Ax In The Garden

Yesterday Bob fired up the rototiller and tilled most of the vegetable plot. The riding mower was stubborn, though; the battery needs to be replaced, an annual event. I divided our perennial bachelor’s buttons and daylilies and set about putting down new landscape fabric and bark mulch. I used a spading fork to lift the clumps, but then, the clumps were so tough I thought an ax would be better than a shovel to divide them. Bob came over and laughed at me; he said I didn’t mess around—I had grabbed a splitting mall instead of an ax. But it sure did work well!

—Cheryl Moore-Gough