Before the ice descended on us during these last few weeks of the January, I took the opportunity to clean up some of the areas of the cemetery that are most attractive to families during warmer months, when the trees that surround them offer shade and privacy. During the winter, however, they appear ragged and tangled, giving stewards like us a chance to see clearly where the particularly obtrusive plants have taken over. Smilax rotundifolia, a viney, prickly plant, grows aggressively out on the cemetery and loves to wrap its thorny arms around our more mature mesquite and just about anything else.

Inspired by a volunteer clean-up day I’d partaken in at Dowell Ranch for North Texas Prairie Association (NPAT), I bought a new pair of lobbers and a tougher pair of gloves to tackle the job.

Smilax vines climb up dead branches of a Eastern red cedar

This particular garden has two ‘motts’ on the east and west side. Tree motts are clusters of trees that grow together, creating areas of shade and protection for wildlife. Some landowners will chose to clear them out completely, to promote grass growth, but our aims are a bit different. We love having spaces for wildlife to bed down during cold months (I was joined by a brown rabbit during my work session!) and we don’t have many stands of trees to begin with, so we’re saving what we’ve got.

Each mott was pretty covered in smilax vines and out of control underbrush, things like Christmas cholla (pencil cactus – particularly painful to get pricked by!) and emerging Mesquite trees. We have plenty of Mesquite, so getting rid of the new growth isn’t going to hurt anything.

We also have a lot of prickly pear clusters around the cemetery and we tend to enjoy their iconic shape. I decided to keep one big one and clean out some of the smaller pups that had sprouted up nearby. I know by spring they’ll be back, but this gives us some time to see the space as we’d like to have it.

Dead branches and emerging mesquite around a large prickly pear

It may not appear like much, but after I spent about two hours chopping and hauling very thorny sticks off into a brush pile I was wiped! I was pleased with the results and happy to know that in just a couple hours, we can really tidy up a space.

This particular garden in actually quite large, with enough space for several plots. Next month, we’ll continue our clean up and spread some grass seed in the less shaded areas. By Spring, we should be able to see if the wildflower seed we spread last month has taken hold. Something to look forward to!

Garden area after clean up. It might not look like much but A LOT was removed!

Rabbit watched closely while I worked, making sure I didn’t fully destroy their home