Sto's thoughts
==============

# First time trimming the garden

Oct 19, 2024

Being a home owner comes with its new set of tasks.

After letting weed grow for months, it was finally time to give the garden its first trim.

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  <a href="/images/2024-10-19/before.jpg" target="_blank">
  <img alt="before" class="image" src="/images/2024-10-19/before.jpg" />
</a>

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Ichikawa-san, the landscaper/gardener who did all the house's outside work ([プラス　イズ　LDガーデン](https://www.ld-garden.jp/), "Plus Is LD Garden"?) offered to lend me an electric grass cutter, so I could get a feel of the task and result before I start buying my own tools or even decide what to do with the garden itself (as-is, grass, artificial, ...?).

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  <a href="/images/2024-10-19/grass_cutter.jpg" target="_blank">
  <img alt="grass_cutter" class="image" src="/images/2024-10-19/grass_cutter.jpg" />
</a>

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This morning, I woke up motivated, the sun was out, not too hot, nor too cold, so I put on some podcasts in my ears, boots, gloves, safety glasses, and got started.

I've lived all my adult life in an apartment, up until 2 months ago, so this was the first time I do any kind of yard work since I was a teenager helping my dad.

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  <a href="/images/2024-10-19/cutting1.jpg" target="_blank">
  <img alt="cutting1" class="image" src="/images/2024-10-19/cutting1.jpg" />
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  <a href="/images/2024-10-19/cutting2.jpg" target="_blank">
  <img alt="cutting2" class="image" src="/images/2024-10-19/cutting2.jpg" />
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  <a href="/images/2024-10-19/cutting3.jpg" target="_blank">
  <img alt="cutting3" class="image" src="/images/2024-10-19/cutting3.jpg" />
</a>

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This did not felt easy, I was not sure whether I was holding the machine right, or doing the right movements, but I got through it.

Now that I'm done and showered, I can say that I kinda liked it. The result looks decent to me (sure, there's still a lot of work to make it look _good_), it felt rewarding, and I kind of enjoyed the mindless activity while listening to podcasts.

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  <a href="/images/2024-10-19/after.jpg" target="_blank">
  <img alt="after" class="image" src="/images/2024-10-19/after.jpg" />
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Now I'm gonna need a rake, to collect the smaller weeds that I did not gather by hand, as well as to remove a huge amount of rocks!

To be continued...

Update: I bought a rake and spent an our on Monday morning before work to get this. I'm amazed at the amount of rocks we have in there, and I still left a lot behind, but this is looking good.

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  <a href="/images/2024-10-19/after_raking.jpg" target="_blank">
  <img alt="after_raking" class="image" src="/images/2024-10-19/after_raking.jpg" />
</a>

</div>



_Written by [David Stosik], generated and formatted for LLMs by [Bridgetown]._

[David Stosik]: https://davidstosik.me/about
[Bridgetown]: https://bridgetownrb.com