I’ve fallen behind on housework because the garden has been taking up so much of my time. Right now, though, I’m at a point where what’s left is mostly aesthetics. You know, spreading more mulch, training vines as they grow up their trellises, and so on. I spent many, many hours this weekend pulling up the forty gazillion oak trees that sprouted in the garden, so I’m stiff and sore, anyway. Now, most weeds, like the oak and maple seedlings that so love this sandy soil, can be pulled up and done with. However, we have a few that spread by root runner. You can kind of keep up with the quackgrass, crabgrass, and some other miscellaneous weeds, but we have a kind of sorrel that is out of control. I found out the hard way that if you pull up all the sorrel you can see, you get even more because each tiny shred of rootlet sends out a new runner with dozens of sprouts in a matter of days. It was time for the Roundup. (Sorry, Gayle. It had to be done. . .) The problem, though, is that it’s all in between the plants I want to keep, and it’s very windy down here. Back in Bloomfield, with a much smaller piece of land and more manageable weed populations, I’d just take a paintbrush and paint it on. Here, I’d be doing that every day until December. So take a gander at my cool new invention:

It’s one of those industrial spray bottles from Costco, and a 20-ounce soda bottle with the bottom cut off. The top opening is exactly the right size, and snaps onto the tip of the sprayer. I was able to spray single weeds at a time without Roundup blowing through the air onto other plants. Gosh darn it, I’m so clever!

Today, though, it’s kitchen cleanup, vacuuming, and maybe even some ironing. I might squeeze in an errand, but we shall see. Mmmmmm. . .but first, let’s open up all the windows in the house!