Weeds

I spent two hours weeding this morning, and made a dent in the heather bed by the driveway. Tom showed up just as I was about done (physically done, not done with the task) and worked another hour.

Here is a map of the yard, not completely to scale. The purple arrow shows the heather bed that we have been working on. The blue arrow indicates North, the black lines are driveway and road. Dark green squiggly bits are the areas that we allow to be mostly untended. The orange square is the 30×30 foot veggie garden, green Xs denote fruiting trees, pale orange marks are (mostly) ornamental planting areas. The light blue loop is the “mound.”

This picture shows what things looked like when I started this morning (after Grant and I worked on the bed last week).

Here is what the bed looked like when I was done (notice Lucky helping Tom).

Finally, a picture of the back of the bed, showing one last heather covered in weeds. We’ll get to that tomorrow, I think.

Still later…

I was able to get back outside mid-afternoon and uncovered the last heather plant and the lamb’s-ears (Stachys lanata). I did not get all the buttercup out of the heather, and did not get behind this one to eliminate the blackberries and grasses near the tree. BUT… it’s better.

ON DECK: There are two dahlias and two hollyhocks still alive right next to the heather plot. The weedy area hides daffodil bulbs in the soil (which along with the surviving flowers need to be relocated) and used to host a lovely little field of “oats” and then wildflowers. Not sure what I will put in there next, but I would like raspberries again… and they need the same conditions as heather and cedar.

Purple arrows show the dahlias, blue the hollyhocks.

Every other piece of green in this picture is weeds!