#3082

I spent 3-4 hours this afternoon doing yard work. I stopped when my back and joints could take no more. I did mowing, leaf mulching, and bulb planting.

The grass growth has been slow the last month or so, but still enough to need an occasional mow. I last did my front yard a couple weeks back. This was the first mow with significant leaf coverage, so I mowed once mulching, then went over again with the bag on to pick up the excess leaf matter. The batteries of my mower died out half way through that second pass, though, so I went over the rest with a reel mower to kind of spread the leaf bits out.

I took the leaves bagged from the front and some raked from the back, put them in a pile, and mulched them with my mower plugged in. I did one pass to mulch fine, then another pass with the bag to pick up. It leaves a brownish coating on the grass that is mostly not noticeable from afar. I put the mulch on my compost heap.

I had bought over 100 bulbs a month or so ago and have been slowly planting them in amongst the ground cover at the back of my yard. It is a slow and surprisingly taxing process finding spots among the ivy and periwinkle, digging into the heavily clay soil with plenty of roots, and then putting in layers of compost, a gravel like soil additive, bulb fertilizer, garden soil, and the bulbs themselves. I probably did 8 or so holes today before calling it quits.

I wanted to do more, but I just felt really sore and my back and knees hurt. I went in, lay down a bit, then made dinner.