Gardening

I like to encourage folks to keep their gardening manageable and focused on what they enjoy (in programs at the botanical garden where I work).  But plants grow, reproduce, and need editing, and it's not always easy.

In our acre and half in the Piedmont, I'm finding myself doing more heavy-lifting tasks than I'd like (with my gardening companion doing field work in the mountains).  Hmm, I guess I haven't appreciated how important mowing and weed-whacking have been to keeping even our 'natural garden' in shape.  Yuck -- not pleasant gardening tasks, and weed-whacking has produced a small back strain.  Phooee.

I worry about NOT having enough gardening to do in the mountains, when we eventually decamp to our small house and garden there (hey, there's plenty of gardening work to be done in local community gardens, etc.)  But it's hard not to appreciate what having a smaller gardening footprint means.  There are other things to do, after all.

At Chau Ram County Park (with camera and binoculars)