Be Careful What You Wish For

Maggie in my side yard last winter.

Here in Northeast Ohio, and indeed much of the country in January, the weather was horrible – bitter cold and lots of snow. But I didn’t mind too much because that is the time of the year when I like to hibernate and get more reading and writing done. I love getting comfortable in my nesting chair with a good book, and also have more time to write. February was equally a bitter cold month with more snow falling. That’s when I started looking forward to spring, but I figured it was coming soon. Maybe March would even come in like a lamb as it has done sometimes in the past. It didn’t. By then I was really getting sick and tired of winter; hauling buckets of water from the house to the barn for my ponies and old hens because the outside pump had frozen. Oh, how I wished spring would come. I longed to walk in the woods mornings again, but couldn’t not only because of the extreme cold, but the depth of the snow. Finally, on March 30^th, I was able to walk in the woods wearing boots, of course, and the water pump thawed so I didn’t have to carry water buckets from the house.

Daffodils in my back yard in April.

April was warmer; however with April we got those April showers that bring May flowers. For all of April I wore barn boots and squished and sloshed on much of my path through the woods. My driveway had puddles and the lawn was squishy with puddles, too. Later the daffodils started to bloom as well as some of the earlier flowers in the woods, and I was happy spring was finally here in spite of the sloppy squishy ground.

Phoebe hasn't quite lost all her winter coat yet.

That is I was happy it was here until after I came home from Malice in early May. You see, I wasn’t the only living thing that met spring with exuberance. New flowers kept appearing, and that made me happy, but not the weeds that grew faster and thicker than my flowers. And then there was the grass. I no sooner mowed one section, then four or five days later, I had to mow again. I don’t really mind the dandelions, I love the little suns blooming everywhere, but the grass around them kept getting higher and higher. Now I don’t have a riding lawn mower, I have a self-propelled old mower that I still have to let go of the self-propelled lever to pull back on the mower and maneuver it through different areas. When I’m mowing areas with really high grass, my mower clogs up and quits, so I have to turn it over and clean out the grass stuck under there. Once it has dried a day or two later I rake the cut grass for my ponies.

 

And apparently on the tree telegraph line, my few white ash trees have heard the Emerald Ash Borer is on its way, so they have liberally sown seeds through every one of my gardens so saplings are growing everywhere some waist high or more. Of course, there are also the branches that came down in the winter to clean up as well as dead branches hanging low on trees that I tend to run into when I’m mowing and not paying attention.

Flowers, rose bushes, etc. in front of pots and weeding buckets.

In an early burst of exuberance on my part, when my two sisters and I went to Bluestone Perennials the week before Malice, I bought a lot of plants. Unfortunately many of them are still in the flats I brought home. Over the past few weeks I bought more flowers, a few herbs and vegetables, four rose bushes and a Japanese maple – almost none have been planted yet except for one window box and three planters I took to the cemetery for the graves I decorate.

Hard to believe that most of this was full of veggies last year. 

Why haven’t I planted them yet? Well, the fenced in vegetable garden with raised beds is full of weeds – big healthy weeds. I did get a small part of it weeded and planted, and part of my strawberry patch is weeded, but the rest of it is a horror, and I don’t use weed killer. Even the brick sidewalks – darn Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello that gave me the idea that brick walks would be nice. Ever try weeding brick walks?  Every flower garden in my extensive gardens is filled with weeds, even the ones I had so nicely weeded last year. The problem with Pollyanna exuberance, which I’m deeply afflicted with, we tend to overlook the negative side of things. At least we do until it’s staring us in the face. My gardens would actually be quite lovely if I didn’t have to spend a part of most days mowing and even more so if I could afford several – make that three, or more gardeners.  

 

My little goldfish pool still needs cleaned, too.

But alas and alack, I can’t. The only thing for me is to keep working at it a little at a time. It is such a pleasure to look at a weeded and neat looking garden area when I finish it. Unfortunately, those evil little weeds tend to sneak in during the night and take over again. Since I can’t fight them, I’ve decided to put on my Pollyanna mantle and declare my gardens are wild flower gardens. And you know what? I’ve found that except for dedicated gardeners – especially the neatniks, most people think my gardens are lovely. It’s all a point of view, after all.

Yeah, twelve yards under that. A kid is coming to shovel it in.

One more thing I wished for that came to pass last week. I wanted to find someone who would deliver sawdust for my pony stalls so I’d no longer have to buy bales of pine chips from Tractor Supply. My Amish blacksmith gave me the name of a man, and a week ago he delivered twelve yards of sawdust. Now all I have to do is find someone who will move it a wheelbarrow at a time into a stall I have ready in the barn to store it. Do you have any idea how big a pile of twelve yards of sawdust is?

Several of many rhododendrons I have blooming at my place.

I’ll admit when I drive through neighborhoods with neat lawns and gardens with everything trimmed and looking perfect, I feel a moment of wistfulness, but it doesn’t last long. Last week I visited a friend with the most awesome hosta gardens and other plants, too. I mean, I swear there was not a weed hiding anywhere. Of course, she and her husband spend hours and hours to make them look so perfect. As for me, I’ve always loved walking through fields and woods where nothing is trimmed neatly. I’m more in tune with what is natural, and even though that may have a bit of making excuses for the state of my gardens, in truth, I have so many other interests that I don’t want to spend all my time working in my gardens. However, I’m still wishing for a gardener who works for free.

So far everyone has ignored this sign. :(

What have you wished for that wasn’t exactly what you wanted?