Garden Reality

I started the summer full of big plans for getting the yard back into shape. I divided the yard up into zones and planned to rotate through them a week at a time getting the weeds out and the desirable plants back where they belong.

Now that it is almost August, I find myself still in the front yard, working my way around and pulling out weeds, mostly oak seedlings.

This picture shows how thick they are. The left side of the picture has been de-oaked, the right side of the picture has not. Some of them are several years old and have a tap root a foot long. Others are new seedlings and are still attached to the acorn, making them difficult to pull out of the ground.

My original plan to cut the little oaks off at ground level was a failure. The seedlings I cut off are sprouting new leaves and I'm going to have to go back and pull them out by the roots.

When I started the project, I wasn't in very good shape so I pulled oaks for fifteen minutes a day. Now I'm in better shape and I go out for a half hour a day.

This is not whining. I have come to enjoy the process. I take out a stool, sit down, pull, and enjoy the outdoors, the birds, the insects, and the sense of satisfaction in seeing the ground cleared. I'm starting to plan what to plant in the cleared patches of soil. It's going to be fun to fill in the front yard garden this fall.