999 Dandelions, 1000 - That's it For Today

My mom and I headed out this morning to a plant sale at the heritage farm museum and scored some lovely stuff for the garden. I got some daylilies, irises, golden hosta, a burning bush and some angelica.

We dropped off the plants at home, then went to a church flea market where I got one research book and three coffee table books for $3.00! One on Britain, one on Pompeii and one on Canadian wilderness info. The research book is a look at loss as a means of growth - I was drawn to it because my main vampire character has to work through loss issues through the story.

Before heading out to the front yard with the dandelion picker, I took my dog Xena next door to my neighbors for a play date with their two dogs! While she played with them, Mack put up a gazebo on the deck, while Freda and I sat in the shade chatting and sipping cool drinks. That was lovely.

When Xena seemed too hot, I took her inside our cool basement apartment to hang out with Brad. Then I started harvesting the dandelions. I filled two garbage bags with them (our local green bin composting facility asks that noxious weeds not go into the bins.) There's still another thousand or so waiting for me tomorrow. I calculated the amount by counting ten in one area, estimating the area covered by 100, then sized out the rest of the yard.

We'll probably get my almost-brother-in-law to treat the lawn with something that conforms to our city's non-pesticide-use bylaw. He did last year and it worked well. My mom and I are the exact types that can't handle exposure to pesticides, so we're grateful for that bylaw. But I do have a few things on my calendar that are more pressing than continuous dandelion removal.

It's worth it for now, though, to use the dandelion picker. Especially since I want to take some pictures of the front garden, with the forsythia and tulips in bloom by the rock feature we put in last year.