In the Garden

Today I did some work in the front planting bed. It has been neglected and is need of some attention.

I admit I’m not the most ambitious of gardeners. I have a naturalistic approach with a Darwinian edge (if it dies it probably wasn’t meant to be there). I don’t like sculpted hedges and believe pruning should only be done to remove deadwood and maintain pathways. However I should still weed out the bed and throw down some mulch.

The main reason that I have been lax has been Rebecca. Previously, whenever I have worked out front, Rebecca would go on walk about. At first she would help out, but after a brief while she would hot foot it to the stream aka the glorified drainage ditch along our property. I would have to stop and drag her away. The water is usually not very deep, but it only takes a few inches. There is also an enormous culvert beneath the roadway for the stream and she loves to stand on the top and look down. This is what really scares me. It is a good five foot drop down to some very slimy concrete and jagged rocks.

Anyway, at four and a half she is finally old enough not to go wandering off.

So after dropping off Nate at tennis we came back home to do some weeding. Jake quickly understood the task at hand and was a good worker, but the wee ones needed a little more direction. For ¾ of an hour I got to listen to “Is this a weed mamma?” every five minutes. At first it was just Rebecca. Max was uninterested in helping out until I pointed out that this was an opportunity to earn some money. Then Max decided that he could indeed do some weeding.

We made some good progress even with Rebecca fading out after half an hour. She doesn’t handle the heat at all and I understand. Both Jake and Max were very helpful. We should be able to get the planting bed straightened in short order. Then we can do the fun part of spreading the mulch. Nate is looking forward to this and pled with me that we would not start doing it without him.