Just like magic!

I bought myself what I think is called a "stirrup hoe". I had never used one before, even seen one for that matter, but some gardener friend of a friend was talking about how great they were and it stuck in my head. So there I was in the local hardware store, looking at all the shiny new gardening tools and drooling over a couple especially long handled rakes (I am pretty tall for a gal), when I noticed what could only be a stirrup hoe. It really looks like a stirrup attached to a long handle. Well, with the voice of that friend's friend buzzing in my ear I picked it up and headed straight to the checkout. When I got it home, I felt stupid, because how could something so hokey looking really be any good? I didn't have any weeds that needed picking that day, so I threw it in the garage and forgot about it. Today, as I was doing my morning check around my folks' yard, I noticed all sorts of bitsy teeny weeds in my flower beds. Right away I thought of that new hoe, and by golly it worked like a charm! What would have been hours of work on my hands and knees was accomplished in about 20 min with that happy little tool. That is definitely a keeper!

This discovery led me to the next big part of my day. "If weeding can be this easy" I thought to myself "there must be a better way to expand the veggie patch. Busting sod is just too hard!" Then popped into my head all of the million and a half articles I have read that tell you to lay down newspaper covered by mulch or something where you want a new bed to be. I slapped my forehead in exasperation. "Knock-knock, puddin'-head!" I thought, "There on the porch is that whole crate of newspapers to be recycled and all along the back property line are grass clippings about 3 feet deep." I may not be the smartest bulb on the tree, but today I just had to pay attention to this little flicker. Luckily, laying the newspaper down and covering it with about 6" of clippings only took about 40 min, and most of that was time used to unfold the papers!

I wonder what other bright ideas I can come up with?