Mulching

Late this afternoon I was wielding a garden tool that is some kind of a recent-design scythe, reduced to garden scale.

Martha and I have an area in our backyard that was once a squash patch ... then a weed patch ... which this year we hope to revert to vegetable gardening. Over the course of the warmish spring that we have had thus far, the grass in this patch has grown high, reaching knee-height already, while the miscellaneous forbs have kept pace.

With my whacking vorpal blade, or perhaps hortal blade, I sheared away a goodly pile of grass, which will become mulch for some garden bed or other. Some of these cuttings have gone already onto Martha's square patch of garlic plants.

In making this mulch-pile, I was fairly careful to keep out the dandelion heads, which are going to seed in these days of early spring heat.

There remained a fair amount of tall green stuff to cut back, in that garden patch -- even after having made that largish pile of dandelion-free mulch. So I scythed down the rest of it, making a point to cut down as many dandelion heads as I could.

Since the finches like them so well, it seems likely that dandelion seeds are rich in protein and nutrients -- and thus perfect material for composting.

We happen to have some rather large clear-plastic bags at hand ... so I stuffed a bag full of this mixture of grass cuttings, dandelion seed heads, and dried leaves. I will let this large, bagged mixture steam and boil in the sun for a few days or a week -- which may be long enough to break down the seeds, or at least to steam-boil them -- and to begin the process of breaking down the cut greens ...

And then, after that week or so, I will add butter and crisped bacon, and will serve it for breakfast. All our friends are invited -- so we will, of course, expect you.

It is, as I noted, quite a large bag.

Cheers ...