Update June 2022

 

In the interest of minimizing how much weeding I would have to do with yet another tamed bank, I ordered a 15 yard load of bark.  It was enough to spread over all of the flower beds by the house, and I even had helpers for part of the job.

Once the tractor and rake areas were done, I spread the last half of the huge bark pile using the wheelbarrow.  It took me a few days, but things really look great with iris in bloom.

I was so happy with the bark project, that I ordered another 15 yards for the garden area.  Then began a monumental job of weeding raspberries.  Most of the rest of the garden was mostly weed free, but I had horribly neglected the raspberries and the creeping buttercups had taken over.  They have roots about 18" deep and were twined around the raspberries so in places I had to dig up raspberry plants to remove weeds.

So nice to look at the raspberry patch and see it neat and tidy.  Since raspberries will thrive no matter the weather, I expanded the raspberry patch by about double, so I may have to do a U-Pick next year. 

We did take some time to visit the kids and grandkids and great grandkids in Eastern Washington on one of our rainy June weekends.  Sara took Sammy and Addy for horseback rides while Eliza and I took a nice long walk in the hills.  Addy's comment on being walked around the arena on the horse: "Can this horse go FASTER?"

Finally, sunmer has arrived, and we're looking forward to a family gathering at the lake this weekend!