The Purge

It was a mad house on the scenic byway yesterday morning with a bicycle ride that took two hours for all the riders to pass, a huge number of motorized support vehicles, regular motorcycle rally and rubbernecker traffic and a live auction of good country junk just down the road. A mad house.

I edited while the world rolled by.

This is the year. No more thinking about it. A purge of the more aggressive goldenrods is well under way.

Left alone the goldenrods will dominate the Tall Flower Meadow at the expense of so much else by stealing all the sun. Their numbers are being drastically reduced. It is simple enough. I grab individual stems close to the base and pull. Maybe I get a little root, maybe I don't. I have set the plant back big time by stealing all the energy that stem represents.

Now another plant, hopefully an aster has the chance to shade out the stunted goldenrod crown. That is the theory anyway. One thing I know I don't need is a lot of bare ground. That is the favorite haunt of thuggish first responders.

My aim is not perfection or total elimination, it is to nudge the meadow in a new direction and away from a one note golden domination. The Tall Flower Meadow is filled with a huge array of characters just waiting to be featured.

My big bold foliage plants are getting bigger by the year.

I prefer they be shown off to best advantage and not ensnared in a clump of smothering goldenrod.

The skylight making for the planted plants of the Under Garden is easy and ongoing. Now I just grab lots of goldenrod as I make my rounds.

My eyeball surgery induced staycation is over. Time to go back to paying work. It was nice while it lasted.

I'll be ready for the debris flying path whacking next week. By then my eyeball shouldn't be half bloodshot. The time to whack the Great Lawn into appearance is near.