I tell you the tap is either full on or shut all the way off around here.
Anyhow, along with the rain came some much cooler temperatures. Cool enough that I slipped on some yoga pants and a tight, long sleeved shirt to deter the spiders, mosquitos and assorted creepy crawlies from biting me and went out to the pasture/garden to see what's what.
I spent a delightful hour hanging upside down ripping weeds and grass out of a 10 foot section of the garden. With all the blood rushing to my head, my menopausal brain cells actually started firing as I considered my situation.
It's all about perspective, you see. Up close and personal my garden has definitely become a hostile territory.
Conclusions?
Hoo Boy...This is gonna take awhile. Good thing I've got 6 months to whip this into shape. My garden is huge and is completely grown in. Walkways, inground beds...The only areas that look halfway decent are the raised strawberry beds.
I can totally see why tilling all this crap under is so popular around here. Pulling this stuff by hand might be satisfying to a certain extent but mowing, spraying and tilling is a great temptation. Cardboard might be my only salvation. Smothering works, but it's temporary. Once you actually uncover the ground everything grows gangbusters again.
Next year I'm gonna have weeds like you would not believe. And the Bermuda grass! It's been a bumper year for Bermuda. I'm noticing at it's actually seeding AGAIN! Once is not enough for this stuff. All the weeds and Bermuda that I'm yoinking out of the garden now have left a layer of seeds that I can visibly see. Unless I haul out the shop-vac and suck all these teeny, tiny seeds up off the ground, I'm doomed to repeat this cycle again next year.
On the other hand, I do have a new helper in the garden. With all the high grass I was bound to attract some rodents. According to SM, Callie-Cat left the remains of a good sized mouse in the driveway the other day. When SM told me it was as big as she was I told him that it must've been a rat, not a mouse.
Regardless, I'm a proud of her. I guess it really isn't a bad thing having a freakin cat around here again.
Just don't bring them in the house, Hmmm?
And here I was hoping that your bumper crop of Bermudas were onions. I miss having an outdoor cat for that reason - mouse control. But they do not stand much of a chance with the high predator load around here. I've had the Invasion of the Crab Grass in my garden. It's everywhere!
ReplyDeleteThank you for this post! I'm surfing around the internet, amazed that folkses' fall gardens are so neat and tidy while mine is a wiregrass mess! Be assured you're not alone in your plague.
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