Wednesday, November 30, 2016

Rounding Up the Garden

 The regular gun deer season for 2016 finally ended this past Sunday.  I'm always glad when it's over because then I can feel relatively safe working in the garden and wandering out in the Back Eight for my walks.  

We're surrounded by woods here and hunters abound.  I don't need to catch a stray bullet since I already have enough health problems, ha.  I believe black powder season is possibly still open, but I'm not as leery of those hunters.  They have to take a much more careful aim since they only get one shot at a time.  I'm counting on them not seeing me as a target. 

Even though we've had a reprieve with our warm fall weather, I'm still behind on cleaning up the garden. Of course, it didn't help matters any when I decided to alternately coerce, coax and cajole Carl into remodeling the Pachyberm which we were working on right up until the septic construction a few weeks ago.
Carl moving a rock into place in October
We've given up on the remodeling for the year; it will still be there in the spring.  Carl helped me wrap the dwarf crab apple trees for the winter on Tuesday afternoon and we stood on top the Pachyberm ruefully eying the unfinished project.  Truth be told, we were both happy with the results so far, so that's encouraging.  Nothing like a pile of big rocks to make my heart happy.

Last week gun deer season was in full swing, and I couldn't find my blaze orange jackets anywhere.  (Turned out they were in Joel's trunk, in case you were wondering.  We'd gone cross-country skiing last winter on a recreational trail during hunting season.)

 Last week Tuesday my sore back started to loosen up some, but not enough to make bending over comfortable since I was still wearing my back brace.  I had a bunch of ornmental grasses that needed taking down and one last hosta bed to tackle.  

Gauging my creaky back situation,  I asked Carl to help me start my Stihl weed whacker.  Normally I don't use the trimmer to remove hosta foliage.  My main reason for such avoidance of technology is the metal name tags I have on each plant, or, well, used to have.  Many of my hostas are now anonymous due to their 'Hi My Name Is' badges being flung ten feet away by a weirdo wielding a whacker.  (Meaning me.) 

Carl was a bit hesitant to arm me with my power tool since I was just starting to walk better, but I assured him I'd go slow and take it easy.  Heck, I won't do all that much.  Just a few things.  Carl looked at me and shrugged, yeah, right, just a few things, sure...  He knows me too well.

It was quite cold out that day, and damp, so I donned long underwear.  Since I couldn't find my blaze orange at the time and there were hunters all over the place, I decided to top my heavy winter jacket with my lightweight red hooded sweatshirt so I'd be seen by any stalking hunters.  I know, as if deer make as much racket as I do, but hey, safety first.  (The weed whacker sounds exactly like a chainsaw, in other words, loud.)

Unbeknownst to me, I had someone stalking me with a camera.  (I thought Carl had left since he had an appointment.)


Wait, that's not a hosta bed, that's 'Annabelle' hydrangea.  Oh, well, the stalks are down now.

Ok, let's see what else I can destroy around the joint:
 
No, you cannot weed whack the Mugho pine even though it has a case of scale at the moment. 


I did give the idea some serious thought though.

Ooops, my 'deer in the headlights' look, heh, heh, didn't see you there, Carl...never mind, I'll leave the tree alone.
 



In the end, I whacked down the 'Karl Foerster' grasses in the Formal garden, a bunch of sedums and assorted miscanthus by the Escarpment, and way more hostas than I intended to.  I was all over the yard with my weapon of destruction.  I don't regret it even though I had to go back and do a lot of raking, at least things are moving along a little faster.  But yes, I did make a mess.


Wasn't I the one who complained about the hens making a mess in the garden?  Hmmm....classic case of the pot calling the kettle black.   Sorry Girls, you're forgiven.

The temperatures still seem to be hovering near or around forty-something for a few more days, so with any luck I'll get some more stuff done outside yet.  


Work is good for what ails you. 

6 comments:

Stephen Andrew said...

How scary to have hunters all around! I am going to need to look up what black powder is. Anyway, you amaze me with all that you have going on that you're still out there tending your garden! That's why your garden is such a delight and mine is a thistle infested hell hole. The photo of you is great, and it was even better when I saw the Aargh window floating over your head and thought it was some type of girl in the plastic bubble protective underwater looking helmet! I'm reading on my phone so things are a bit small and I had to zoom in to see it was in fact a window!

Beth @ PlantPostings said...

Wow, you must be in good shape doing all that work! Cute deer-in-headlights looks. :) I remember that concern about deer hunters from when we lived a few miles from town. There were blaze orange hunters off in the distance in all directions (or maybe that's just how I remember it). I always kept the kids inside during those weekends, and I had worries about stray bullets making it into the house (not sure that was a rational worry, but hey). Your garden looks great! It sounds like colder air is right around the corner for all of us next week. Brrrrr...

Carol said...

You remind me of myself so much.... I find that I just can't stay down no matter how much it hurts to move about. Probably why it took me 6 months to recover from the original back injury. Well recover enough to go back to work part time on restricted duties :( Don't like restrictions! Take care our yourself!!! I say as I'm limping around the house today because I was bad yesterday LOL!

Karen said...

Stephen, Oh MY goodness, you'll never know how much your comment brought on explosive laughter on my part. I'm still chortling with glee. Thank you for the laugh, I TRULY need one right now!

Beth, yes, I did the same things when the boys were little, you never know about bullets and when a hunter(s) get one on the run, adrenaline kicks in. I always breathe a little easier when those ten days are past.

Carol, I know, what is wrong with us? :-) I know how you feel, it seems like such a waste to sit around when there's Stuff to be done! I hope you feel better soon.

chavliness said...

Getting out into the garden, regardless of weather or body pain, has always been the best medicine for my body and soul. I'm sure you feel the same way. Rolling around in the dirt, not literally of course, is my therapy.

Kraftyfix said...

That looks like quite the beast of a weed whacker! Still I guess it's testament to the design that you can use it comfortably even if you're not feeling 100%.