gardening – Creations By Cathy

Today was your typical Monday morning. 18 things on the “to do” list. The first item was a priority for today – Collect all the dead plants from the planters. Two reasons. First of all, we had a hard freeze over the weekend and everything that was alive on Friday was not alive on Saturday. (Luckily I had the sense to move all of my potted herbs inside and cut the last of my sweet little blooming hydrangeas on Friday, right before the freeze.) The second reason to do this today – Tuesday is trash day. Gather up the dead plants today; get them out to the trash tomorrow. Simple enough.

Ya; right.

I gathered up all of the dead stuff in pots. It took longer than I anticipated. It always does. As I was doing this, I couldn’t help but notice the annoying little voice in my head that kept nagging. And nagging... “Look around you. There is certainly a lot more to do around here than the dead pots. What about the dead peonies. And daylilies. And hydrangeas. And clematis. And roses. And…” “UGH!!! STOP TALKING!!”, I wanted to scream. But that stupid voice just continued. “It’s a nice day today. Tomorrow IS trash day, you know! What are you waiting for? Don’t be a procrastinator!! And (this is the biggie); if you DON’T do it… Who will?”

Ya. No one.

So what if I just decided not to do anything at all? What if I just left all of the dead stuff there for now. And said that I was gonna get to it. Soon. Real soon. But I didn’t. And then winter came. And there was snow. And cold. And all of the dead stuff stayed right there through winter. All, well… dead. I’m not saying that I would EVER do that, of course. I guess it could kinda… accidentally… sorta happen. Maybe?

OK, Ya. It did. And when springtime finally came around, all of the new growth started coming in. Or should I say, TRIED to come in. Around the dead stuff. Not a good plan, really.

So, in the end, I decided that today was THE day. For yard work. All day. Five HUGE bags, cuts and thorns, a couple band-aids and an aching back. Upon completion, my reward was a hot cup of tea and an Aleve. I sat down (Ahhhh…!) at the kitchen table and admired the vase of beautiful hydrangeas that had been in full bloom just days ago. Time. Where does it go…? The “to do” list from this morning was sitting there on the table. I grabbed a pen. Task #1 “Remove dead plants before trash day”. Check. Alrighty then. Guess I will just carry those other 17 items over to the Tuesday list… And Tuesday is trash day, you know.

Procrastinating is, by far, one of my favorite pastimes. I consider it a skill, really. So I saw something on Pinterest the other day that left me feeling inspired. “20 genius ideas for BACKYARD DECORATING”. After a long, dreadful winter – we are finally feeling the hope and promise of warmer weather. Spring has sprung.

So let’s talk about the yard for a minute. My “spring” was still covered by “winter”. All that dead stuff that needed to be trimmed and raked and shoved into bags… Ugh!! It made my back ache just thinking about it. Which is EXACTLY what I did about it. Think about it.

I thought about it for ~~weeks?~~ days. What did I do about it? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. There was always a good excuse why that particular moment, day, week wasn’t going to work.

So yesterday morning rolled around. I was outside with the dogs for morning potty. It was a beautiful morning. No rain. No snow. No tornadoes. Aha!! But what about dinner… plan the menu, hit the grocery store, send out invites, starch the linens (ya, right) Oh wait. It’s leftover night. Dang it! Even the dogs seemed to be looking at me with judgement in their eyes. Ok… WHATEVER!!! I give!

Out came the trimmer, and the gloves, and the rake, and the bags, and the…… GEEZ! This is SO not my thing! As much as I love pretty flowers, I would definitely not list “gardener” in my resume!! Truth is, I’m just too cheap to hire someone. And the hubster’s not exactly the “gardening type” either. His solution is to let his fingers do the walkin’, and his checkbook do the talkin”.

About halfway thru this earthly experience, I had to stop and laugh at myself. Looking for my shears was like something from the pages of a “Where’s Waldo” book. Remember my post the other day when I talked about making a mess when I cook? Well, apparently I am very consistent. There were piles, and equipment, and tools and dirt and grass… everywhere!! I looked at the clock on my cell phone, making a mental note of how many more hours it was until 5:00.

My arms were cut up and bleeding (stupid barberry bushes) and my back felt like an elephant was standing on it… but the reward was sweet. The bags were crammed full, the sidewalk was swept, the pansies were watered. I shut the front door behind me. Ahhhhhhh…

And that’s when it hit me. UGH!!! We have a backyard…..!!!

Tag Archives: gardening

monday morning

procrastination gardening