Digging in the Dirt

Today is the first day in a while that I didn't spend any time working on my yard. As the days get longer, it's becoming more and more inviting to shake off the tensions of the workday through a little hard work.

At first, I was just pulling up weeds and trimming bushes. But there was this stump by my patio from one of the ficus trees that my dad and I took down. I started off trying to churn up the dirt around the stump, to see if I might be able to put in some plants. Next thing I new, I was digging up all around the stump to get the roots out. Then I had most of the stump exposed, and a lot of the surrounding roots gone. And then it rained. Some things about clay:

• Rain does make it pliable and much less like rock.
• Wet clay clings to things, like shovels, pickaxes, hand spades, pruning shears, and stumps.
• Wet clay is slippery.

Still, I did get that stump out, which proved two important things:

1. I can dig a stump out all by my own self with the tools I have on hand.
2. I should have known better.

Fortunately, I didn't do any permanent damage to myself, even with all of the slipping on wet clay and falling on my rear end. Even better, after a few more days of puttering (pulling rocks from the dirt, breaking out clumps of clay, mixing in gardening soil, and adding fertilizer), I made a new place to plant! At the moment, I have columbine, lavender, and...some other plant with purple flowers acting as my soil testers. I've put down leaf mulch and bark mulch, too.

(I still have to figure out what to do with the rocks. Before you suggest it: these aren't pretty, border type rocks. These are ragged and ornery rocks of highly irregular size and appearance. I have this idea about putting them through a rock chipper to make gravel. Only I don't think there is such a thing as a rock chipper.)

So now I have two more areas around the patio to clear of weeds and rocks so that I can start amending the soil (which I think is a hilarious term for a messy process) and planting stuff. And then I can move on to the rest of the yard!

It may be unending, but it's more rewarding than the similarly eternal process of prying weeds out of the lawn. At least once I put in flower and vegetable beds, I can mulch enough to at least partially suppress the weeds. (Please don't taunt me for my youthful optimism.)