the rain-soaked purple
Today was a weekend day with no big plans and dry weather, which we haven't had in over a week, which means it was past time to mow the lawn.
I had a nice relaxing morning tea, then when the first of my neighbors started their power tools, I decided it was time. Changed into work clothes, slapped on some sunscreen, went outside. Here's about how it went:
If I'm going to mow the lawn, I might as well get some weeding done first. I touch on the herb and veg gardens (where nothing is growing yet except some potatoes and green onion from last year), then wander around to the side and front and get some other random weeds, including a couple large bunches of garlic mustard.
I note that there's a mulberry sapling that is aggressively growing into the peonies, and it needs to get taken out, but it's been there a long time and it's far too big to pull. So I get the loppers and cut it down. While I'm there, the dogwood really needs to get its dead branches hacked out, so I clear a bunch of that and also clean up some of the head-level branches. Then as long as I have the loppers, I also clean up some of the maple tree sapling weeds that are invading the hedges, and take out an apple branch that's hanging too low for my taste and also some roots that are poking up and being annoying.
Take a break for a bit of food and drink and more sunscreen, and I note that the bush next to our back porch is way too bushy for my taste. So next step is the hedge trimmers to aggressively cut back that one, then hack at the forsythia which is trying to invade the trampoline. Pause to clean up a bunch of the weeded and cut stuff into piles for the yard waste bags or for the chipper, then take the trimmers to the front hedge while Jim mulches up some of the branches.
The hedge clippings get put into a second bag with more weeds and the fresh mulch gets spread into the side hedges. I note that there are a lot of spaces where dead hedges have been cleared out, so I grab a shovel and dig up a few pieces of extraneous front hedge and transplant them into the spaces. Then on a whim I grab the weedwacker and refresh the edge on the sidewalks.
Finally it's time to mow the lawn! Whew.
I'm exhausted but not done until everything is cleaned up, so I pack up the last of the yard waste bag, put the last of the wood through the chipper, and sweep up all the various detritus and tree schmutz from the sidewalk and driveway. Then come inside, clean up, discover a strip of sunburn where my shirt didn't quite cover my waist when I leaned over, and collapse with a beer.
And that's how I spent 6 hours mowing the lawn.
Here are some pictures of the progress (afters only).
Front yard. Visible flowers, clockwise from lower right are: white azaleas, purple azaleas, columbine, a faint bit of pink phlox, more columbine (bluish) and a lone purple iris. Not visible, some spanish bluebells which appeared for the first time this year (I vaguely remember planting some mystery bulbs last year...) and red azaleas on the other side of the porch steps. The hedge is vaguely neat and the tree stump is half gone.
Back yard. No flowers currently back here, but the chives and the row of irises are about to bloom, and the raspberry bushes are preparing to fruit. This bush next to the porch bench is the one I trimmed back.
Side yard. Also no flowers currently here, but the lower left is the giant peony bush which has buds, a row of happy hostas, and the dogwood which I trimmed which will eventually get removed. Also a patch of spare irises and a bunch of weeds.
This entry was originally posted at http://blk.dreamwidth.org/317125.html and has
comments.
I had a nice relaxing morning tea, then when the first of my neighbors started their power tools, I decided it was time. Changed into work clothes, slapped on some sunscreen, went outside. Here's about how it went:
If I'm going to mow the lawn, I might as well get some weeding done first. I touch on the herb and veg gardens (where nothing is growing yet except some potatoes and green onion from last year), then wander around to the side and front and get some other random weeds, including a couple large bunches of garlic mustard.
I note that there's a mulberry sapling that is aggressively growing into the peonies, and it needs to get taken out, but it's been there a long time and it's far too big to pull. So I get the loppers and cut it down. While I'm there, the dogwood really needs to get its dead branches hacked out, so I clear a bunch of that and also clean up some of the head-level branches. Then as long as I have the loppers, I also clean up some of the maple tree sapling weeds that are invading the hedges, and take out an apple branch that's hanging too low for my taste and also some roots that are poking up and being annoying.
Take a break for a bit of food and drink and more sunscreen, and I note that the bush next to our back porch is way too bushy for my taste. So next step is the hedge trimmers to aggressively cut back that one, then hack at the forsythia which is trying to invade the trampoline. Pause to clean up a bunch of the weeded and cut stuff into piles for the yard waste bags or for the chipper, then take the trimmers to the front hedge while Jim mulches up some of the branches.
The hedge clippings get put into a second bag with more weeds and the fresh mulch gets spread into the side hedges. I note that there are a lot of spaces where dead hedges have been cleared out, so I grab a shovel and dig up a few pieces of extraneous front hedge and transplant them into the spaces. Then on a whim I grab the weedwacker and refresh the edge on the sidewalks.
Finally it's time to mow the lawn! Whew.
I'm exhausted but not done until everything is cleaned up, so I pack up the last of the yard waste bag, put the last of the wood through the chipper, and sweep up all the various detritus and tree schmutz from the sidewalk and driveway. Then come inside, clean up, discover a strip of sunburn where my shirt didn't quite cover my waist when I leaned over, and collapse with a beer.
And that's how I spent 6 hours mowing the lawn.
Here are some pictures of the progress (afters only).
Front yard. Visible flowers, clockwise from lower right are: white azaleas, purple azaleas, columbine, a faint bit of pink phlox, more columbine (bluish) and a lone purple iris. Not visible, some spanish bluebells which appeared for the first time this year (I vaguely remember planting some mystery bulbs last year...) and red azaleas on the other side of the porch steps. The hedge is vaguely neat and the tree stump is half gone.
Back yard. No flowers currently back here, but the chives and the row of irises are about to bloom, and the raspberry bushes are preparing to fruit. This bush next to the porch bench is the one I trimmed back.
Side yard. Also no flowers currently here, but the lower left is the giant peony bush which has buds, a row of happy hostas, and the dogwood which I trimmed which will eventually get removed. Also a patch of spare irises and a bunch of weeds.
This entry was originally posted at http://blk.dreamwidth.org/317125.html and has
comments.