First garden-exhaustion of the year

It was warm again today, though not sunny, and rain was forecast. Unusually, I got my act together and went outside to work in the garden, with the result that I was shot to flinders by 1:30.

Doug had announced his intention of mowing over the hillside to get all of last year's goldenrod stems, etc. I think the birds have got all there may be to get off these stalks, and we knew we would not discommode too many grasshoppers (there are a few, small brown ones who must have hibernated) and no toads at all this time of year. So I marked all the daffodils coming up with pin flags (which actually looked pretty festive, a remark about how little color there is this time of year) and Doug mowed the daylights out of almost everything in sight.

I pulled up two huge bags of God-awful trailing raspberry out of the strawberry patch, pulling up relatively few strawberries, and there were actually some that lived through last summer.

Then I mowed through a hug patch of crown vetch, reduced by winter to a wispy hay that Doug raked into a good position so I could reduce it to dust. I love my lawn mower. It helps itself go up hills. It eats small sticks. It is not exceptionally heavy or deafeningly noisy.

The good thing about gardening this time of year, where it isn't too muddy, is that it's not too hot to wear all-leather gloves. We got no sunstroke, and no bug bites. The only trouble was that those raspberry roots that were lower than about three inches were set in ice, and would not come out. I do think, however, that I have slowed it down and it shouldn't take over the strawberries again for at least a couple months.

Then tonight I spent way too much money on the Stark Bros. catalogue. I am usually threatening to evict Doug as soon as he finishes unpacking, but now he has something to hold over me. I am going to need help digging holes.