Collector of Ideas and Frustration

Each year, during the garden-dormant season of winter, I go through the previous years garden journal - the hand written one - and I am always struck by how plans for my garden beds change just over the course of that year. And then I make an 'inspection tour' through the real-life garden and take note of how it is very different from what I had planned seven years ago.



I'm what might be labeled an 'idea hoarder'. Whether the ideas collected are in the form of hand-written notes or photos found on the internet and safely tucked into an appropriately named file folder, I am becoming over-whelmed with the seemingly insurmountable task of choosing and using one or more favorites.


I am quite sure I am not alone in this collector phenomena, but knowing I am not alone doesn't make the task any easier.


As the garden awakens each year and the fever to put new plans into place takes hold of me,my old nemesis is always there to greet me. This enemy is so persistent and onery that I almost want to give up. I'm talking about grass.


Grass creeps into my beds, some worse than others, but in every bed, save for the one that is surrounded by the house, a concrete driveway, a concrete sidewalk and a concrete porch, grass taunts me to no end.


All of these grass-ridden beds were started with the method of laying down multiple layers of wet newspaper, a layer of wet cardboard and a 2-3" layer of mulch. One would think that such a widely accepted means of starting a new bed would work for more than a a few years. I have edged the beds with that long ribbon of black edging six inches into the ground and buried a log on the outside of that. I still get grass in the beds.

So, once again, I am faced with having to dig up plants, separate the grass from them, replant them, and hope they can be enjoyed without sharing their space with grass.


My task list this week is laying wet newspaper down on the larger areas, covering the areas with cardboard, wetting it all down and covering it all with mulch.


As frustrated as I sound I know I'm not going to give up but I have to wonder yet again "when is gardening going to be more joy than work?"