We might get some storms, but there's a nice sunrise at present. Yesterday, I finally weeded the patio, and--
Weeded the patio?
Well, yes. The previous owner built a nice patio from 1' x 2' concrete blocks. He probably put down barrier cloth. Over the years, the ground has shifted and the patio has a series of small waves and one sharp discontinuity. Most of it is probably from tree roots and with the big hackberry tree gone, I'm planning to try to level the patio this Fall or next Spring.
With the shifting, the gaps between the blocks have opened up, and in those gaps,weeds and grass had taken root: crabgrass, dandelions, creeping charlie, wild violets and what we always called "burdock" but I just learned isn't. (Low grouping of semicircular of elliptical leaves, long stems from the center with a fuzzy-looking seed-blob on the end). There was even moss growing, near the house. It all had to go.
A semi-flexible putty knife works well for digging out weeds between blocks and scraping off moss. It took a couple of hours, but we've got a clear patio again. And most of the work was sitting down, so it wasn't a bad way to pass part of the afternoon and pick up some vitamin D.
FYI Holden could pass as a body double for Sammy our Maine coon cat.
ReplyDeleteHave had a mix Boo and pure Sammy they make the best cats if not bigger.
Eck!
It's very much the lazy way, and not everyone has one, but an oscillating saw does a nifty job at cleaning out the gathered dirt and plant debris between patio blocks much riki-tik.
ReplyDeleteAnd, after physical relocation is done and the blocks realigned, leveled and evened, filling the gaps with polymeric sand and vibrating it into full depth then gently wetting works wonders to prevent the return of vegetable matter.