Shovel, rake, and...scissors

The freezes this winter left a variety of dead, withered, crunchy and/or rotting vegetation behind in our patch of yard. That means lots of clean up before the new shoots of green attempt to break through the mat of composting ick. In spite of allergies, I've managed to make my way through the bed of wood fern into which all of the fall leaves were blown, the other fern bed by our backyard, also littered with a year's worth of dead leaves, and the dreaded frozen back banana trees. In years past, I would have cut those down at ground level, but that is way too much work for me to even fathom. So this year, I grabbed a pair of old scissors and trimmed back all of the paper dry leaves til we only have the trunks left.

Yet, I have only scratched the surface. I fill all the garbage cans with a load of debris, and then have to wait for the next pickup. Off to the chopping block again. This time, we tackle the ginger grove in the back yard, and whatever else will fit in the cans. Of course, the chopping down is not the hardest part. Picking it all up and shoving it into waste containers is the added insult, and all about the "Bend and Stoop", hopefully not the "Bend and Snap".