And there were more. Many, many more.
So far I’m pretty taken with gardening. This is surprising as we have no garden to speak of, only stretches of weedy lawn and some dug up areas I have big hopes for. We also have a delightful shady spot at the back of the house with some healthy hostas, a spectacular number of weeds and saplings and an even more astonishing number of mosquitos. I received about 20 bites in 10 minutes on Sunday night trying to rip out some of the offending vegetation. Yesterday afternoon I wore copious and obviously poisonous amounts of bug repellant and only received a dozen or so bites after 30 minutes of weeding. The mosquitos in Northfield aren’t bad – about the same level of annoyance as in Chicago. It’s just our backyard.
I’m completely green (ha! ha! my first gardening pun!) when it comes to gardening. I joined the library yesterday and took out some books on Minnesota gardening. I’ve dug up the front garden and completely weeded it and turned over the soil. My next plan is to spread about 2″ of compost on the soil to let it settle in anticipation of Lucille coming next week when she and I can actually put in some plants (I’m thinking of tall wheat-y grasses, echinacea, black-eyed Susans, Russian sage, a smoke bush tree, and some purple-y groundcover stuff that I see everywhere). Any thoughts? Suggestions (we’re zone 4A)? My hope is when my mother comes in October we can also plant some bulbs
Our real world of pain, though, is the overgrown, weedy lawn. We ordered a push mower yesterday after reading a lot of glowing Amazon reviews and receiving reassurance from a neighbor that a push mower will do us just fine. It’s due to arrive tomorrow. I don’t know how long we’ll last without a gas mower and if a push mower is the ultimate in hippie hubris or what. Place your bets now.
Emily – what you really needed was a team of my archaeology students. The process of taking up the top layer of a lawn is VERY similar to the process of starting a new excavation – and just like gardening…its the worst part of the job. Looks like you are going great guns though…can’t wait to see the pics of the finished product!
I had to use a push mower growing up. I cursed my parents every weekend. Looking back, I am glad I had to do it, and I mastered the art of mowing an area in the fewest number of turns.
Arctic willow bushes are really pretty and grow quickly. They don’t look like much at first, but we swear by their awesome-ness.
We also swear by the awesome-ness of our gas mower.
Tom says that English people use electric mowers.
I’m wondering how come you don’t want a riding mower!?
The great dandelion massacre of ‘010. // May 13, 2010 at 9:59 PM
[...] “We ordered a push mower yesterday after reading a lot of glowing Amazon reviews and receiving reassurance from a neighbor that a push mower will do us just fine. It’s due to arrive tomorrow. I don’t know how long we’ll last without a gas mower and if a push mower is the ultimate in hippie hubris or what. Place your bets now.” — Emily, August 11th, 2009. [...]