Grrrrrrr (gardening is not *necessarily* relaxing)

[patandchickens]

Just venting

I decided to try to use the hour between when DH gets home from work and when I need to start dinner to get some perennials moved and divided. Clearly I should have consulted my biorhythm chart or horoscope or something, because I would have been better off just cleaning stalls or digging ditches or banging my head repeatedly against a good hard wall.

Dig up plant #1. Move to new spot. Dig up plant #2. so far so good. While moving number 2 to number 1's original spot, accidentally churn up a bunch of tulip seedlings I was intending to preserve. Swear.

Dig up plant #3. Minus about 2/3 of its roots, oops. Swear some more. Reduce plant to just the part of the clump that had roots remaining, replant in wrong spot. Dig up, plant again in right spot, getting vast quantities of dirt up my gloves.

Attempt to divide Sedum "Autumn Joy" clump with my trusty beloved breadknife. Won't go. Push harder. Break breadknife. Swear a *lot*. Slice the clump in half with shovel, severing a number of roots but at this point I did not care. Discover that I had insufficient room where I'd intended to put it; extended pause while I removed turf to enlarge bed.

Dig up Maltese Cross clump that has LONG needed to go elsewhere (tip: do not put something with flaming-scarlet flowers next to purply-pink ones <gag>) slicing up four ready-to-come-up Scilla bulbs in the process. More swearing. Step on a tulip just poking its nose aboveground.

Gah.

There is probably some reason that I do this, but it is not always easy to remember what it *is* <g>


Pat, going to go dig a Nice Simple Straightforward Manual Labor Ditch tomorrow and none of this futzing around with flowers stuff -- you can't kill a ditch

 

[Nifty]

You are spot on! I'm not the most patient person in the world and after working through the garden for many hours, including transplanting, I turn around and say, "Okay, where are my vegetables!?"

 

[Rosalind]

See, I would have given up and picked a different chore when the dirt got inside my gloves. I hate that, we have hookworms and anthrax and gawd-knows-what in our dirt, and I imagine them worming their ooky way into every inch of exposed skin.

The idea is that when it gets annoying and frustrating, you just stop and leave it for tomorrow. I do this with everything. It really works, you just sleep on it for a day or two and it gets better or becomes someone else's problem.

 

[S0rcy]

A freshman in one of my classes at school was asked why she wanted to go into commercial farming. She said "Because farming is fun! It's just like gardening!"

I am still a bit of a newbie to farming, but even I turned around (with all the other grass seed farmers in the room, to look at her and just blink.

I love gardening! Iiiiinnn the summer when there is a break from planting/weeding/drying/freezing/studying insects and diseases. I love it when I sit down in my chair next to my grill and flip over my grilling fish with some of that fresh thyme picked from the box right next to me while drinking a beer and proclaiming loudly that the children better keep their hands off my strawberries!

heh

 

[patandchickens]

The idea is that when it gets annoying and frustrating, you just stop and leave it for tomorrow. I do this with everything. It really works, you just sleep on it for a day or two and it gets better or becomes someone else's problem.

Well, I know what you're saying, and I know there is some truth to it.

However, here (and it may have something to do with having two kids, a husband not interested in getting things done around the house, and hardly any time to Do Stuff myself) I find that if I sleep on something for a day or two, it just becomes further backlog

There is no "anyone else" whose problem it's gonna become, here.

And in my observation, plants hardly ever relocate themselves, ditches hardly ever dig themselves, the pony hardly ever removes himself from the Forbidden Paddock into which he has jumped overnight (this morning's minor crisis), the deck does not rebuild itself, the brickwork does not repoint itself, etcetera Sometimes you just have to work when you can and just try not to screw up any more than absolutely necessary. The problem with having only an hour or less per day to Get Things Done is that switching tasks ends up wasting a good proportion of it. It's frustrating, but what can you do.

I will admit that moving perennials around may not seem as important as the other sorts of items on my list. But, being stuck in the house much of the time, I really really value being able to look out the window and see a reasonably well-ordered and attractive flower garden. Seriously, it keeps me sane. Well, insofar as anything does

I keep hoping that once the 11 month old is walking and we get the side yard properly fenced, I can go outside with the kids more and do some work while they play, this summer... but realistically, I know our older son didn't let me do much when *he* was that age, so I am not holding my breath.

I am told that they eventually grow up and become, like, 5 years old, or 10, or 15. Theoretically this will give me more time to do things. *Theoretically*


Pat, who discovered the ground is still too liquid for ditch-digging, but did at least get some volunteer pine seedlings potted up and the earliest batch of lettuce potted up and put into the coldframe, today, without screwing up anything (that I'm aware of yet)

 

[Rosalind]

Well, do one thing at a time. This is my boss' advice with everything: Do one thing at a time, really well. Multitasking isn't all it's cracked up to be. Yes, it will be done slower, but the difference is you won't have to do it twice because it won't be screwed up.

Also, usually after I sleep on things, I become slightly less anxious about doing them. Which helps, there's not that huge weight of "gotta do XYZ" hanging over me. It'll get done when it gets done. Or not. Realistically, as long as I have a roof over my head, food in the fridge, am clothed and so forth, it's all good.

Yeah, one day the kids will get older...this does not mean they will be able to mind themselves better, or that letting them mind themselves will even be a wise decision. Don't believe me? You can meet my husband's stepsister, who was pregnant as a teenager (and irresponsible as a sorta-adult at age 23), a pathological liar, and near-useless. Her two skills in life consist of making burritos and knowing when I disapprove of her horrible behavior. Her parents, both very old to be raising a teenager (we're talking, retirement age), couldn't be bothered to mind her. She still acts like a whiny, emo 13-year-old. Horrible. They don't WANT you to pay more attention to them, but they need it anyways. And they become sneakier about getting away without your seeing. You look down at whatever you're doing for 15 minutes, BAM! they're half a mile down the road, skateboarding in traffic.

Or you can ship them off to boarding school. This was my mother's philosophy, which I highly recommend if you desperately need peace and quiet. Teens go through this insane phase, it helps to have the seasoned pros handle their insanity.

 

[patandchickens]

I would just like to say that this afternoon I got an amur maple planted, a giant clump of siberian iris pried up and moved elsewhere, and two new perennials planted, *without* actually breaking, squishing or killing anything

Now if I could just get the expletive-deleted pony to quit jumping into the Forbidden Paddock. I made the gate he's jumping over higher. It is now just shy of 6'. *Boing*, there's the pony on the wrong side of it again. Sigh. If only he were rideable

Pat, who finally gave up and left the pony there (he can't jump back out because of a difference in ground level) while feeding the other two -- twice! -- and my fingers are crossed that this may teach the pony which side of the fence his bread is buttered on.

 

[whatnow?]

I here ya on the house and yard... my garden sits as it does while I work on the chicken coop (no I didn't consult before getting the chickens), fix the broken blocks on the garage wall, plant in the new garden beds, etc... and then I couldn't understand why I was shivering at work... ahhhh.... a fever..... but in the long run, I get a lot of pleasure out of converting the chaos into something manageable.

Georgeous weekend coming up in the mid-atlantic region.

Suns up - gotta go.

 

[Buff Shallots]

Pat, that has got to be one of the most cleverly written, wry pieces of garden writing I've ever read. Perhaps on those days, you should abandon the broken breadknife and sit down at your keyboard, that is, if your horoscope agrees.

 

[beefy]

purple and red doesnt go together?