My Progress

I got home from work early today--today is the first day of my summer vacation! ~big smile~ So, I had more energy to get things done. It started, as so many of my projects do, by walking the paths. The bank near the road is overgrown with an invasive perennial. My first year here, I planted a few natives on that hillside. The second year here, is when this invasive took off.

It has rained quite a bit a day or so ago, so the soil was pretty loose. My mother often weeded after a rain. I found that the weeds came out pretty easily. I weeded around my pasture rose and the asters that I put in last year. The few patches of asters seemed to compete pretty well and kept the weeds pretty much at bay. So, I am trying to help the natives outcompete them. Also, I'll add more natives to keep more weeds from germinating.

In the process I uncovered a lot of the rocks I've had my eye on from the first year.







Among the sumac growing there are the asters and a small Viburnum that I put in the first year. While weeding, I decided to use the weeds themselves to shade out and smother anything that comes up from the roots.


...and I hauled out some more rocks for the water feature I want to add.