Gardening and Week 3 #WriteMotivation Update
Our Home 2009
Me: I’m so old.
Son: No you’re not. You were just bent over gardening too much this weekend!
♥
Ok, so this post might have to be something simple. I’m zapped from all the manual labor this weekend. My plants were screaming at me for the last 3 weeks. My roses needed re-potted and trimmed (Still haven’t decided where their permanent home will be so I bought bigger containers. My Lantanas needed to be put in the ground. My beds needed raked, mulch removed and weeding. It was in the upper 80s all weekend so we usually don’t do anything during the heat of the day. We began in the morning, rested during the day, and went back out in the early evening when it began to cool back down.
Not sure if you can see from the picture to the left, but the landscaper wanted to put in as much as he possibly could. He over-crowded the area. And, I didn’t have any of the plants I wanted. We’ve been working on the left side of the house as well. The tree all the way to the left of the picture has been replaced. The first year, it became home to wasps and hornets. And somehow managed to contract some sort of disease. We’ve since replaced it with a dwarf lilac. This will be its second season. The place I bought it from said it was the only one capable of handling the heat of Zone 9. So, fingers are crossed.
Our Home 2009 different angle
Also, see all those tiny bushes? in the front? Well, I’ve been slowly removing them and replacing them. They stink to high heaven and they seem to like to get and keep mildew, and ants. Plus, there is too much green and not enough color. Way up in the front, you might not be able to see it, but there are African Lilies. Those have never bloomed out of the 3 years we’ve been here.
Not only did we replace the tree (left of the photo) with a Dwarf Lilac, we’ve pulled up about 3 rows of those nasty, stinky bushes. That was last year. In their absence, weeds have taken hold. Fresh, exposed earth and there you go. We’ve not only weeds, but grass. It is a daunting task to keep up with the weeding. We are trying to get some mulch this year, to replace what got washed down the drain during rain storms, while we save up for stone. Plus, it’s easier to plant before I get stone.
Along the back, lining the porch, I want to rip up those bushes and replace them with hedge roses. This year, though, we’ve managed to re-pot my hybrid tea roses. We also purchased some Creeping Lantana for the very front, more for ground cover, where the African Lilies used to be. We haven’t been able to lay much mulch. We only have a car, with limited trunk space. We bought 2 bags of brown mulch on Saturday. We laid that around the Dwarf Lilac and where my potted roses are. It looked really nice. We went back Sunday to buy a few more bags and were stuck getting 4 bags of red mulch. I HATE RED MULCH! Ugh! I don’t want a patchwork flower bed. But, daggum it, we don’t have a truck. I WANT MY STONE!
Beginning Of New Front Yard 2012
So, we still have more mulch to lay, and more work to do. I haven’t bought all the plants just yet. I have to get my hedge roses before June, though. That’s the last time they will ship to my zone until next year. It’s a slow process, but hopefully will be beautiful next year when it’s all done.
So, with that being said, my writing suffered this weekend.
March’s goals:
- Continue with my daily writer-ly duties.Yes and No. Monday through Friday was fine. Between finishing up editing one short story, completing another, and a couple of critiques along the way, I did rather well. However, this weekend, I did not! 🙁 I lost two days. Zero work. 2 days without writing in 3 months, though. So I consider that still an amazing accomplishment.
- By March 20th, I would like to complete and submit another story to the 713 Flash call at KazkaPress. Yes and No. I completed editing the short story I wrote last year. Since this month’s prompt reminded me a lot of this short story, I wanted to make a companion piece to it. I completed the 713 short. It’s currently out for crits. Submission is end of day tomorrow. Hopefully, I can manage to submit it tomorrow.
- regular blog posts. Yes. YAY for me, I’m writing today’s blog post.
- I would like to read another book this month. Nope. Still trying to decide what to read next. I would like to read Terry Goodkind’s latest, The Omen Machine. Or Naomi Novik’s latest, Crucible of Gold. But both are $12.99 for the e-book price! (ugh! wish e-books weren’t so pricey!) Only The Omen Machine is out in paperback, at $8.99. Crucible of Gold was released this month, so no paperback yet. I may just have to go and start The Wheel Of Time series, or start back with Artemis Fowl series. I’ve just been so tired to read anything lately.
And we all need to Embrace The Suck! Check out my mugs and T-shirts!
 Men’s & Women’s T-shirt
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Thursday, March 22nd 2012 at 14:50 |
Wow, just READING all that gardening made me tired! I feel your pain, I was helping my MIL get her garden beds ready last weekend, and waiting on the other boxes of garden corners to show up for my beds. Then I get the “fun” of building my two 4×12 beds, hauling the compost and dirt into them, and then FINALLY planting!
Though I think I need to get another rosemary bush. Mine did not take to the change in weather from TX to NJ very well. Drat it!
Thursday, March 22nd 2012 at 13:25 |
keep up the good work. i’ve given you an award, my dear! http://valerierlawson.wordpress.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=175&action=edit
Tuesday, March 20th 2012 at 12:06 |
woohoo pretty flowers! Upper 80 degrees is too warm? It’s refreshing here, since summer brings temps of upper 90 to over a hundred :P. We keep working outside until it’s 110 degrees, hehe.
Your goals are coming along well, though, even for spring planting interrupting :).
Tuesday, March 20th 2012 at 12:16 |
We have to work when hubs is able. He’s a disabled vet and suffers chronic pain and chronic migraines. Too much physical labor can knock him flat. 🙁
Monday, March 19th 2012 at 23:51 |
Woo hoo! Look at you 🙂 Miss green thumbs! With all the storms and hail and snow I haven’t been able to do anything in our garden. I’m so jealous! And you have a beautiful house and family 🙂
As to the writing – hey – it will be there tomorrow, waiting like an old friend 🙂 Sometimes you gotta unplug and go commune with nature. And stuff.
Woo hoo Embrace the Suck!!
*hugs*
Tuesday, March 20th 2012 at 06:45 |
Thanks Ann. I used to have a rose garden in VA where I would show roses. Here in FL, I am still learning all about what works and what doesn’t. It’s not so easy in this humid, bug infested, sandy soiled area!
Hopefully, I can get back into a groove. But it’s going to be hard this week. I usually can’t write at home. But I’ll try! Thursday & Friday are “work from home days” YAY!
Oh, and I just ordered 18 roses to replace those nasty bushes up by my porch! more back breaking work shall ensue! when they get here. 🙂
Monday, March 19th 2012 at 13:04 |
Your house looks gorgeous and what a big area to have to garden. We’re lucky for now that most of ours is grass or is going to be or is a pool lol. The dog is a great excuse not to landscape. I did a little bit of gardening but not to that extent. Good luck with feeling better and your to do list 🙂
Tuesday, March 20th 2012 at 06:46 |
Our yard isn’t all that big. What you see there is the front. I only have a strip maybe 12 inches in front that is grass. I would have liked a bigger yard for more gardening! I love flowers. But I will do with what I have and hope for the best.
Monday, March 19th 2012 at 09:35 |
I envy you and your ability to garden. Me? Don’t have the time, patience or ability lol. I kill plants. Trust me. Except established trees, of which I have many.
Also – I think you’re doing great on your goals for the month. Also – will have that crit to you in an hour or so <3
Tuesday, March 20th 2012 at 06:49 |
That’s why you get someone to do it for you, KT! That way you can still enjoy the color of Spring and Summer! 😀
Monday, March 19th 2012 at 08:49 |
Gardening?? Seriously?? I am so jealous. It’s snowing outside right now. 🙁 Ah well, could be worse I guess. maybe I should bake something for a cold day. 🙂
Tuesday, March 20th 2012 at 06:48 |
yeah, that’s the problem with being on opposite sides of the continent. You being up North, your winters are longer, summers are shorter. But it’s been in the 80s for quite some time already. I have to start working on the yard from February all the way through November, sometimes through the winter (like this year).