Clean Up

It finally feels like summer is winding down, and the garden with it. Our flower beds were looking overgrown, the garden was weeding, the grass was long, and the bushes were, well, bushy. So yesterday we finally got around to some much needed clean up around the yard.

I started by pulling all of the sunflowers and zinnias and such out of the bed around our bottle tree. And completely forgot to take a picture of it before it was all cleaned out. And realized as Keith drove the truck away, full of yard waste, that I should have had a picture of that too. So all I have is a shot of the empty bed. I swear we haven't seen the bottle tree since June, the flowers were that full. We liked all the color and all the healthy bee activity, but the sunflowers were much to big so I think we might do a variety of herbs here next year.

Then I pulled out the broccoli plants, which had gone to flower. The Hungarian wax peppers are still producing though, so we'll let them go for awhile yet.

Then I tackled a patch of the yard that had a strange little purple weed growing, creeping further into the yard as the summer wore on. It came out pretty easily so hopefully we have seen the last of it. We aren't really ones for a high-maintenance yard, but we at least like our weeds to be green...

Keith tackled the hedge out front (there's some vague talk of removing it permanently) and some of the bushes along the side of the house. Bert and I helped clean up the branches.

 

I weeded the garden, ripping out the biggest of weeds before they went to seed. We still have some tomatoes and green peppers coming on, as well as some squash. (We think it might be butternut, but it was a volunteer plant and might be a weird hybrid. We'll see when it matures.) We'll keep the cornstalks to decorate the front porch for the fall.

Keith made two trips to the town's yard waste dumpsters, and weed-whacked and mowed the yard. Things still look a little ragged as the last of the vegetables finish up, but at least it doesn't look totally unkempt. Oh, and I did remember to put some spinach and lettuce in the other week and they have started to sprout so we are looking forward to enjoying some greens into the fall.