The Not So Fun Aspects Of Gardening

Up until recently, I hadn�t touched one area in my backyard that was in need of a cleanup to prepare it for planting. It�s a very large flower bed that will accommodate a variety of plants. And the reason I hadn�t bothered to clean it up while I puttered around the garden is that I was waiting for my neighbour�s Magnolia tree, part of which hangs into my yard, to finish blooming and dump the petals. Well, once most of the spent flowers had fallen, I decided to get out there and start working on that area.

This is what it looked like before I cleaned it up:



Pretty discouraging, huh?

Well, with gardening tools in hand, a few prayers to the botanical gods and a lot of pep talks to self that included statements like �I know this is a crappy job, but think of all the plants you can grow here� (major motivator), I cleaned up the area, turned the soil over and prepared it for future perennials.

Now it looks like this:



There was no one to pat me on the back, which I certainly deserved, so I did the happy gardener�s dance instead. I�d forgotten about the construction workers working nearby. [blush]