Horses sweat, men perspire, ladies glow

Man, am I glowing! Might as well call me a horse. I don't mind; I like horses.

What I thought were two old peony plants in the front bed turned out to be five. They multiplied. This morning I dug them up, put them in pots and set them in the sun. When I get the bed dug, I'll go ahead and plant them, and do the new ones when they arrive.

I wanted to get the old ones out of the front bed, because next time Atchison's crew come, I'm going to make them weed-eat all that mess of weeds, little trees and poison oak at the front end of that patch. I don't know what to do about weeds in the bed, growing up between the river rocks Steve piled in there, without putting landscaping sheets under them as he was supposed to do. I pull some weeds almost every day, but they've got away from me. Maybe I need to anoint the whole thing with weed-killer. I'm going to search online and find some natural weed-killer that won't be poisonous to animals.

***

I found that vinegar, salt, and alcohol will kill weeds, but they also kill any nearby plants. They also harm the soil so that desirable plants won't thrive. The soap that some gardeners add to their mixtures softens the weed surfaces so the vinegar, etc., is more easily absorbed. Boiling water also kills weeds and good plants, nonselectively.

The only really safe methods I've found are sugar (or so says somebody), and mulches, especially newspaper as it decays and pleases the earthworms.