Late morning again, I'm now drinking another Red Bull. Not something I do often. Most people fall for the false advertising that it's an 'energy drink'; it's not, it's simply an adrenaline rush. It doesn't give you any energy, it 'fakes' energy - you feel alert and energetic, act on it, then pay the price later ... That's why I'm drinking it in the morning, so that tonight, I'm ready to 'pay the price' and sleep!
Anyway, it's Friday! And not a day too soon! I call it 'year end fatigue'. I'm really mentally exhausted - the physical exhaustion is pure gardening, ha ha! I also seem to be loosing weight, considering my chocolate intake, that's a bit of a surprise! Nothing to worry about, though, again: gardening is to blame. I'm physically more active in this large garden - and loving it!
Well, it's really a very large garden! To give you an idea: The property in PE is roughly 45 x 15 square meter, and the patch of lawn I worked was only about 15 x 5 m. Okay, so there was the hedge and such, outside that area, but mostly I kept to that small patch. All my beds were inside (or bordering) that portion.
The last place where I lived, was about 20 x 20 square meter. A lot of which was taken up by the flat, so the garden itself was even less. And I wasn't allowed to touch a lot of that, as the owners had already filled it with their plants. So I worked the outer border of that garden.
Now, the place I'm renting now measures about 45 x 25 square meter, plus, there's another strip about 25 m long by 10 m wide. Again, a lot of that is taken up by the house, but the front garden alone measures 25 x 20! It's a 20 meter walk from the house to the gate - so, you're getting an idea just what a big job I've taken on?
I really shot myself in the foot - and badly, at that - when I let the grass grow under my feet. Literally! I really should have just carried on mowing once a week - if I had, I wouldn't have the struggle I'm having now! Lesson learned, the hard way, ha ha!
That white building next to my house is my neighbour's car port, yet that patch of green behind it, is part of my garden.
Now explain to me: WHY do mippies need to go outside the garden? Seriously. Why?
But now you can see why I'm in love with my home, can't you? I'm not sure when exactly this image was taken - a long time before the rains, that's for sure! Outside my garden has become completely overgrown, mostly with tall veld grass. Inside, well, you know my daily struggle re-claiming my lawn at the moment.
Another half hour and I can continue my battle against the overgrown grass! Along the front wall is going to be the trickiest bit - if you look carefully, you can see plants with beds speckling the lawn. There are roses and ponytails planted along there, and each plant has its own, circular bed. Try mowing around that! It's well-nigh impossible! That's why I'm planning on expanding those beds - make the whole lot one big bed, rather than the current 'don't join the dots' puzzle. Don't get me wrong: It's pretty! It just isn't practical, that's all!
Twenty minutes to go ...
Going, going ... gone! Home! I'm home at last!
With the sun still high, I can't continue mowing - unless I want to risk sun stroke. I've only just recovered from the last bad burn, so ... I think not! Take a walk around to see what's in the shade, and which of those areas I'd like to tackle.
Okay, the lawn border in front of the house. I started under the car port, then cleared the driveway again, cleared the 3x4 little brick path - the next one was in the sun, so I left that. Then worked along the front veranda, pulling out grass and weeds, making about a hand-breadth space between lawn and wall. Not a new thing - it seems to have been done before, as there isn't much grass actually growing there. But I did dig out a couple of fat weed roots. Then around the corner, in front of the 2nd bedroom, the same width, only now between the lawn and the path. This time, I'm not just pulling a few blades of grass off, but digging deep, clearing as many roots as I can get out. I manage to finish about half-way along that path - the last bit was a nest of those fat rooted thorns.
Then it was past five, and I could start mowing. I've now finished about 3/4 of the front lawn - which is not quite half of all the grass, I'm afraid. If you look on the right hand side, you can see a line from the house to the trees, about 5 x 10 meter - that's outside my bedroom, the partition. With the pavement I had found under the lawn. That still needs to be mowed. Same for the two partitions on the far left. Add those to the 1/4 lawn still to do, and that's more than half the job still ahead of me!
Sounds discouraging, I know, but all things considered, I've really accomplished an incredible lot of work, since I've moved here! Fortunately we haven't had much rain lately, so the grass hasn't been going 'glug, glug, glug, woosh!' for a while. I will be glad when I've got everything back to standard, though - sheez, I really did myself in badly, letting the grass grow like that, eh? Well, there was some thinking involved: I meant to clear the weeds and pavement first, which would essentially mean that there'd be less to mow! Just didn't expect it to grow so thick and tall! No lawn were I've lived ever grew like that so quickly! But that's because I'm now on much more fertile ground, and there's plenty of water here. In PE, even when it did rain, mowing once a month was enough ... and the last place had such a crappy lawn ...
Anyway, I'm off to bed and looking forward to a lovely weekend!
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