I have bindweed, now blooming, mugwort six feet high and for the last few years an infestation of deer ticks. Today I took still another antibiotic as I could not resist pulling some of the blasted mugwort at the edge of the driveway. I have three or four cans of spray now and I am going to have to start using permethrin weather I like it or just give up gardening , I have had three tick bites so far this Spring---one of these times I'm going to buy it I'm afraid if I don't start using my treated clothes. But I just miss being able to run out into the yard barefoot with my coffee in the morning. No way I can do this any more. Of course over the years ( forty) I've made things worse by letting every thing grow into a jungle-my ground covers of ivy, myrtle, and pachysandra are thick with weeds and I have encouraged the oaks and black cherry trees so that there is no sunny place to grow vegetables. The daylilies I once grew from seed are now hidden by brush'. The wildlife is alternately fun and a problem. The squirrels and chipmunks and deer mice and deer support the ticks and the raccoon got into the attic-almost into the living room-one dug a hole in the ceiling and one evening a black paw came through--cost a brand new ceiling with heavy plywood and tile.at eighty two I'm still not ready to give up on the garden weeds or no weeds. Maybe I'll buy a scythe? Weedy.
