Weeding seems to have become my full-time occupation. Why is it that once you start, you suddenly notice more and more places that need your attention?

My first big clean up project this year concerned honeysuckle growing up a fence that separates

the garden area of the backyard from the apartment behind my garage, plus a storage unit and wood shed. I have never really pruned this plant except when it sent long stringers on the ground.

Last fall, a well meaning friend trimmed it for me when he was looking for something to do to be helpful. He did such a good job that all the dead wood at the top of the fence was hanging down exposed below the green canopy. In February, the weather was nice and I realized that if I was going to clean out that dead stuff I needed to do it then, before new growth began. This took a full two weeks of afternoons, and I’m glad it did it, but nothing else, like art making, got done.

As soon as that was finished, I noticed the strawberry bed was full of grass and weeds while the plants were starting to put out new leaves.

Meanwhile, indoors I have been weeding through old magazines that I saved to use for collage images. When you want to do a collage quickly, going through magazines looking for images is a sure recipe for frustration. Besides, I need the shelf space for all the ephemera – nuts, bolts, rusty metal, gears, washers, and keys that I bring home from estate sales.

I already have a picture file that I started for my high school art class. So these images and words I’m cutting out of the magazines will be added to those files. Our recycling is picked up every other week, and this year I’ve put out at least a twenty-four inch stack of magazines for each pickup. I still have a way to go, but the end is in sight.

Back outdoors, two weeks ago my yard man weed whacked so severely a small area between the driveway and my lot line that I could see the dirt. This patch was full of burr clover, which has seeds with teeth that get stuck in your socks or cling to your pants. I’ve been wanted to get this cleaned out for several years, but it just seemed too overwhelming.

Of course, the roots of these nasty plants are still in the ground, only now they are easy to see. And with all the rain it is a perfect time to dig this stuff out. I know, I could spray them, but then the grass between them will die, and I would still have to get the dead stuff out to plant good stuff.

On the days it rains or is too wet to work outside, I’m weeding inside. I have this addiction to books. Most of my friends have this problem also. There comes a time when we have to say goodbye to books we have read and won’t read again, or have lost interest in that subject. Fortunately, I live half a mile away from a “Friends of the Library” book store and my books will find new owners. I have ten bookcases of various sizes and I’ve weeded six of them.

The best part of weeding is being in my yard to enjoy the birds and all the flowering plants like the tulips my grandson, Vinnie, helped me plant some years back