too much digging/raking

There are way too many projects on the current list and I've way too few brain cells to know when to quit. The old Azalea grove is being dug up. Between the age, (mine as well as the plot),the deer and the drought, it turned into a patch of dead branches and imbedded roots. The plan is to dig all that mess out and make a simple labyrinth. Need to get that olive stump out of there too.

The chasmanthe and sticky willie grows rampant in this 25' x 75' alley. Believe it or not, I had mowed, once, in the spring. This week I got out there one morning with a rake and built a pile of fire hazard 4' tall and 5' wide. (Amazing how much one can cram into a 90 gallon Green Waste can) This stuff isn't fit for my compost piles as it is chuck full of weed seeds.)

The same view after the mowing and raking and mowing and raking episode. Still need to haul those olive limbs off. They have been there for a couple of years now so I can almost handle them. anybody want some Dietes? (Fortnight lilies, aka African iris) Come dig it up and its yours.

Yet another project. From here, I removed an ancient fence, a small forest of Mahonia, a LOT of Vinca Major, some Billbergia nutans and some Bletilla striata. This is to become a bermed area with agaves and other "dry" stuff. I still need to dig out that Mondo grass and move it to a shady spot. (this WAS a shady spot until I had the leaning tower of cedar removed.) My problems are that I cannot clone myself, day laborers are not in the budget, and I sub-luxated a rib a couple weeks ago and I keep forgetting to wear the back/ribcage brace when I pick up shovels and rakes. Now it feels as though there is an ice pick lodged under my right boob but it only hurts when I breathe. Or move. I can't seem to formulate an actual design for this spot either, other than "berm or berms, decomposed gravel, and all those currently potted agavies and stuff".... which reminds me, the deer ate another little pot of succulents last night. It wasn't a "known" but I think it was in the euphorbia family... hope that deer has a bellyache this morning.