April 8th, 2011

Worms from the garden, a few of many

Last weekend my parents brought my some plants that they dug out of their own extensive, 30+ year garden. There is a limit to the perennials, which mainly consist of bulbs gone wild and lawn-encroaching herbs. They generous gave me some of these for the sake of taking over my landlord's lawn.

I was given chives, lemon thyme and bleeding heart. I was really tired after the Red Sox game last weekend, so I procrastinated on replanting them. Planting meant cleaning up the whole garden area. Which, while isn't big, still is a lot of work.

Part of the work involved was inserting lawn edging. Last year the lush beautiful grass kept trying to overtake my poorly carved out garden area. It was hard enough battling weeds, but grass is even more painful to keep tamed because it's more useful than a weed. It's lush, soft, and good for sitting in.

And my neighbor who my landlord pays to mow our lawn, had trouble decided how close to mow to my garden, since there was no well defined barrier by mid-summer. So this year my answer to all of that: Lawn Edging.

Lawn edging is typically made from plastic, composite or wood. You use a mallet to pound it or dig a ditch to bury it about 4-5 inches into the earth. Some stick out, others lay flush with the ground. It's supposed to create a barrier as well as deter roots from growing into the wrong area.

It is a lot of work to insert into well-packed soil, especially when you're trying to make a straight line and deeply rooted grass needs to be removed in order to keep it straight

Anyway, the soil was amass of earthworms. I probably decapitated or traumatized dozens of them. I took out a handful that were together, almost like a family, for some photos. The long one kept stretching itself really long, trying to go through the crack in the picnic table. I had to keep pulling him back, like an errant child on a leash.