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I’m back with some more progress to report. Above pic is the asparagus bed; taken over by renegade blackberry vines, deadnettle, hairy bittercress, creeping charlie, peppermint, bermuda grass, overly enthusiastic bee balm, dead leaves, and general mayhem. It was so thick I put it off forever and barely knew where to start. In the end I just started at one end and worked my way along, bit by bit. I put cardboard on the path beside it and mulched over the cardboard with pine straw.

 

IMG_7298I weeded this bed so hard I think I scared the asparagus away from peeking up for at least another month, if not for the whole year.  It had to be done, though. Ever reach down to cut an asparagus spear and scrape right across a blackberry cane with your bare hand?

The remaining green is mache/corn salad. If you’ve never grown mache, I highly recommend it. Mild, buttery leaves, extremely cold hardy.

Remember this thing?

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Now it makes a little more sense, and I’ll have to stop calling it a Thing. Tool holder? Tool rack? Tool stand? I know: Tool Thing.

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See that tin cup in the top right corner? The Curb Whisperer and I dug that up at an old prison dump site. Every time I look at it I picture it being dragged across the prison bars like in the movies.

I use it to pour rainwater around tender seedlings.

I think it’s happier now.

And last for today, this is the espalier area before:

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And after:

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It’s not a dramatic difference, but I did weed and mulch and get the Virginia Creeper and dead Passionflower vines off the fence. I should probably wash the fence to remove the green. I probably won’t, though.

On the right is a plum tree and on the left is the peach. You can barely see them, but there are blueberry bushes, small ones, behind the trees. The border has a succession of flowers; first come the daffodils, of course, then daylilies, irises, blackeyed susans, and purple coneflowers, as well as comfrey.

The comfrey grows so tall it covers the first cordon of the trees if I don’t keep it cut down. It comes back and flowers again and again.

Keep going back to your master list and keep marking things off.

Link to your photos if you have ’em in the comments.