A stampede of weeds

Dealing with spring weeds is a lot like herding cats.

(An old video but still funny. One of those commercials that
no one remembers what it was for.)


Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Penny was plumb wore out after her dental cleaning. As you can see from the color of the fur on her side, she's been spending time sunbathing recently. She often asks to go out onto the back porch. The heat of the sun probably feels good to her bones.

Prissy models some weeds (and a daffodil) that defied the hay mulch that tried to keep them down. Prissy also got a teeth cleaning (the same day as Penny, and the first time in 7 years that she had needed a cleaning) along with the extraction of a broken tooth. Both cats still look a little ruffled.

A billowing carpet of Purple Lamium, Henbit, Crown Vetch and a tiny speedwell. (Chickweed too, unfortunately.) The bees LOVE this mix. I end up leaving quite a bit of it ~ about half ~ minus the chickweed, in the beds below the house. I do keep it away from the iris. Already I've pulled several wheelbarrowfuls from the big bed. Like I said, a stampede!

I've been clearing a lot of Bidens skeletons in the big bed and the bed next to the neighbor's pasture, but as you can see they're still in the new garden between the house and the big bed. In part because I just haven't gotten to them yet, and in part because just as the bees guilt trip me into leaving many of the flowering weeds, the overwintering and resident birds are still using those Bidens as cover when they feed and travel from the neighbor's woods to our wood's edge. White-Throated Sparrows, Song Sparrows, Field Sparrows, Chipping Sparrows, Cardinals, Ruby-Crowned Kinglets and Hermit Thrushes. It's OK, it's their garden too. :)