John and I tackled raking leaves under the walnut and oak trees outside the Cottage at Struan Farm a few days ago. It's almost time to spread paddock grass seed on bare spots, and leaves on the ground definitely don't help the grass grow. We managed to get it done in one day, which was great:
But then I was left to my own devices to rake the bank at the pond, John can only take so much raking. This was definitely more than a one day project!
And of course like most things Karen, I made life more difficult by deciding to dig out the bracken fern that was starting to take over a section of the hill. Here's the offending fern:
It was spreading all over, but now it's not. I should report that while I used bandaids pro-actively to avoid blisters from the raking, and only fell down the hillside once, my fingernails paid the price. They just don't make gardening gloves the way they used to--I kept puncturing holes in the tip of one finger. The fern has a web of roots underground, which is how it keeps spreading. I had to dig into the earth to pull up the roots as best I could. One poor fingernail took one for the team.
The bank will look much better when this is all done, I promise!
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