.  Tom helped him with this.  It was so overgrown that they had to wade through head-high weeds in order to find the gate.

Jackie and I tackled the landscaping around the house.  The previous owners hadn’t done anything to it for several years, and it was overgrown with vines and weeds.  My task was to clear a path to the basement door.  Once I started clearing away the tall weeds, we discovered there was a stone patio under all the greenery.

John and Tom cut down a small tree that had grown up by the garden but we couldn’t leave the branches piled up in the yard.  Against HOA rules.  So, on Monday, Tom and I loaded all the branches up in the truck and took them to Price Farm Organics, where they will be shredded into mulch.

Then, on Wednesday, Tom rented a tiller to dig up the garden dirt.  Once it was tilled, he and John transplanted 50 pepper plants.  John reports that most of the peppers are doing well with liberal watering.  We are glad that Fartley Farms won’t miss a season of experimenting with peppers.

Our landscaping service comes cheap if you want to hire us.  We only ask that we be paid in pizza or ice cream.