Clearing

Last year, the city decided I could not have flowers in the the terrace strip, the area that lays between the street and the sidewalk.  So I invited everyone I knew to take any plants they wanted. In one week, the plants were gone and Gary tilled the plot up.  A year later, many of the plants were back, in a messy sort of way.  Poppies especially were prolific. 

Gary offered to till up the soil again, but cutting up poppy roots just leads to many more poppies.  It has to be done manually.  So I've set to work digging up roots, tilling, and planting ground cover.  I'm about a quarter of the way through the project.  The ground was like cement until today.  Last night's rain softened the soil so I made more progress.  

The same problem exists in the back yard in the vegetable bed. Some years ago, I made this area a mulch pile. That proved to be another mistake.  Some of the yard waste I threw in there took root.  Now it is a jungle mix of lamium, multiflora rose, grape vine, and Virginia creeper.  All of this has to be cleared. 

I'm going at it a bit day by day, planting the vegetables on cleared ground.  Two days ago, it was tomatoes.  The day before that it was bush beans.  Today, I managed to clear out the old ornamental windmill, to which I attached string for climbing pole beans.     

The windmill didn't last long as a decoration, it was blown over in a windstorm and the blades broke, but it is perfect for growing beans.  

It will take the entire summer to clear the yard at the rate I am going but I am enjoying myself.  Mowing lawn is work.  Growing things is a creative hobby.