weeding the drive

It has suddenly got colder.  I'm not sure the thermometer bears this out, but it feels colder.  A few days back I found myself peeling off my scarf, then discarding my hat, before finally taking off my fleece because I was getting too hot as I dug up brambles.  A couple of days ago I was nipping outside in my tee shirt.  Today I found I needed a coat as I prised weeds out of the gravel.

It is amazing how long it takes to weed a little piece of gravel, and how much rubbish comes off an area that does not look that spectacularly weedy to start with.  I worked my way round from the end of the bed by the dustbins to the beginning of the Eleagnus hedge.  I found little tufts of grass, Poa annua, baby groundsels, lots of hedge garlic by the dustbin bed, that wretched oxalis with purple leaves that it is quite impossible to eradicate, small speedwells, and dandelions.  Nettles were trying to establish themselves in the Chaenomeles under the kitchen window, and strands of ivy were creeping about in the back of the bed.

There were Mahonia leaves from the 'Winter Sun' in front of the oil tank, oak leaves and some off the Eleagnus hedge, plus fragments of bark that dropped off the firewood, and some very small twigs.  Also a few mummified dollops of cat crap.  I can't really blame them, since how are they supposed to understand that all that loose gravel is not a litter tray?

There are times when gardening would be easier, or at least quicker, if I were happy to spray the whole area with a long lasting residual herbicide, but I don't like the thought of the cats sunbathing and the chickens scratching around in the residue, not to mention the Systems Administrator sitting out in the deckchair on the gravel on chicken watching duty in the summer, and me crawling around in it as I pick up the next round of Eleagnus leaves.  And the bumble bees nesting round the edges and all the rest of the assorted wildlife.  Purists may say that claiming your garden is a bit organic is like saying you're a bit pregnant, but they haven't seen me hand weeding the drive, even if I do resort to the occasional dose of Provado on container grown plants under glass and the odd targeted squirt of glyphosate.