Saturday in the Garden

Saturday was supposed to be the day we cut down the ornamental grasses in the back yard. The project is massive. Here is the yard from two different vantage points that show the scale of this task:

(In the photo above, see the green up in the tree in the upper left hand corner? That is not new growth of leaves. That is another vine that was lurking beneath the grasses and run wild. Mark's new garden slogan: Vines are NOT fine!!)

Unfortunately, the chain saw was on the fritz and we only got a few of the grass clumps cut down before it gave up completely. Mark spent a lot of time trying to get it to run, but we finally just ended up taking it to the shop for repair. The guy asked us if we really needed it back quickly. We practically in unison said, "YES!!"

But all was not lost for this day. We had started cutting in the east end of the wildflower bed and were able to get all but one clump of the grasses in this section cut down. We also got that awful purple honeysuckle vine cut out before the chain saw quit. (Unfortunately, I will probably be pulling runners of that vine for years to come.) I also pulled a lot of stray Bermuda grass and weeds from from this section.

Here is a before shot of work for this day:

And here is after:

Again, a lot of grass & weed killer will be needed in this area. There are a lot of beautiful daylillies and purple and whit phlox in this area. But there is also a lot of wild mint growing in this section that I work yearly to eradicate. (I did not plant it!) But we did make progress. Total trips to the dump Saturday - 2 from just this small section, with 1 more on the truck for a dump run on Monday morning. Our yard is insane! Some days I'm ready to plow it under. But other times I look around and just marvel at the beauty of God's creation. So for now, I will keep forging ahead.