I Will Not Let It Die!

I know that Spring has finally arrived when I plant pansies.

I am in such a different gardening "place" than I have ever been before, other than our first apartment which had north facing windows and consequently wasn't good for growing anything other than moss on trees. In that first place my gardening gene was still dormant.

Here at Chez Knit the landscaping isn't my job anymore, it is the job of the landscapers who are hired by the association. That is good and it is what we were looking for when we bought this house as it frees HHBL and I up from all the yard work that we had been saddled with for so many years. I don't have to dread Spring any longer and all the beds that needed to be cleaned out and the never ending battle with the weeds and the 20 yards of mulch that needs to be spread before it starts to cook down to China.

All of those facts may be true but it doesn't mean that I can stop this urge. It doesn't mean that my once dormant but now very active gardening gene can just go back to being dormant. I may not be in charge of those bushes, especially the very sad and woebegone hydrangea, but I don't think that the landscapers care either. Believe me, if they did care then that hydrangea bush wouldn't look like it does and it wouldn't be all eaten and decimated by those rats with hooves deer.

About those deer (as I rabbit trail for a minute). There seems to be three of them that are regular visitors. And they are bold as brass. My neighbors all shake their heads at me and say, "Oh I don't think you should plant any flowers. Those deer are terrible." I scoff at them! I shake my fist at them (the deer not the neighbors). I have opposable thumbs and they (the deer) do not and I will win.

Now back to the gardening

It isn't that I won't be gardening any longer, it is just that I will be gardening in a different way than I am used to. I cannot add anything new to any of the landscape beds as they are not technically mine to rearrange. I can stick some flowers here and there but I must maintain them and they cannot be perennials. I believe that most of what I will be doing will be confined to pots and containers both in the front and on the back patio, which isn't the sunniest place in the universe. There will not be any hostas (which is most likely a good thing knowing my addiction love for them) but there will be clematis. And I don't even have to go out and buy them. When we moved in I noticed that there were two very sad, mis-planted and deer ravaged clematis in one of the front beds. I am not sure who planted them and what they were thinking when they planted them but it was a strange place to put a clematis. So yesterday I carefully transplanted the first one over to an area where it will get a lot more sun. And that made me happy.

After digging a bit in the dirt I filled up a pot with dirt and planted some pansies. And that made me even more happy.

Then I trimmed back the hydrangea bushes. I have absolutely no idea about hydrangea care at the moment, I will have to do some research on that. But all I can say is that looking at the state that they were in I didn't think I could do them any more harm. To be honest, I can actually ask the homeowners association to replace the bushes, they are their property after all and not mine. But I just have this urge to try and save them. To not give up the hydrangea ship as it were. Call me a cockeyed hydrangea optimist if you will. Just another one of my Scarlet O'Hara moments....

As God is my witness, I will not let that hydrangea die!

After trimming the hydrangeas and cleaning up my garden mess....I pulled out my jug of deer retardent spray and gave the bushes and the clematis and the pansies a good dousing, all the while hoping that my neighbors don't wonder why the 'hood suddenly smells like the day after a giant frat party. Vomit, how lovely.

Garden waste is another adjustment that I am having to make. At OCK I could just lug all of it to the edge of the ravine and chuck it down the hill or stash it in the woods or something of that nature. But here I actually have to bag the stuff up, small amount that it is, and put it in the garbage can. I don't even own a wheelbarrow any more! And I only have one shovel which actually proved to be a problem yesterday as the only shovel that I do currently own was a bit big for the digging job. I managed.

I am not always one to embrace change (stop laughing HHBL) but my brain is just a whirl with the different gardening possibilities.

Now if my little town would only get their community garden up and functioning.........

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