what's been happening
Chopping and dropping has been the name of the game for the past couple of weeks. I deal with a few nasty invasives (chinese privet, amur honeysuckle, various wildflowers) and some prolific natives (cherry laurel, yaupon holly, poison ivy) and of course, i want to honor the energy, time, and resources used to help these plants grow, i don't want to just bag them up and put them on the curb. So I chop and drop on my in-ground garden beds, where they'll break down and feed the soil and invertebrates that call the soil home. Of course they grow back, but putting pressure on them will slow them down, and as i remove stumps and such hopefully i'll eradicate them and replace with natives. Any trunks that are especially large get turned into edging for my pathways.
In other news my father-in-law gave me some peppers and tomatos, and promised more in the future (yay!) currently have some brandywine pinks, super sweet 100s, pumpkin spice jalapeno, brazilian starfish, west indes red habanero, cayenne, orange spice jalapeno, and lemon spice jalapeno. (he loves growing peppers) I just started my zucchini (one of my favorite summer veg) already they're popping up and i planted them yesterday!
In other news, last year i got some serviceberry trees and planted them in the wooded area of my yard, but the heat got to them and i thought they died, but they lived! very happy about that. Eventually i'd like to take cuttings and add more around the yard.