So I've been mounting incursions since my last post, trying to retake territory while the conditions are favorable. Rather than my scattershot approach of grabbing grass that's heading out from whatever bed I happen to be passing, I focused my forces in little pitched battles. The victories, though small, are decisive, which does wonders for the moral of the troops (me!).
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| Ollie or the sheep boys benefit from the pulled grass |
First, I cleaned out the narrow bed between the front sidewalk and the lawn.
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| Post-weeding, where the pots are on the left; more on Jackson later |
Next I tackled the driveway edge along the railroad ties.
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| After starting with a big clump of weeds in the lower right |
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| Much better! |
Cleaning up that edge of the driveway made me ponder the feasibility of tackling what really bugs me.
As you drive towards our house, you see this ugly green beard extending down from the island bed. Not only does it look unkempt, it is stubbornly entrenched – and growing. Most of the weeds are false dandelion, which are nearly impossible to pull up by the roots, throw their seeds everywhere (just like true dandelions), and have a cumulative toxic effect in horses (not sure about sheep). Rick has sprayed them with RoundUp in the past but they aren't much affected (not sure about the rest of us!).
Well, there's no time like the present! The weather is still favorable, with clouds and occasional showers to keep the ground from drying out. I've shot across the bow; we'll see how far I get. Chuckie is cheering me on,
and the iris are waving cheerful banners:
That pink one surprised me today; I thought all the colors we were going to see this year had been revealed.
A doe has been hanging around the house in broad daylight; I took these photos of her today:
She has a visible udder, so she must have a fawn or two hidden in our upper pasture.
Skirmishes do continue elsewhere. I've weeded some in the garden, and planted two more tomato plants. My beans and beets germinated well, but so far only one zucchini has appeared (my guys would say that's
plenty).
More is going on, but I'll save that for another post when I know more. I'll close with Wednesday's beautiful sunset, captured in various directions as it progressed:
That's it for now from . . .
4 comments:
Oh, that annoying grass! Everybody's nemesis; always growing where it isn't wanted. Your clean up efforts look really good. I try to concur our wiregrass once a year. :)
I'm curious as to the species of false dandelion; several plants are called that. We have Hypochaeris radicata aka catsear. We don't have horses so I don't know about that, but it is edible. Leaves can be steamed and eaten as greens, roots can be roasted and used as a coffee substitute. My goats really like it, especially the flowers. Maybe you could dump a truck load of wood chips on it to smother it.
Wees, weeds, weeds! The bane of all gardeners. Our weather continues to be so cool that (if I'm being charitable) I think even the weeds are suffering from lack of warmth and sunlight. Not that I'm complaining. They're probably just building up strength beneath the soil and are going to come on gangbusters once our weather decides to be summertime. Whenever I'm out there battling them on my hands and knees, I try to remember I'm using muscles that need to be exercised and kept healthy. If I sat on my duff and didn't garden, I know that would be detrimental to my health. (Yes, I do have to play games to convince myself I'm better than the weeds that continually try to take over!) Be strong, fellow gardener. The results after weeding an especially bad patch are always so rewarding.
Leigh, wire grass sounds SO much worse than what I have to deal with!
Mama Pea, I spent two more hours this morning and made noticeable headway before HAVING to come in to empty one tank and fill another. ;-) It was like eating potato chips – just one more, and then one more. If my bladder and stomach weren't so insistent, well, and my BACK.... Heading back out soon.
I think you won over the weeds!! It all looks wonderful.
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