Pesky weeds

One of the projects this summer was to clean out the overgrown raised bed in the backyard. I have a confession to make - I haven't made an effort to keep the backyard up as well as the front - because nobody sees the backyard except for the neighbors that look into my backyard. Also I normally am watching grandkids during the summer and I don't have a lot of time to do weeding. This year was a different story and I began to clean out the unwanted grass and weeds that have overgrown in my raised bed in the backyard, of course Stella, the lab thought I was playing with her.

Darn dog, now I have debris all over my yard. I decided I would work on it a little at a time especially if it is in the shade. It has been so darn hot this summer in the Pacific Northwest that suffice to say, I try to stay cool by doing things in the house, but even that uses up energy that eventually makes me hot. 

Now that summer is over I looked at what I have accomplished in the backyard and YIKES! the grass I had pulled up is now making it's way back to the surface. NOOOOOOOO----- I really need to get that raised bed ready to go before winter starts - but there are a whole gob of sticker bushes in one corner.  

I finally bit the bullet and spent an afternoon cleaning the overgrown grass out of the raised bed and cut back the sticker bushes. By the time I was finished I had 3 garbage cans full of the unwanted grass. Boy it looks so much better.

Than I laid down the bark that I got free from the city when they cut down overgrown trees. See the pile - my neighbor was supposed to help move it around the yard - but that hasn't happened. I should of known better than expect him to help.

Now after a couple of weeks I inspected the bark again and of course grass is finding its way through the paper and the bark. Saturday I added white vinegar around the edges of the raised bed hopefully killing the grass. I won't be planting anything out there in the near future in case the dogs decided to dig it up. I will move the painted wheelbarrow back into the corner and plant something there to see if the dogs will do damage and then will go from there.

Next project is to get rid of the rest of the bark, hopefully today so I will be able to get my car off the street and into the driveway.