The Beverly Hillbillies

We’re the neighbor everyone probably wishes hadn’t moved into the neighborhood. 🙂

The neighbor behind me . . most of the neighborhood doesn’t even know their names because they’re so quiet and stay inside and don’t do crazy stuff. He had made planters out of these big containers and he grows peppers in them every year. I think he makes about 200 or more bottles of hot sauce. I wish I was brave enough to ask him for his recipe but it’s one he’s perfected through the years. He has cute labels and a bottle sealer . . very professional looking.

Anyway, they’re moving and I’m so sad. They are quiet, don’t bother anyone – no barking dogs. I always say I shouldn’t expect from someone else what I’m not doing myself. We’re not quiet. We bother everyone. We have barking dogs. I hope I don’t get the neighbor I deserve! But, seriously, this is a good place to live and . . well, except for those two folks who moved here from Texas. 🙂

Their house goes on the market Friday and I would guess that by Friday night, there will be a contract. Vince said . . if it sells that quickly, we’re putting ours up for sale. I said “Then you’re getting a new wife because I’m NOT moving again . . at least not after having been here barely over two years.” He said “Getting a new wife would cost too much. I guess I won’t sell the house.”

But the point of this post .. the neighbor had these two planters he made and I went to take him some garlic today and he told me if I wanted those two planters, we need to get them. He had talked to Vince about it and Vince hadn’t had time, energy . . whatever to get them.

I went back to the house and told Vince he needs to got get those planters. He said “Can it wait til tomorrow?” No . . that’s like “storing something temporarily in the sewing room”. Tomorrow never comes.

The planters are on casters but they each probably weigh well over 500 pounds. He put rocks in the bottom . . lots of rocks. He thought he was never moving. Even with the casters, they don’t roll over grass. Hmmm . . how are we going to do it? The old guy across the street has a tractor so Vince went and asked him to come look at them and see if he could move them. He said his tractor wasn’t working well but if we could push them over to a ditch, he’d back his pickup into the ditch and load them up in the back of the truck. He and Vince rode over to the neighbor’s in the pickup but decided they couldn’t do that. The guy with the planters said “Heck, I can hook up to my mower and pull them over to your driveway.” He has a regular mower with a hitch where our mower doesn’t have a hitch.

I was out working in the garden and I heard noises – men talking and laughing. I peeked through the cracks in the fence and saw them coming down a busy road pulling a planter. Vince was running along behind pushing.

One planter delivered. They had to go back and do the same thing with the second planter.

Now, they’re sitting in the driveway. Not exactly sure how we’re going to get them somewhere else. I don’t mind leaving them outside the fence. We can use landscape fencing to keep the deer out of them.

We’ve used all our bagged dirt/soil and Vince wants to wait til it’s on sale at the end of the gardening season because it’s going to take a good bit to fill these. The guy who made them only had probably 12 or 15″ of dirt in them. We’ll do the same so I won’t have to stand on a ladder to pick whatever I grow in them. I’m thinking I could plant cabbage or garlic in them, then once it’s harvested, I would still have time to plant okra or peppers . . most anything that can grow through the summer heat and produce til frost. I’m also wondering how deep sweet potatoes would grow in these? Would I get more than just growing them in bags or my regular raised beds? I can try it and see . . as soon as we get more soil.

So, I’m happy to have gotten the planters but sad my good neighbors are leaving. You guys could make me happy if a cross stitcher, knitter or quilter would come be my neighbor!