After 5 days the rain has finally stopped. I felt inspired and motivated to get back outside and into the garden so out I went. It was a good productive day working the soil and sprucing things up.
First of all I tackled the large flower bed under the Mountain Ash tree yesterday. The bed had fallen into a neglected state and needed some TLC so I got down on my hands and knees and worked the soil for a couple of hours. I cleaned out lots of crab grass and dead foliage and trimmed around the edge taking the discarded grass and placing into my compost heap in the back driveway. It looks much better now but still needs work. My wife will be arriving home Monday night and I am sure she will turn her focus to further refinement of the space.
We have 3 large cedar bushes at the front of our home. One feature is birds use the branches as places to hide and keep warm in the winter so we have a continuous bird show going on outside our living room window which my wife and I enjoy witnessing throughout the season. Unfortunately the inclement weather over the last few winters has not been gentle on the cedars with a couple of them having dead branches about the third of the way up their trunks. I had been toiling with the idea of having the bushes taken out but I kept thinking about my feathered friends and their winter hideaway so I had taken no action. Yesterday I realized taking "no action" was not an option because the bushes were looking very ratty and neglected. I stood in front of the center Cedar and contemplated my next step getting a feeling for how the tree looked and what it was telling me to do. (from an intuitive point of view). Suddenly it came to me that perhaps I could trim all the branches off the bottom half of the bush (some of which were not dead) which would result in more of the look of a Cedar tree and allowing me to retain the greenery for at least one more winter. With nothing left to loose I got out my trimming tools and went to work. The result is a lot cleaner looking tree with the added bonus of the brick facing of our house being showcased in a more appealing manner. Win/Win for sure..Now 2 of the 3 cedars are cleaned up resulting in a truck full of discarded branches and foliage ending up being recycled into compost at our waste handling facility. The whole process felt good and I felt energized by the results..
Next I tackled lawn maintenance.Like other areas of our yard the lawn has seen better days-my wife and I do not like applying chemicals and lots of water to the grass areas (during the summer) and because of our "values" these areas the lawn has returned to a more natural state which includes a infusion of Sweet William ground cover with a dusting of daisies and other assorted "foreign" growth. By our neglect we are allowing the areas to return to a more "natural" state-one that does not actually meet the socially excepted criteria for a well manicured lawn. I am sure our neighbors have noticed our neglect but are too polite to comment (to our faces anyway). Natural state or not, lawn mowing is still required!!!
In order to mow one needs a tool to undertake the task-so out comes my lawnmower-gas powered and often very difficult to start up. Two trips to the repair shop last year did not resolve the starting problem which required me to inject the carb with starting fluid (ether) at every pull of the cord. I had actually contemplated returning to a push mower last season but hadn't got around to making the purchase. So for now being "gas powered" is my only option. So I took the mower out of the shed, primed it and pulled the lever (dead man throttle) resulting in the cable snapping. I jury rigged a solution to the problem by wiring up the lever the cable attaches to. The mower would not start. After numerous pulls of the cord (and injections of starting fluid) I gave up in frustration. I knew in my heart and my head my relationship with this mower was over. I contemplated my options which included the purchase of a new lawn mower ( I was not too enthusiastic about spending the money or dealing with the packaging/assembly that would be required) and decided in my wisdom to return to the repair shop and see if they had any used lawn mowers for sale this season. They did and I purchased the same make and model (only newer) for $100 plus GST. I made sure the mower started then negotiated $25 off the $125 asking price to offset my service expenditures of last season. The new (used) mower worked great and I got the lawn mowed...
All in all a good day in the garden.....
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