It was rough, but worth it!

Dog tired!  This is the end result of a several hours of play and exploration!  These two pretty much went nonstop with the running, digging and all out goofing.  Tucker got so tired that he went up and flopped down on the deck to sleep, he was done!  Wonder if he’ll ever be able to keep up with Cooper???

Yesterday I mentioned how great the azaleas looked but you couldn’t really see them in that picture.  Well here there are in the freshly weeded and cleared area.  I’m hoping that this fall, we can shred the leaves and spread them in all these areas to keep the weeds down, it really makes a difference.

We moved toward the old bee area and all this area was overrun with Japanese stilt grass, barberry, bittersweet and these really stinky weedy trees.

My fern patch is filling in, I love this area so much.  I’ll have to get in there and weed it but the more they grow the happier I am.  It’s just the most lovely, spot it just looks like a ‘forest’ floor should to me.

Everywhere you see ground was covered with Japanese stilt grass, Randy must have carted four or five loads of it away!  That stuff is just horrible, each piece makes hundreds of seeds and they stay in the soil for up to 7 years.  How will I ever get rid of it!

Under all the stilt grass there were some plants.  A couple of different coneflowers and some Joe Pye weed. 

This area still needs some tending but it looks to have several different plants in there; milkweeds, catmints and some things that I won’t know names for till they bloom.

Randy worked on cleaning up the area behind and while I don’t like the fact that he did mow over native Jack in the Pulpits, Mayflowers and some viburnums in his quest to clear, the end result is better.  He pulled out some many thorny things that his arms look like he was attacked by cats!

 If I could get just one full day every weekend out of Randy like the last two, we could have this yard whipped into shape fast!  It makes such a difference having him help, even if he does murder plants that I’d like to save sometimes.  I’ve always wondered how people that have those picture perfect gardens do it.  I know now, they have muscle to help!