gardening lightness

Not quite Gardening Madness around here, but Georg and I have gotten a little done since we got back from Charlotte. Yesterday we pulled up a bunch of vines that were encroaching into the vegetable garden. I think that I'm going to lay down black plastic along the side of the vegetable garden and just leave it there all summer. There isn't even any grass there, just weeds and vines.

I also tried to mow the lawn. Actually mow the weeds is more like it. Unfortunately the charger had fallen out of the mower over the winter, and the charge had mostly run down. Still I was able to get about half the lawn mowed. I just moved very slowly through the thick weeds.

I had a nice chat with my neighbor on the other side. He's a good old boy, always cheerful. He asked me to call the cable company and have a low wire raised up, because he needs to bring some yard equipment through to take a tree out. He said something nice about how he's just trying to keep up with us and our nice yard. That was really generous of him, considering what crap our yard was for so long.

That neighbor only has one habit that annoys me: he mows his yard every week and his mower blows the grass clippings all over our driveway. I wish he would go the other way once in a while, and get the grass clippings on his own lawn instead, but I'm not going to get worked up about it. After all if that's the worst thing he ever does then he's a pretty darn good neighbor.

This morning I had a meeting with a prospective client for a big job. Which went great! The site looks like it's going to be about double the size of my preliminary estimate. And they gave me a deposit check on the spot, without even waiting for a formal proposal. Yay!

In the afternoon I took advantage of the lack of rain to finish mowing the lawn. I even weed-wacked around the fence. In the department of "duh," I have to report that weed wacking is hard work. My arms are a little sore! It still wasn't raining, so I planted a few seeds. More beets, and some swiss chard. Everything else needs to wait until it warms up a bit. I put straw over the seeds so the rain doesn't wash them away. Did you know that straw has seeds of its own in it? Everywhere I've put straw down, I now have a bumper crop of wheat. Which kinds of defeats the purpose of mulch. At least it pulls up easy.

In bad news Thirteen has been acting a little kooky since I got her back from the kennel. Really pacey last night. Also she got into the hydrangea bed. Argh! I want my money back on the "guaranteed to keep out decrepit dogs" flimsy fence. She tore up one hydrangea, but I think (hope) it will survive. At least she's sleeping now. Guess she wore herself out last night. The vet thinks it's agitation that's making Thirteen pace, not pain. We started this insanely expensive "brain diet" food, and the vet also recommended dog acupuncture. I haven't called the acupuncturist yet but another night like last night and I will. I did get Thirteen a nice new bed. It's made of that memory foam stuff, and you fill it with water. It's supposed to keep the dog cool in hot weather, but I put a fleece blanket over it at night. Of course, right now she's sleeping on the bare floor instead. Here's hoping she gets more into the new bed when it gets hot.