Sunday, June 21, 2009

Self Imposed Burn Ban

We piled grass, old canes and weeds in 5 piles around the blackberries - huge piles - we burned 2 of them and then I worried that we were cooking plants from the heat but we needed them gone so we laid a tarp down. This is a good method to move mass messes - garden messes. Instead of using a wheelbarrow use a cheap, plastic tarp. I learned this from a friend who installs plants in some of the finer neighborhoods in Tulsa - she has a few places where there's a ton of azaleas that are trimmed each year and it is a lot easier to toss the cuttings on the tarp - so if you find a part of your yard is well overgrown, try this.

The downside - this was enough plant material to literally fill the bed of a dump truck - not a pickup truck but a regular 3 axle dump truck. It took 7 loads - and is piled at the back of the garden where we put our chipping/shreddings. Eventually, it will be ground up and used as mulch.

We took a break this weekend from all the work and was watching an old western on THIS channel 6.3 - a handsome captain was assigned to an old general that didn't mind sacrificing his less well-trained calvarymen if it allowed him an advantage in fighting the Indians (remember, this was an old movie). The young captain had become a thorn in the general's side because he had seen him in action years earlier so the general intended to sacrifice him and his unit in a war with the Souix. I looked over at my husband and I told him, "Remember when we used to think the Calvary was the heros. Now, I am rooting for the Native Americans." He laughed - my, how times have changed both of us.

Anyone got any good suggestions on keeping digging dogs out of certain parts of the yard - I try to keep wet spots elsewhere but they sure like digging in the shade garden - where can I buy a huge can of cayenne pepper - like in lbs?

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