Grass Clippings

It was a lovely afternoon. I needed something to do to avoid doing something else. What I was avoiding I am not quite sure. It's a befuddlement. Surely there is something I am supposed to be doing.

The roadside wildflower bed will need tidying before spring, so I dove in. Spring will be here soon.



I could not bring myself to cut the grasses down to the nub just yet. I didn't see any green at the base and after two nights in the low 20's I am not convinced this snowless winter is over. I can still get a little more winter interest out of these grasses. Most of the grass leaves had been shed around their feet. That was easily cleaned up. What remains are the tougher flowering stalks.



The remaining dried stalks of the wildflowers, like the chicory, mums and asters were cut and dropped. This roadside bed is ready for a fresh layer of woodchips. It has been at least two, maybe three years since it was last mulched. I won't mulch near as thick as when starting a fresh bed to give the existing wildflowers a chance to push through. I may lose some volunteer seedlings, but that is the price you pay in the attempt to organize chaos.



It is a befuddlement, these weeks that swing from 70 to 20 degrees and as work kind work slowly picks up speed.