There is something in my driveway that looks like a wooly mammoth sleeping on its side.

It is what is left of 4 cubic yards of mulch. And there is a lot left.

My husband and I leave Saturday to visit Joseph and his bride in San Diego, and I am much too compulsive to leave the mulch in the driveway until we get home.

So this week, I am mulching like mad. And taking a couple of vacation days to do it.

I could get someone else to do it. My friends all have "a guy" they call when it is time to mulch. But I can't bring myself to part with the $15 an hour most of them charge.

We'll see how I feel about that money on Friday, but right now I am determined to get this done myself.

It isn't that mulching is too hard. Mulching is boring. My colleague Jacques Kelly here at The Sun doesn't mulch at all. He says that's landscaping, not gardening.

But I like the finished look mulch gives a garden, so I mulch.

I waiting too long this year.

I stalled because I was hoping more rain would soak the soil before I sealed it with mulch. Then all it did was rain, and it was impossible to mulch.

Now the gardens have filled in to such a degree that there is no room left to mulch.

I don't think I am going to be able to use all of the mulch that is sleeping in my driveway right now.

So I made a deal with my neighbor, Bob.