And my battle with the ugly hillside rages on. 23 years ago a single working woman craving a space for her horse and maybe some gardening , bought a little home on a half acre in the country. lets just call it the unincorporated slums. It's ok by me , I have learned to appreciate the unincorporated slums and all it has to offer.
Except for "The Hillside". I HATE THE HILLSIDE !!! At first it was a non issue. Being a young single working woman I could not afford much. The general property and house were in shambles so the hillside was the last thing I had on my agenda. lets just say I found a dead cat in a bag alongside the garage. Yup I had more problems than just the hillside.
Well after having the septic tank pumped, the yard leveled by some old local man and the gross crunchy three tone brown carpet expunged , it started to feel more like home. Then I noticed the tumbleweed hill side.
It was not just one layer but three . Every tumbleweed in all of Riverside and its unincorporated area had come to rest on this hillside. How do you expunge 150 feet of pure tumbleweed? You burn it!! So off I went to the Fire Station. Burn permit in one hand and garden hose in the other I commenced to burning. what fun that was. I was the envy of rednecks far and wide.
With my hillside cleared I vowed never to let that happen again!! Yeah right. At first I decided to plant wildflowers and have a beautiful hillside all would admire . Well it was a huge amount of work and the weeds just took over again.
My neighbor showed me how to plant Poplars by rooting sticks in the ground. I must have looked crazy watering sticks for 2 months but it worked. I had trees lots of trees. The hillside was gone from sight. The tree leaves would fall on the hillside creating a mulch. No more weedy hillside.
Fast forward 16 years and I had Poplars overrunning my property harboring tons of evil ants , bad bugs and fungus and spores and molds , Oh My !! Menacing roots slowly winding their way to my foundation and septic tank. It was only a matter of time.....
The County of Riverside did not like them either. I had planted these trees directly under the Electric wires. Every year they would come out and top my trees. All 22 of them. Yes 22. I'm not known for doing things small that's for sure. When I screw up it's BIG.
Last December I got a note on the door. The county was tired of trimming my trees. They would gladly remove any trees under the electric wires. At that moment the heavens opened up and I heard the Angels sing. Sure I had some misgivings. No one really likes to cut trees down. Especially ones they rooted from sticks. It was sad but necessary.
Once again I was faced with the horrid hillside. Something had to be done. A local nursery was going out of business .There I found five gallon vines cheap cheap cheap. Normally I don't buy things that aren't blooming. According to the worker they were purple Trumpet vines. Well I did have 150 feet of hillside to hide from view so I gave them a shot.
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