19 April 2018

On reprend les mêmes...

...et on recommence. In this case, les mêmes are the rototiller, the lawnmower, and the two guys who walk behind them and keep them on course. This is the rototiller's 15th season in the vegetable garden plot — mine too, of course — but the lawnmower is the second one we've had since we moved here in 2003. It gets used not just in the spring but all summer and into the fall.


Above was what faced me on Tuesday. That was the day when the weather suddenly changed for the better. The photo shows the vegetable garden plot, of course. Last fall we had raked up dead leaves that fell out of the maple trees and spread them over a lot of the plot. Then Walt burned some downed branches and other yard trimmings there in the middle.


And here is the plot as it looked yesterday afternoon. I didn't do a deep tilling, but I did what I call a désherbage pass. In other words, I ran the tiller over the surface to uproot and pull out the weeds, and to turn all the dead leaves over. The ground was muddy in places, because the leaves and the weeds' roots hold in a lot of moisture. And it has been so rainy for months. I'll till  it again tomorrow or next week.


Here's the rototiller. It's a heavy, awkward piece of machinery that's not easy to handle. The wheel with the tire folds up when you run the tiller, so that the blades and disks dig into the ground and turn the soil over — in theory. Sticky mud and tenacious roots make the job harder than it would be in dry, loose soil. This morning, I woke up with a backache, but that's not surprising. At this point, the ground is drying out because of our sunny, warm weather.


Meanwhile, Walt dealt with the mess shown above. We don't know why the grass grew so tall and thick in that spot by the real fake well outside the greenhouse and back door, but it did. Maybe it got better light than did other parts of the yard.


Anyway, he got the grass back under control once it dried out enough to be mowed. He uses a self-propelled mower — the motor turns the wheels as well as the blade — but it's not a riding mower. It's not as heavy as the rototiller, but it's still a lot of work to follow it around, tilt it up to get it to go through tall grass, and to turn it around dozens of times when he comes to the edges of the yard and path. Yesterday he mowed the grass all around the section of the yard where the vegetable garden plot is located.

12 comments:

  1. The joys of rural living! It's a lot of work, but it sure pays off.

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    1. It's hard to decide whether our life is rural or suburban. I lean toward thinking it's suburban. Rural would mean living much farther from a town and supermarkets. Not to mention banks, and bakeries. At the same time, we don't live in a lotissement or subdivision. We're just two or three miles from two big supermarkets. Some people we know have to drive 10 or 12 miles just to go to a supermarket.

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    2. I see what you mean. I, myself, leave in a suburban community which is Arlington, Va, and I don't have any vineyards, or such, or any woods around me even though I have a quarter acre yard. To me, the city boy, you're much closer to rural than to urban (sub or not)!

      Be extremely careful with your back and don't overdo it. Be well.

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    3. I just noticed a very bad typo, it's not leave but live! Is it because I'm leaving for France in a few days that I made that big mistake?

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    4. I think of Arlington as an urban area. Not inner city as DC or your neighborhood in Paris, but urbanized. Densely populated. Here outside Saint-Aiganan, we live in the country, but it's not exactly rural. It's wine country and château country, but not remote or "backward", as "rural" might imply.

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    5. The population density of Arlington is 3,400 per square kilometer. The District's is 4,400. Morehead City is less than 400. Mareuil's is less than 40!

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  2. Didn't you get a new rototiller along the way? Or is this it? I really thought that I remembered you writing about getting it... the struggle to get it in the car, but how well it worked. Maybe you just brought this one in for service at some point?

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    1. We managed to load the rototiller into our little Peugeot 206 a few years ago and take it in for service. But it's still the same machine we bought in 2004 up in Blois.

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  3. So the planting season will begin soon. Marie put this on FB for you, Ken. http://www.carolinacoastonline.com/news_times/article_a960ea9c-431e-11e8-8d7f-0767c655178b.html#.Wtg7-ld1VNo.facebook

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  4. I know you have been amending your less than perfect soil since you started your garden and it’s looking quite good now.

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  5. The yard looks healthy, and every time I see a picture of your greenhouse I think what a nice addition it is.

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What's on your mind? Qu'avez-vous à me dire ?