Now that we had my longed for pallet of stones, it was time to attack the garden of weeden .
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Since the damage to my knee, I try to avoid anything that has to be done in a crouched or kneeling position but I’d put this off for two years and if pain was the price I had to pay for a new perennial bed? So be it.
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An hour and a half in, I was sore.
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Two and a half hours in I was popping Tylenol and Motrin like Jelly Bellies.
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At the end of the day my knee was creaking like the front door of a haunted house, but it was done. A 10 x 20 patch of virgin soil, ready for a stone border and planting.
When you have a lawn as big as ours, mowing can be a two day affair. The husband and I tag team it… me on the push mower for the front lawn, sides, upper back and around the barn…. him on the tractor for the large expanses. Did I mention we have a veritable mowing fleet?
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While his sections are bigger, mine are actually harder because I make a point of never blowing grass in the flower beds.
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That mulched section under the tree used to be filled with perennials…
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Until the husband flung so much grass in there all the flowers got choked out and I got tired of breaking my back weeding. But I digress..
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After mowing comes trimming.
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And trust me, there’s a lot of that. I just added these two beauties to my stone wall bed…
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And filled the baby barn’s bed with its annual marigolds. I added some tickseed (coreopsis) as well, but I’m afraid it might get too much sun… so it’s success has yet to be determined.
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Yup, it’s exhausting.
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But when everything is freshly mowed and trimmed?
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I’m a seriously happy camper.
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Though the same can’t be said for his Lordship….
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Who gives me the evil eye from the back of the couch.
A time to remember and honor those who made the ultimate sacrifice.
The weekend dawned clear and bright, and while others were out on the lake or enjoying cookouts with friends…
We at Casa River were hard at work.
A winter that didn’t want to let go and one of the wettest springs I can remember left us with an utter nightmare of a landscape. Parts of the lawn have been a swamp for a month and impossible to mow, so this had to happen.
That’s the husband.
Weed wacking the lawn.
You know how they always say the grass is greener over the septic tank?
Believe it.
He was calf deep in a veritable field of thick heavy grass.
After the weed wacking came the mowing, and after the mowing…
The raking of the mini hay field.
People think we exaggerate when we say it takes the both of us, working all day, to do the weekly lawn maintenance.
We don’t. And it does.
But the weather cooperated for 3 days with warm sun and cool breezes and we got a lot done.
I dragged the deck furniture out of the barn and finished the garden bed I had to redo….
Then hauled in another 30 bags of mulch for some others.
I weeded, and mulched and reset border stones for 10 beds.
All prepped and ready for flowers.
I spent the next day mowing and trimming and cutting back dead shrubs.
And the day after that?
I literally couldn’t move.
Everything that could hurt, did.
Neck, shoulders, arms, thighs, knees and feet.
Nothing like a long winter of inactivity to show you who’s boss.
I love our yard, but damn.
Sometimes it really kicks my ass.
Where there's only one step from the sublime to the ridiculous.
River's world..... 