Grubbing Trees and Dependant Projects

I felt like I was in the “If you Give a Mouse a Cookie” book today.

Mowing the Lawn Grubbing Trees

I went outside to mow the lawn. I realized that there was a big pile of leaves under the lilacs. I wanted to mulch them on the lawn, so I thought I’d better rake them out first. As I was raking I discovered that there were lots of small non-lilac trees hiding between the lilacs. So I started pulling them out. Most were 8-inch tall maple trees that came out with a tug, but some might have been mulberry and were 3/4 inch thick those ones required use of the shovel.

In previous years I would’ve just cut the trees down, but they always seem to keep sending up new shoots. It’s more work in the short run to get the roots out, but hopefully it’ll be worth it in the long run.

To make a long story short, I never got around to mowing, but the lilacs have some more growing room. I’m entering the third year of a three year pruning process with them.

I am now in the market for some sort of shade-tolerating groundcover that will help keep those tree volunteers out of the dirt. I’m leaning towards mint or forget-me-nots, but I’m open to suggestions.

It seems like the quick easy project I want to do always depends on 2 or 3 other projects that will take hours to complete. When we wanted to plant the cherry tree, I needed to cut down the birch tree. Before I could start composting again this year, I had to distribute the finished compost that was in there from last year around the yard.

Weather willing, I’ll finally get to mowing tomorrow.