Gardens, weeds, trees, and stuff

The shade garden got more sunlight Sunday even if it was cloudy and cool.

We had a late and very wet snowfall this spring which took the top of a tree and bent it right over the shade garden.

Since I am not one that could operate a chainsaw to take down the tree and clean up the mess, I put some feelers out and finally Olive volunteered her husband. 

It was a harder job than any of us expected. Getting a tree down that kept hanging up was a bit dicey, but her hubby calmly took it down bit by bit. When he started sawing it up into pieces, I told him to let me know what he would like stacked for them to use in their wood stove. 

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner!

We made swift work of dragging the limbs and unwanted parts into the wood pasture [I took the hot wires down]. The big chunks that were cut were stacked next to the hosta garden to await another time for transport. 

Rich said he'd be happy to transport it with the skid steer when the time came. This is how we do it on in our 'neighborhood'.

Now I am eyeing that section of the yard for another Wildflower Garden mixed with more split up hostas and ferns. I don't get into strict planning, it just happens.

I thought I'd try out the little trimmer against the huge pile of invasive thistles. Last year I gave up cutting them down in this area and that was a huge mistake.

Sundance decided to supervise. At one time my neighbor had cattle on the other side of the fence. We used it as a large pasture after he died and his brothers took over the land and Rich kept it mowed twice a year. The 'deal' was simply that we mowed it in the late summer so the deer hunting party could walk through it.

The absentee owners then decided that we should pay rent and we took our hotwire down and stopped mowing. Of course all their weeds became our weeds.

So I realized a few things. This is a really big job. Bedstraw and other grasses are growing thick in between the thistles.

I chop with a machete and use the blade a bit at a time. I have to pick up as much of the thistles as I can and pile them. If they are left in place, it would be too prickly for the mules to eat the underlying grasses.

I made some headway. Tomorrow I'll take out the scythe and a rake along with the trimmer and the machete. I'm pretty determined not to let it seed out this year.

The yellow line is my progress against the thistles.

The inspectors came out to nose around and eat some of the previously hidden grasses. There are my piles of thistles! Yikes!

Of course I had a support team and we agreed to head back to the house when we felt some rain drops and the wind changed.

Sadly it was just a few droplets. Perhaps we'll get some tonight. Rain will soften the thistle stems and make them easier to hack, chop, and pick up.

I know this sort of thing works as I worked on another patch of the same kind of thistles and now, three years later, the thistles are easy to manage. So I have some hope!