Today was a garden chores day. We've been working on digging a new bed down by the road. It's been a nasty, weedy area for years, out of control most of the summer, and it's right out front where everyone driving by sees it.
The weeds are so thick, and the soil so hard and rocky, that the best way to dig up the weeds was to get down on the ground and shove the flat-bladed shovel under the edge of the weeds, horizontally so to speak, and then pry up a chunk of the matted weed layer. Paul James calls this "sod busting" but there's no sod, so I call it weed busting instead. It's really hard work, hard on the shoulders. Normal digging you can put your whole body into, but this is all arms.
We've been slowly working on this for the past couple of weeks, a little bit at a time. Today I got an early start, worked all morning and got a big enough area cleared to make the bed. I even found a couple patches of rudbeckia hiding in the weeds.
While I was working I talked to a couple of people. First a woman walked by with her dog. She saw me working and said, "You never give up on that ditch!" I agreed that yes, I keep trying, and someday I'll beat it. Then she said, "No matter what you do, it seems like it's gone in two weeks!" Okay, thanks lady, stop trying to make me feel better.
Then a volunteer from the Obama campaign came by. She asked me if I knew yet who I was supporting, and I told her I had also volunteered for Obama. I told her I was surprised to see her because canvassers don't normally come up our street; it's not very pedestrian-friendly. She said they were trying to visit every house with a democratic or unaffiliated voter. She also told me they're canvassing every weekend, and doing phone bank every weeknight, until the primary. I'm hoping I'll have time to help them in the next couple of weeks.
Once the weeds were busted, then came the hard part! Well actually it probably wasn't harder, but I was getting tired and still had so much to do that it felt harder. First loosen the soil. Like I mentioned, it was so hard and rocky that in places I couldn't use the big fork & had to whack at it with a mattock. And the stones, good grief, the stones. Gravel everywhere, some larger stones, and one about the size of a grapefruit. Everything bigger than the gravel had to be pried out with the mattock.
Then added about two wheelbarrows of nice compost, and turned it in, and then about three wheelbarrows of mulch on top. Then finally I could plant: three dozen marigolds and six ice plants. I'm going to put black-eyed susans behind the marigolds when they come it at the garden center. All tough plants which can handle the tough conditions down there.
There's still a ton to do, clearing the weeds to the right and left and also up the bank. Still, it's a good start. Good thing, too, because I am so sore and tired. I took lots of breaks during the day, drank lots of water, and watched last night's Battlestar Galactica (best. episode. ever!) and I was still wiped out by the end of the day. I've been watching movies all evening.
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