It has been a long hard day! The weather was fantastic for yard work—not too hot, not too cold, which I why it was a long hard day.
I started off by cutting back the irises that were spent, along with other deadheading and weed pulling in the front flower garden. Did the same for the vegetable gardens in the back.
Then a little break to get some recipes I’ve been wanting to put into Paprika, my recipe app. I love that it has a browser feature, where I can find a recipe I’ve liked online and it will download it, complete with pictures, into my recipe file.
Next was my Saturday writing group. We can’t meet in person, but we do a Zoom meet-up. Finished the rough first draft, and started first edits of my book today. Hurray!
After, it was time to mow grass. Since I am starting to dethatch both the front and back yards, I opted to use the grass catcher today. It did make the lawn look a little, but won’t do it every time. The grass does need some decomposing cut grass to help with moisture control.
Once I finished lunch, I moved the grill and the storage “shed” around so the grass doesn’t die under it. The crew finally has started on the deck. Meaning we had to move some stuff. I just don’t want it to kill any grass because it has been very hard to get grass going in the backyard with its clay soil. While back there I pulled some clover, which I hate because of how it spreads so quickly. I may break down and buy a clover killer that doesn’t harm the grass, if such a thing exists. Buying weed killer is not my first choice, but it is so hard to get rid of otherwise.
I started dethatching the backyard. Nothing like dethatching to show me know I’m not young, and definitely not in shape, anymore. The process takes a lot of shoulder, bicep, and tricep power. At least it does for me as I’m basically beating the ground with the rake while also scraping it forward to gather the stuff collected over the past year. Stuff that is stuck into the ground or in the blades of the grass. It’s hard work. I’m sorry to say I had to stop after about 15-minutes and only got a small corner finished. But, at least I got started and will keep working on it until I finish. Who knows, maybe I’ll be in better shape when I finish. Or dead. One of the two are distinct possibilities. I will admit I had to take a nap after finishing the manual labor stuff.
Watering the vegetable garden was much easier. Pictures below are of what the raised gardens look like now. Mopping the kitchen, cutting up fruit and making banana bread were also much easier.
Tomorrow is another day. Maybe I can get another corner, and then some, of the dethatching done in the back yard?
Personal Reflections of a Middle-Aged Man 