No Pain, No Gain

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I spent about six hours in the garden on Tuesday and another six hours today.  I used yesterday as a do-something-productive-that-requires-sitting day.  I really like being able to see some progress in getting the garden cleaned up for the summer.  The weeds, having free run of the place since spring, were...out of control.  Some of them were taller than me. :(  Now the weeds (the ones I haven't pulled yet) are tiny by comparison, but I'll get those, too - just not this week.

I also got to reap the rewards of work done last year.  Around my compost bin, the weeds can get unruly, especially when  I'm not available to tackle them early in the season when they start to emerge.  This year, I wasn't able to get in the garden until now (school year ending, Katherine graduating, and then a family vacation) so many of the weeds were...picture Little Shop of Horrors (a musical where the carnivorous plant tries to eat the humans).  It was pretty bad.  Last summer, Katherine helped me weed the area around the compost by hand.  We toiled for a long time and I determined then that I wouldn't do that again.  So, I spent some time over the summer picking up large wood chunks (from our deforesting project) and relocating paver stones that I had once used in that space.  I raked out the area so that it would be mostly flat and void of things unfriendly to mower blades.  Tuesday, I was able to slowly move in with the mower and make relatively quick work of the sizeable weeds blocking our journey to the compost.  All I have now is the giant burdock plants that plague that area.

Here are some Before and After pictures of this week's progress...so far.  Hopefully, you can tell the difference between the Before and the After.






I think tomorrow I will try to tackle the fire pit area and raspberry patch...and maybe go after those burdocks.

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