Angela Law

You couldn’t ask for a more beautiful day in April, so Brian took today off so he could ride his motorcycle all day. And, I do mean all day. He got up this morning, took the long way to Bellwood and met up with his former co-workers for lunch. After that, he drove here, there, and everywhere, finally arriving home about 8 hours after he left.

As if this wasn’t enough riding for one day, he and Jacob went out for another hour long ride after supper. Who am I to argue?

What does this have to do with mint? Well, while the guys were out riding, I worked on my herb garden. I did the edging, weeded, trimmed the dead growth from the perennials. There was nothing more to do. Except one thing–remove the extra growth from the mint that has invaded every neighboring plant in my herb garden.

My herb garden is in a checkerboard pattern, with square stepping stones making up the checkerboard. The mint grew under all of the bordering stepping stones and into the neighboring plants. I had to remove all of the surrounding stepping stones in order to remove the extra mint. Talk about invasive! It does not help matters that I have three types of mint growing. If I can’t figure out a way to contain their growth this year, I think I’ll cut back to one plant next year to make my life a little easier (assuming removing a mint plant is a feasible action). Until then, I guess I’ll be spending the summer keeping the mint in check.

Given the beautiful weather we’ve been having this week, each night we’ve been going outside after supper. I’ve been doing gardening and yardwork. I find it very relaxing to do this type of work when I’m not on some kind of schedule to get things done. Typically, I don’t start on the yardwork until May. It’s not that there’s nothing to do before that, I just never get around to it until then. But, this year is different–there are no big spring projects on the schedule (unlike the past few years). So, I can pace myself a little better this year.

I guess I can thank the neighbors for this. It all started on Monday when they cut their grass. So, I put “cutting the grass” on Brian’s Monday evening agenda. While he was outside doing that, I did the trimming. The trimming led to pulling weeds and such from around my vegetable garden (which is well under way–garlic, onions, lettuce, and potatoes, so far).

Each night, Brian has also been working with Jake to help him ride a bike without training wheels. He’s going to be six next month, so it is time. He’s doing pretty well. I’m sure he’ll get things figured out by summer.

And, this evening we went to Cernic’s Suzuki and bought Jake a motorcycle helmet. Jake is all about motorcycles, let me tell you. He and Brian went out for a little ride around Westmont this evening. Here’s a picture of the happy couple.

I see many hours of quiet gardening in my future.