Yard Work

The grass was dry enough to mow by about 10…and the temperature was in the mid-70s, an occasional breeze. My husband started out with the mowing while I picked up twigs/small branches that had blown out of our oak and sycamore…to take back to the brush pile. I took the small amount of kitchen scraps we’d accumulated to go back to the compost pile; it included some spent flowers I’d purchased…and some that I’d brought in from our own garden.

I decided to cut down some of the milkweed in our front flower bed. It is not beautiful…and I since I’ve discovered the meadow of milkweed near the neighborhood stormwater pond, I don’t need to have a huge amount. Last year I didn’t have a single Monarch caterpillar. After I’d cut some of the big stalks down, I discovered that there were a lot of day lily buds behind them. I hope that cutting the milkweed doesn’t make the buds more vulnerable to deer. I’ll cut the day lilies as soon as the bugs are large enough to open.

There are lots of other buds over by the bird bath and they are very exposed. The deer are not intimidated about coming up that close to our front porch! They’ve been like that for the past 4-5 days…so hopefully the deer won’t find them for another week or so. At least one stalk may be mature enough to get cut in a day or so.

Under the deck there are two kinds of ferns that are doing well this year. I was surprised that there is a small holly there too. Holly is an understory tree but I’m not sure it will do well in the deep shade under our deck. I’m leaving it alone for now.

I had plenty of time to look things over because my husband didn’t turn the mower over to me until he got thirsty. I got 3 or 4 rounds in the backyard before he was back. I’m glad he is feeling better but miss the workout of mowing more of the yard.

Unique activities for yesterday:

The 2nd CSA share. So many good things for a summer salad. I used a small amount a few hours after I got home: red leaf lettuce, summer squash, turnip, radish, arugula – a little chicken for protein. The crispers are still very full. I’m in the mode of having a huge salad every day while we have the huge amount of greens!

Since we have 2 pounds of summer squash – I’m letting my husband choose between custard and muffins. That will be a morning project since I don’t want to use the oven on a hot afternoon. Our air conditioning is good…but why make it work harder. I like cooking first thing in the morning anyway.