‘Tis the season
when friends are posting photos of their garden’s first harvest and dinner
items created from their bounty. A few fellow
bloggers have even written how their garden mirrors their life. I, too, could write a beautiful piece on how
tending to the garden is so much like tending to my own children or cultivating
the young minds in my classroom. But,
alas, I am not in charge of our vegetable garden. I was, however, allowed to tie up the peppers
and eggplants this past weekend before heading to my charge – the front yard
flower garden. Let’s take a look shall
we…
OK. It’s bad. I know.
But I do need to throw out the disclaimer that we have been away two out
of the past three weeks. As I forged
through the thick carpet of growth I thought of two things: 1. I hate this
garden. 2. My life is full of weeds.
I inherited this flower bed. We moved in on Mother’s Day weekend 2010. I looked curiously at the tiny sprouts of
green poking through the soil. I decided
to wait a few weeks to see what actually grew to see what was actually a flower
vs. a weed. That summer was a scorcher,
I was pregnant and chasing an eighteen-month old. Needless to say, the weeds saw this as an opportunity
to flourish!
The following spring I was
determined to make something of this garden.
I researched deer resistant plants, and decided to bring in some flowers
and shrubs I had had success with in the past.
Well, apparently nothing truly is deer resistant, the moles dug up
several of the new plants and my successful flowers expired mid July.
Take three. I attacked the garden with a vengeance one
afternoon during nap. I thinned out over
grown areas, purchased four new plants and deer repellant spray. Nap time ended and I was called away from my
project. Two of the new plants sat in
the driveway for two weeks before getting planted and the deer repellant is
collecting dust in the garage.
In my BK (Before Kids) life, I had
time to tend to flower beds. Jim spent
many weekends hauling Pennsylvania blue stone from the cabin and we created
gorgeous flower beds around three quarters of our house. Weeds were taken care of swiftly, plants were
watered and our neighbors were impressed.
One neighbor told us, ‘My yard used to look a heck of a lot better
before we had kids.’ I giggled at the
thought. How hard could it be to
maintain?
But now, my life is full of weeds. There are so many little chores, projects and
two little people that demand my attention, that flower bed falls way to the
bottom of the list. I do not think this
is a bad thing though (except every day when I pull into the driveway and
grumble at the site of it.) Days can be
planned, the to-do list can be just about completed when something else comes
creeping in – just like a weed. You don’t
plan for it to happen. It may or may not
be a pleasant surprise but here it is and it has to be dealt with.
When I named my blog last year, I
was thinking just this. There is a lot
of “et cetera” that goes into life. It
is up to us to decide how to manage our own weeds. Because there is no escaping it: they will
creep in.
Once again I have big plans for the
garden. This time in August, after the summer
heat has subsided a bit. Of course, if I
wait too late, I’ll be busy with preparing for the start of a new school year
for me, Andrew’s start of preschool and the boys’ adjustment to a nanny. More et cetera, more weeds, more of
life! Now that I think about it, maybe I’ll
just turn the flower garden into a weed garden!
J
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