Gardening

Today I went over and helped garden at my(?) dad's(?) old house.

I took a "before" photo of the place that I thought I would be weeding:


Since it's hard to get in and out of that gate, I went around to the side gate.

There are raspberries by the side gate. (By the gate in the photo too, but my favourite ones are by the side gate.)

So I started munching raspberries. However, there were some prickly weeds making it hard to get the as-yet-unpicked raspberries, so I donned gloves, and started pulling those weeds. Then I got out the pruning shears, and pruned some volunteer trees that we didn't want, but were too big to pull up by the roots. Then I tied up some raspberries that needed tying up. Then I pruned a shrub that was crowding out the garbage area and encroaching on the back lane. Then I started shovelling up the dirt and debris that was encroaching on the back lane. (I also pulled a few weeds in the back pad when I went to get the shovel.)

Somehow, my raspberry munching turned into full-out gardening. However, that area now looks worlds better than it has in years:


You'll have to take my word for it, because I didn't take any "before" photos of this spot. Whoops. Oh well. You can partially tell how much we did from the trash cans: those were all completely empty when we started (today was trash day). Yes, there are two piles of debris that still need disposing of, but the trash cans were already full, and dad only had the one garbage bag.

Dad pulled some of the weeds that were in the area in the second photo, plus some weeds in the back parking pad, plus (I think) moved some junk in the back parking pad. Dad's wife picked raspberries and cherries for jam making. (And ate some too, of course.)

I borrowed my mom's step ladder, and picked the high cherries. (My dad's wife's back is sore right now.) Plus I pulled a couple weeds in the front garden. (No photos of either of these.)

So, the back parking pad is slightly better, but still needs a lot of weeding:

Guess what I'm doing tomorrow? We're going to start earlier, though, so that it's not so crazy-hot. (The back parking pad, as you can see, is a rather sunny spot. The raspberries, while partially shaded, didn't have the shade extending very far, and so most of the time was in the sun too.)

For easier comparison, here's the back pad, before & after, side by side: