With Ray at my side work gets done at least five times faster than usual. He worked a summer doing landscaping before his mission, and I am now reaping the benefits of that (thank you Wendell Bruner!!). All of the big areas Ray goes through with a mattock (my new favorite garden tool), then I follow either picking out the weeds by hand or with a rake, depending on the size and volume of the weeds. We did one area in a day that it used to take me a week to get done.
Ray tells me repeatedly that it's inefficient to worry about the little stuff until after the big stuff gets done. (I could write a book -- Life Lessons Learned from Yard Work). Sometimes I can't help myself and I just want to get that small stuff. So now he says, "Mom! Don't sweat the small stuff!" Then he tells me that when the big stuff is done we'll go through with a hoe and rake and maintain. Those are indeed sweet words to my ears.
Today Ray was out job hunting, and I was left alone to work at my weeding. I did what I call the "solo" areas - where weeds are so intricately woven in the intentional plantings that they need to be gotten by hand. I missed Ray. He's good company. I must admit I have mixed feelings about him getting a job...
Every time I weed, I keep hearing the verse, "Some gardeners slash frantically at weed's offending shoots, while others labor steadily loosening their roots. But I think there's value in both. It's so not fair that guys can do yard work about 5 times faster than we can because of their superman strength. I've been doing everything in the yard this year , including mowing (which is going better), and it is so slow. But it's looking great. Come see!
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