I’m on a roll. The weather has been cooperating with my ability to be outside and every afternoon from 3 until 6 or 7:00 that is where I am. The first day this week I started in the garden bed that has Bee Balm, Beauty Bush, Butterfly Bush, Iris,’ Milkweed and Crocosmia. The Bee Balm, (which grows on runners), was invaded by grass. It was time consuming and very hard to pull out because the roots were entangled with the runners. I didn’t stop until all the grass was out.
That becomes a problem because when I’m in that mode I push myself, sometimes to my own detriment, (I have gotten better). I stopped before I finished the rest of that bed. There was no grass, just a few weeds and had to be cleaned up a bit. While I was pulling the grass up I noticed the bed right opposite which has a Crape Myrtle, Hostas, Columbine, and Lenten Rose. What a mess. Mental note: next time I will finish Bee Balm bed and go on to this one.
Yesterday I decided to clean up the small Rose garden next to the fence. This is a big deal for me since I didn’t do what I said I was going to do. I moved onto another bed before finishing the one I had been working on! What is going on with me? I also had the Azalea and Rose food that I wanted to put down before it rains on Wednesday.
I had to put something in the mail box so I decided to drive around (in golf cart) the beds in the front yard. I noticed that the dead stalks for the perennials were a mess, ( I leave them on over the winter for the birds to eat the seeds). I saw the Peony’s old growth had died off and needed to be cleaned up. I stopped, put my kneeler down and cleaned up those problems. While there I fed the Azaleas I could reach. I left the rest of the bed and continued to the next one. I also took down the dead perennials and trimmed the Hydrangea, picked p some branches and fed some of the Azaleas in that bed.
Left that bed and went in the backyard to tackle the small Rose garden. That was horrible, more of the dreaded grass, large weeds and tons of Loblolly pine needles. That was also time consuming and my mind went into “can’t stop till I’m done mode.” I also trimmed the small rose bushes and put food down. I only had one rose left when I noticed the light was changing and knew it had to be getting late, and again I picked up my kneeler, weed bucket and left. It was 7:00 when I went inside.
I have to say I felt good about what I accomplished and better yet, being flexible when it came to not being so obsessive about finishing one bed before moving onto another.