It has been a…tumultuous time, shall we say?…in the Yard these last two months. Less than a month after my State of the Yard Address, Hubby-Across-the-Aisle derailed my BBB (Backyard Blooming Bounty) Initiative, effectively limiting any proposed budget to the amount already expended by Treasury on the veggies for the Backyard Garden, leaving me in the weeds (literally), and as far as the Front Yard Garden is concerned, with a low approval rating.
Instead, the budget expenditures were targeted for (admittedly necessary) repairs and upgrades to the Executive McMansion — specifically, a climate-resistant attic window, and an energy-efficient refrigerator. On a brighter note, the budget debate had enough bi-partisan votes to grant funding for more cookies and treats for VP (Very Paw-pular) Goddard, because he’s a good boy (isn’t he a good boy? Yes, he IS!)
Unfortunately, that still leaves me knee-deep in weeds out front, with weed removal and plant relocation my only recourse for the Front. However, Hubby A.t.A. is considering a separate Yard Improvements Project that would replace the tattered pergola covering for the Backyard Patio, but that is stuck in committee at present. I might still be able to earmark to that (or to a future Backyard budget bill) an Arts & Crafts Grant, supplying support for underfunded artists and sculptors, via adding interesting garden decor to the Front. (I expect some pushback on the idea, but can counter with a proposal for daily soup dinners — which would lessen the expenditures on comestibles for the McMansion, despite Hubby’s ardent dislike of soup. Everything is politics around here, I tell ya!)
On a vexing note, there were several small outbreaks of insurrection by the Cardamine Hirsuta Boyz (shot weed — leftovers from the Former Gardener in the Backyard), armed with military-grade projectile seeds and hair-trigger dispositions. I did consult with the DOJ, but everyone there said there was no basis for legal action against plants, leaving me little choice but to go to the DHS for help. However, their only suggested fix would be to utilize this guy:
Loathe to let HIM loose, I decided I would simply dig deeper to get at the root of the problem in the Front Yard — unchecked growth of vegetal sedition overrunning and obscuring the Vision and Promise of the Front Yard. Thus began the July 6 Shearings.
“I love weeding.”
Well, not really…which is why the Front Yard is in the state it’s in now. The very idea of weeding ticks me off; why is it the nice flowers aren’t dominating the garden, but the weeds are? Because…the Gardener hasn’t kept the weeds in check. So — I’m ticked that I have to weed, ticked at myself for not doing it sooner, and the more weeds I’m confronted with, the more ticked off I get.
My first instinct is to pull the weeds that are taller and look like they’re going to seed anyway, and for the most part those are easy pickings. But they leave behind mats of roots that, if left alone, continue to undermine the garden. Yet to get to those mats, there’s a strategy that all Gardeners know — you have to start yanking from the periphery and work your way to the center of this vegetal insurrection. Reaching down along the edges, pulling apart the root mat inch by inch — uncovering lost bulbs and creepy bugs in the process — until you finally reach a point where a big section of this root mass is weakened and gives up its hold on its dirty underpinnings. Now you can see some progress, and it feels so good when you can consign those awful piles of weeds and roots to the compost bin of history.
Of course, some innocent plants get hurt, too. Spring bulbs are unearthed, and sometimes the roots of good plants are entwined with the weed roots. Some soil still clings to the weed roots and will need to be replenished, as Gardeners amend their growing beds. Nothing of any worth is easy, and the results may not always be pretty. Yet in the long run I think it’s better for the future of the Yard and its citizens.
Please share what you’ve been digging up in your own gardens!