siriosa 2000

when oh when oh when

will i learn to take before and after pictures? not to mention during.

i've started another of those endless projects. neighbors on each side of me suggested, very kindly and politely, that something needed to be done about my front yard. i had to agree with them. the plantlife was getting to be knee-high in places.

four years ago, it was sheared down, weed barrier cloth applied, and mulch on top of that. if you keep up with it, the random weeds that take root in the mulch are easily dealt with. but: i haven't been so good at keeping up, recently. (okay, you're right. or ever. fine. wev.)

so i started devoting my hour a day of cardio to addressing the height issue. took about a week to get it all down to ankle high. mostly, i pulled up the grasses, or tore them off near the ground. then i decided the mulch slopping over onto the sidewalk and the neighbor's driveway was a bad thing, and i started re-setting the edging so it was tall enough to actually do its job. i discovered several blackberry runners, and a humongous root of lordess-knows-what. dug 'em out.

now i'm at the stage of running the blunt edge of a rake through the mulch, to dislodge everything that's easy, and then taking pliers (yes, pliers) and pulling up whatever isn't easy.

and i wish i could show you what it was like before. it's very much like the painting and patching job. when you're finished, if you do it right, there's nothing to see. it becomes invisible.

so: woe.