Time to Get to Work

We wasted little time getting into the work that needs to be done. The first step is to remove some weedy plants whose seeds will scatter if struck. In this case, the weed was yellow dock. There's not a huge amount of it, but spending the time to carefully remove it is definitely worthwhile. Next, we had to mow the tall grasses. To do so, we want to learn how to use a scythe. Check out how well these folks wield one. Here and Here.

We do not yet have scythes, so Yeti let us borrow one of his. While it was a relatively ineffective tool in our beginner's hands, we can clearly see its potential.

Scythe and Sickle

Welcome to Scotland. Oops, I mean California.

We need to improve our techniques and buy one that fits (sized appropriately). Unfortunately, we were only able to successfully mow a small portion of the garden in a relatively long amount of time (and with considerable effort). 

Therefore, we decided rake the cut grass into piles...













... and then hoe some of the beds instead of mowing the remaining portion.










This way, we will have the small reward of having exposed a few beds and we will be encouraged to prepare the remaining beds to the same shape. We’ll see how that plays out.

Raking the beds into shape.

                As the end of the day was nearing, we were happy to have fully prepared 3 beds.

                 And so were our hands!