Order

I usually start with a simple set of tasks in mind - trim some weeds, mow the grass, sit back and enjoy the early summer.  Something then stirs in me and I just can't stop working in the yard.  Is it a need to shape the world around me?  The desire to control the plants, finds a way to stop the insects from spreading?  Is it about a search for perfection, applying some rules about what looks right?

I don't know.  Maybe I just enjoy being busy.  Maybe it is a sense of accomplishment.

I decided to work on the knotweed.  It wasn't in the plan, but the nice weather had me looking for a reason to be outside.

I got out my trusty scythe and machete.

I use the scythe  to cut back the knotweed by the creek.  As the water is quite low now, I can walk along the creek bed and hack away at the knotweed down near the creek bed with the machete.  It can be very dense in there.

 Someone asked why I don't use a string trimmer.  First, the scythe is pretty fast.  I can cut about 200 feet of creek front in 20 minutes.  The exercise is good, and I don't need to gas the trimmer or change the string.  However, the most important reason is revealed by the knotweed.

Like bamboo, the plant is full of nodes with inter-node structures (a fancy way to say it has hollow portions).  As knotweed likes to have 'wet feet', these inter-node areas fill up with water.  You find out pretty quickly that a string trimmer does a real good job splattering water all over you.  I'll keep using my scythe, thank you!

I then had to work in the garden.  I pulled a wheel barrow full of weeds from the beds and around the raised beds.  I till the beds (it really helps to keep the weeds down and allows the beds to absorb water more quickly).

At some point, the need to stand back and see what I accomplished kicks in.  The garden looks good, and the wife and I can sit by the creek and enjoy the water.

Control?  I don't know. A quest for order?  Maybe - but I know Nature will take a new tack and move a new way.  It is just the dance we go through.  Life....