The thing about waiting so long to start taking care of the garden is that it makes everything so easy. I don't have to follow a plan because there is no plan. There's no need for a plan when all you have to do is wade in and start pulling up everything you can reach.

So that's what I did this afternoon, after all these days of coming up with excuses and delays. There was no need to make any judgments about whether or not something was a weed, because weeds were everywhere. It'll take a little closer analysis as time goes by, but for now it's easy pickings.

On the other hand, I worked until I was exhausted today, and you can hardly tell I've done anything. I could easily have filled the yard waste container in one day, if I'd had the stamina to keep going. I'm badly out of shape, and this gardening session was the best exercise I've had all spring. In half an hour I cleared about one square yard of the garden of about half the weeds growing in it. I'd also raised my heart rate and developed leg cramps from all the bending over.

It's a start, though. I'll get stronger, and unless the weeds grow back faster than I can recover, I'll stay ahead of them in this project. I never have to plant anything in this garden. All I have to do is decide which of the wild plants I like and then yank out anything else. The yard stays wild and natural, the way I like it. If I ever thought I wanted it any other way, I'd try to talk myself out of it before doing all that work.