This morning, I probably killed one of my two ancient lavender plants.
It started when I decided to rake the leaves out of a flower bed along the driveway, where yarrow, beebalm, and larkspur are beginning to emerge. That bed had been invaded by English ivy, so once I got most of the leaves out, I started pulling ivy. Of course, one thing leads to another....
The lavender grows 8 feet to the west of that bed. I planted it - probably 20 years ago, on a rocky, sunny bank - never expecting it to make it through the first winter. But it did, and it continues to live. I have never pruned it, never raked off the leaves, for fear of killing it. It, too, has been invaded by ivy. Last year, it had only a few stems peeking up through the debris. This morning, I decided that it would probably not survive another year of being choked, so I got out the pruning shears and the rake and attacked it. In the process, I broke off the only stem that showed signs of life.
This stem had sprawled and grown roots where it touched the ground. I re-planted the stem. Now that I think about it, I should probably go back out and lop off the foliage so that it can concentrate on re-rooting itself.
Later this morning, I'll need to tackle the piles of leaves. They'll make a good start on a new round of compost. Last week, I bought a bag of mushroom compost to use in the vegetable garden. A few handfuls of that mushroom stuff might jump-start the new batch of compost
This evening when The Husband gets home, we're going to set the t-posts for the vegetable garden fencing. The tractor makes short work of that terrible job.
Speaking of the tractor, Son #2 borrowed it this weekend to push up a bunch of brush and pine needles around his property. The Little Rotten Baby (now age 4) insisted on a ride on the tractor. Her daddy even let her raise and lower the bucket. When he prepared to return the tractor, she told him, "I feel like I need to keep this."
I can see some benefit in having a granddaughter who knows how to drive a tractor, once she's big enough to reach the pedals. :)
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