Staghorn

 It was a chill, overcast day with occasional sprinkles.  Most of my day was spent outside working in the yard.  Plants are starting to turn green, daffodils are blooming, and forsythia are bright yellow.  I saw robins, blue jays, mockingbirds, a morning dove, a woodpecker, and sparrows throughout the day.  Other happy things for today:

• Last year I tripped over staghorn sumac stumps in the garden.  Today Zed and I removed many of these stumps and some of the attached roots.  The battle to defeat the unwanted plants in the garden has begun!  But seriously, I made room for the zucchini.  It will be a bit longer before I put the zucchini into the ground that I prepared today.

This is not a gopher problem but a 
staghorn sumac root problem.

These are roots that will no longer
 be a problem in the garden.

• The section next to the garden that we are hoping to make into a pathway with grape arbors is a little bit more cleaned up.  Progress!

Before: The sumac wants to take over.

After: I'm doing what I can to keep it
under control.

• I went for a short walk out back before cleaning up from gardening.  One time around the back of the property is only half a mile.  It was just what my body needed after all the bending in the garden.

• My second vaccination against the Covid 19 virus was administered late this afternoon.  So far, I just have a sore arm at the injection site.  

☮

Currently reading: The Backyard Homestead, by Carleen Madigan

Stay safe.