Fall Clean-Up

Back in the spring, I recall blogging about my yard and thinking that an hour or so a week would keep my perennial gardens under control.  That may have been true.  Unfortunately, as spring faded into summer, things like a divorce, a vacation in Maine, tree removal, pool set-up and use, and a couple other highly-unforeseen events ate up my gardening time.

Yesterday I looked at my front yard and realized afresh that it could no longer honestly be termed a garden.  It was officially a jungle.  One hydrangea bush spread across the walkway so that it was nearly impossible to get past it.  (Awkward when visitors come . . . )

My ex's "nursery," his repository for all plants too small to survive in the landscape and therefore completely un-designed, was so overgrown with grasses that at least 3 plants were invisible.  The ornamental grasses had exploded beyond their borders and had claimed a foot of my driveway.

It was time to take action.

I cheerfully informed my kids that we would be doing yard work.

(They wanted to swim.  I told them that I had run out of chlorine two days ago and had no intention of battling the green slime proliferating in the pool.  It was time to shut it down.  They started whining until they realized that yard work meant dirt, dirt could be converted into mud, and mud made excellent arsenal!)

First I set to work with my new set of clippers, reclaiming my walkway from the spreading hydrangea.  Then I ripped the grasses out of my stone driveway.  Finally, I turned to the weeds.

I was happy to see that one of the sedums I had planted in the spring somehow survived being over-shadowed and under-watered.  I located a little Franklinia that I had forgotten all about as well as a prickly striated holly-looking thing that bites me if I look at it cross-eyed.

After a couple of hours, I was well-pleased.  My yard is no Better Homes and Gardens showplace, but it is beginning to look less abandoned!  I am discovering which things I like and which I would be happier without.  A plan is forming.

In addition, my kids had a lovely time "riding" their bikes, staging mud fights,  yanking weeds from beneath the banana tree, and watching the police respond to a fender bender across the street. 

Gotta love fall clean-ups!