So the other day I got a wild hair and went up to my garden to check it out....UGH.....weeds to my waist in some places and grass had grown in huge clumps everywhere. I knew there was NO way I was going to be able to "weed" the garden, especially if I didn't want to end up in traction for a week!! My back is too old for THAT! So I grabbed the weed eater and went to town.
OK, did I mention I am old? Well maybe not THAT old but it has been a lot of years since this girl used a weed eater. I got almost the whole garden done before I ran out of line in it....and steam! My arm literally felt like it was 6 inches longer than the other one at least and didn't want to do what I asked it to. Very annoying! But I looked at my garden and felt a sense of pride that I haven't had in 2 years. I had a smile on my face all evening.
The next thing I did was decide that mowing the yard didn't have to wait for my Dad or my boyfriend to do it. (I know many of you are probably saying DUH right now but bear with me) So I went to the shed to get the lawn mower. Well, my ex took the gas powered one and that was the only one I had used so I turned to my Dad's mower....electric...hhhmmmm realllllllly long cord across the yard with the chance of me running it over.....FUN!
The electric mower just seemed so heavy (and very uncooperative I might add) but I wrangeled it up to my starting point and ran what seemed like a thousand feet of cord back to the plug in on the side of the house. Turned it on and awaaaaaaaaay I went. It took me a little while to realize that the handle flipped over so I didn't have to wrestle with it to turn around ( I know...another big DUH for me) but once I got the hang of that, and how to keep the cord behind me, I was doing great. I know this because my father, who had been perched on the patio watching me like a vulture, wandered back into the house so I took that as a positive sign and gave my self a pat on the back.
I got another pat on the back when my boyfriend called from work and in the course of our conversation asked what I had been up to that afternoon, I smiled and told him about my conquest of the lawn mower and got a heart felt "Good for you" out of him. Aaaawwww what a good boyfriend, huh? Ok now add to that....he brought me home flowers and a bottle of wine that evening. He is awesome.....anyway.....back to the yard work.
My boyfriend and I (his name is Kevin by the way) started discussing the garden. We knew something had to be done we just weren't sure what. We decided to buy that black weed blocker fabric and cover it since putting down weed killer would make it impossible for me to plant anything in it this year, but that meant we needed to rent a tiller and put quite a bit of work into it. We decided that weekend we would measure the garden and go get the weed block material. YAY Home Depot......I love that place!!
When we got up Saturday Kevin took his coffee and went outside. I was piddling around the house and told him I would be out shortly, figuring we would measure the garden and then hit Home Depot. By the time I got outside Kevin was almost completely done weeding one of the three flower beds I have in the front of my house. I jumped right in and between the two of use we knocked all three out in no time flat. One of the things we had to do when we weeded was to rake up the old beauty bark I had put down 3 years ago so Kevin decided he wanted to pick up more beauty bark on our trip to Home Depot ( I am not advertising for Home Depot I swear...although my son does work for them).
Did I mention I love Home Depot? I love all of the plants and the smell of the potting soil and flowers. I especially love when it is spring because all of the herbs and little baby vegetable plants are outside. When we got there my ADD took over and I got side tracked to the herbs but Kevin got me back on track with the promise that next weekend we could start to focus on herbs. We grabbed about 6 bags of the beauty bark, a weed hound ( it helps you pull weeds without pulling a bunch of grass ) and the weed blocking material. We headed home and I was so happy. It may seem like it is silly but I just loved the idea that we were working outside together to make the house look pretty.
At this point I don't know how it happened but something was mentioned about renting a tiller. Next thing I knew I was on my way to the rental place to pick up a rear tine tiller. I picked it up and a gas can and some gas and by the time I got back Kevin had put all of the beauty bark down and said we were going to need a few more bags. We grabbed the tiller and headed up to the garden. We were talking about who was going to tiller the garden since I had been flexing my yard working muscles. I decided to let Kevin take the lead (honestly that thing scared the crap out of me!) and once he got going I was soooooooooo glad I had opted out of his offer! It bounced and jumped and churned all over the place. It was kind of like watching someone on one of those fake bucking bronco's they have. It just looked like controlled chaos to me. Bless Kevin's heart he made about four passes up and down that garden to make sure it was done well. I showed my appreciation by running and getting him beers. This I CAN do! After that the next thing we decided to do was hit the hot tub!
Sunday we went back to Home Depot and picked up more beauty bark. Once we got home and spread it out Kevin felt we still needed more but decided to give it a break. I mean Sunday is supposed to be a day of rest right? We watched movies and cuddled and I made dinner, it was a very nice Sunday.
Monday I get up and decide to put the weed blocking cloth down myself. I mean how hard can it be to unroll it, lay it down, cut it, repeat until garden is covered, right? The wind fought with me a bit, but it was actually a gorgeous day for this time of year in WA and I got it all laid out nice and straight. Now, what to use to hold it down......dang it I knew we forgot something! I started grabbing rocks and laid them down on the edges to hold everything temporarily until we could get back to the store ( notice I didn't say Home Depot ) and get something to hold it down on a more permanent basis. Well, that night we had quite the wind storm...UGH....I didn't even want to see the garden the next day. After some coffee and quite a bit of procrastination, I walked up to the garden.....it was a mess just like I was afraid. I just quietly took my coffee and went back into the house muttering under my breath.
So we kinda lost our momentum for a few days. It was nasty and rainy and I didn't feel like struggling with that weed blocker stuff by myself. Kevin worked some long hard days so he didn't feel like going out into the rain after he got home either. So it sat.....I mean it couldn't get any worse.
Saturday we had to run errands with Kevin's father so we didn't get anything done outside, but Sunday we are back on track. We go to...that place....get some MORE beauty bark and some pots and herbs and potting soil and, after some debate on how well they would work or if they would be a huge waste of money, some "staples" for the weed blocker fabric. We got to work as soon as we got home. Since we only bought one box of staples (we had to compromise since I wanted them and he didn't) it was obvious very quickly that 75 staples weren't going to be enough, so we placed them strategically and used large rocks along with them. Once that was knocked off the list Kevin started putting down the beauty bark and I went to work setting up my herb pots. We finished up with that and enjoyed the rest of our Sunday.
Sunday night/Monday early morning I am woken up by a horrendous rain storm. The wind was blowing so hard I thought the window might break. Once I got over my fear of glass flying all over my room my heart stopped OH NO!!! Monday morning I wake up and got ready for school. As I walk out to my car I take a quick glance up to the garden......YAY!!!! Everything was still in the same place. I chuckled to myself about how much of a "waste of money" those staples were. I do like it when I am right!!
