Gardening

I've been avoiding my yard for a year now. Ever since I watched the bobcat destroy the plantings I spent years nurturing. The plantings that were finally lush and mature. The backhoe chewed up the lawn, leaving pocked and pitted ground everywhere. It's pointless to even throw out grass seed when the ground is so rough. Oh, and the backhoe destroyed the UG sprinklers Clint finally installed after years of hand watering, moving hoses, and watching my plants die from the heat. So what would be the point in planting anything new, when I will be practically hauling buckets by hand to get it all watered?!

I used to spend hours and hours out in the yard, fighting the weeds, struggling to realize this vision I had of a lush and inviting landscape. Now it looks like an armpit. So, I try not to go outside unless it's to get in the car and go someplace else.

But something in the weather made me feel hopeful again. I decided maybe I could just try something small. Just a little corner for some herbs and tomato plants (I had herbs, lots of them. Sigh.) I bought 4 tomato plants, 20 herbs(I love fresh herbs, and they're so forgiving of heat and drought, too), and enough annuals for the girls to fill a couple of pots each, as a kind of belated Earth Day project. They love gardening. At least the planting part.

After helping the girls plant their pots, we went to work on my little herb garden. I immediately lost two helpers. Gillian and Tamzin dug out the little plastic kiddie pool so they could play in the water. I helped them find soap and scrub brushes to get it cleaned up after a winter in storage, then went back to digging my little garden.

Envision my yard as 1/3 of an acre of bare dirt, knee high weeds, and construction rubble. And here I am, trying to prep a 4 foot square section for beautification. And it takes FOREVER because there is devil grass EVERYWHERE, and it has to be hoed, hacked, dug, and clawed out of the ground. It' s exhausting. Gardening is hard work. I'm ages away from the fun part, at this point. So it's no surprise that I lost a third helper. After hauling a couple of loads of rocks in the wagon Rhiannon went to play on the tramp.

Shelby and I kept plugging away. Shelby's been asking to plant a vegetable garden for ages. I just didn't know where to put it. It got so hot we finally had to quit. Maybe today we can finish digging devil grass and put our babies in the ground. Then we just have to figure out how we're going to water them.