I have finished "cutting" the backyard. That is, I have given it a rough cut through foot-tall sprouts from my supposedly guaranteed not-to-sprout Newport plum trees and fought my way through a jungle of ground ivy in full bloom, rousting more than one big, fat bumble fee from a resting place!
This image isn't quite my yard but it's close... Despite raking three prior times and spending whatever temperate days we've had (not many) this spring raking up branches and twigs thrown down during the winter and a series of strong wind storms and just plain strong winds we've had, the yard is STILL a MESS! It looks semi-reasonable in its present state, though, with the worst of the weeds cut down to 2 inches. What a chore! I've already got two full yard waste bins so I'm going to have to stuff the third one full once again as I commence raking up what my mulching mower didn't chop into miniscule bits and pieces. And there's plenty left behind me, including half a ton of nut shells! Those three large plastic garbage containers on wheels that I use for my yard waste sure get a work-out -- already been picked up two times prior to next pick-up on June 7th -- stuffed full to overflowing. And they'll be full to overflowing again.
Well, that's what I get for feeding the animals all winter. It's threatening rain at the moment - we may get thunderstorms this afternoon. So, I'm just catching my breath and will put down an application of weed and feed. Later in the week I'm having the front and back yards core-aerated. I hope that helps promote growth in the compacted areas. I haven't had that done for several years. I may hire someone to come in and over-seed with a slit-cutter - but I'll see how my war against the weeds goes first.
Oh oh - thunder to the west - better get my butt out there now...
Fourteen minutes later:
I put down an entire bag - probably too much (covers 5,000 square feet) - and only covered about half the yard, oh oh. Well, I have another bag in the garage but I'll change the settings on the spreader before I put that bag of weed/feed down -- later on. It's raining in earnest now and I've got to dry out, plus the house is rattling with the thunder and there are streaks of intermittent lightning. Not going out now, nope! I got coverage on some of the worst ground ivy and dandelion infested/overrun areas with the first batch of weed/feed, so now it will get rained in. GOOD! I won't go down without a fight, weeds!
We may be dodging intermittent t-storms the rest of today, but tomorrow is supposed to be dry, sunny and warm/hot -- in the 80's with high humidity. Like summer. Except we've hardly had any spring.
Chores for tomorrow include putting down that second batch of weed/feed out back, raking and, if I have any juice left after raking, continuing the pruning out/chopping down of volunteer trees in the "island" and planting beds. I'll leave the digging out of grass that has invaded the planting beds for another time, and hope we get some sunny, dry and cooler weather to do that. That is a MAJOR pain in the you-know-what and I'm breaking out in a sweat right now just thinking about it. Yechy!
Time for lunch! My stomach is making feed-me noises. As this is a three-day weekend and a holiday weekend to boot, I'm treating myself tonight and tomorrow night with steaks! Got 'em thawing in the fridge even as I type and I picked up some carrots to add to my other favorite veggies for side dishes and some mushrooms -- can't have a good steak without sauteed mushrooms! I've got a nice red wine from the latest shipment 'Sis sent to me a few weeks ago that I'm going to use to make a sauce for the steaks. Hmmm hmmmm hmmmmm, can't wait! But right now, I've got left-over shepherd's pie in the fridge calling my name.
P.S. After I took a nice long nap, it had stopped raining. About 4:15 or so I finished the application of the weed/feed beads in the backyard, so that's done! It was too wet to do anything else. We got a good soaking.
Well, that's what I get for feeding the animals all winter. It's threatening rain at the moment - we may get thunderstorms this afternoon. So, I'm just catching my breath and will put down an application of weed and feed. Later in the week I'm having the front and back yards core-aerated. I hope that helps promote growth in the compacted areas. I haven't had that done for several years. I may hire someone to come in and over-seed with a slit-cutter - but I'll see how my war against the weeds goes first.
Oh oh - thunder to the west - better get my butt out there now...
Fourteen minutes later:
I put down an entire bag - probably too much (covers 5,000 square feet) - and only covered about half the yard, oh oh. Well, I have another bag in the garage but I'll change the settings on the spreader before I put that bag of weed/feed down -- later on. It's raining in earnest now and I've got to dry out, plus the house is rattling with the thunder and there are streaks of intermittent lightning. Not going out now, nope! I got coverage on some of the worst ground ivy and dandelion infested/overrun areas with the first batch of weed/feed, so now it will get rained in. GOOD! I won't go down without a fight, weeds!
We may be dodging intermittent t-storms the rest of today, but tomorrow is supposed to be dry, sunny and warm/hot -- in the 80's with high humidity. Like summer. Except we've hardly had any spring.
Chores for tomorrow include putting down that second batch of weed/feed out back, raking and, if I have any juice left after raking, continuing the pruning out/chopping down of volunteer trees in the "island" and planting beds. I'll leave the digging out of grass that has invaded the planting beds for another time, and hope we get some sunny, dry and cooler weather to do that. That is a MAJOR pain in the you-know-what and I'm breaking out in a sweat right now just thinking about it. Yechy!
Time for lunch! My stomach is making feed-me noises. As this is a three-day weekend and a holiday weekend to boot, I'm treating myself tonight and tomorrow night with steaks! Got 'em thawing in the fridge even as I type and I picked up some carrots to add to my other favorite veggies for side dishes and some mushrooms -- can't have a good steak without sauteed mushrooms! I've got a nice red wine from the latest shipment 'Sis sent to me a few weeks ago that I'm going to use to make a sauce for the steaks. Hmmm hmmmm hmmmmm, can't wait! But right now, I've got left-over shepherd's pie in the fridge calling my name.
P.S. After I took a nice long nap, it had stopped raining. About 4:15 or so I finished the application of the weed/feed beads in the backyard, so that's done! It was too wet to do anything else. We got a good soaking.
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