Reach for the stars

If you remember "Miss Jean" then you know "Bend and stretch, reach for the stars, there goes Jupiter, There goes Mars." I got the bend and stretch down pat and was using "reach for the stars" to get my back unkinked, never saw Jupiter or Mars.

If you have been following along you know we have been working on the gardens this week as well as bicycling. We got the straw off the plants and into the rows the other day and I got the new shrubs in. When I got home yesterday I was going to pot the geraniums (red, I love red flowers and blue ones) then plant the zinnia seeds. I use seeds because when everything but the marigolds are dead and gone I have lovely banks of colorful zinnias till the first hard frost.

I have this place I call Warf's garden. It started as a shade garden but it was under an ash tree and the borers got it 2 years later so I had no shade for it. I planted some arbor day flowering trees and carried on. When my best dog ever, Lt. Warf died at 9 years old we buried him in the front and added a rock for his marker and a red maple for him to grow. Then I gussied it up and it looked like this. In the late summer it looked like this. After 3 and a half years of neglect (forgive me) I'll let you imagine what it looked like. Just add lots of knee high, healthy crab grass to your mental picture. It sucked and I hated it.

So ANYWAY, the mate was off running errands with a friend. I wanted to wait till he was back to ride so I was going to plant some zinnias yesterday and I wanted to put them on each corner of Warf's garden. I started cleaning out the corners and noticed the phlox seemed to just have a few blades of crab grass. I discovered if you grab it way at the bottom and shake it that it will bring more of the root with it. Then I found my white columbine full of the nasty stuff, then the white crocuses were almost lost and I pulled and twisted and shook the crabby grass out of them. It got to be conpulsive. The hostas had to be cleared, the iris and I could just barely see the lily of the valley.

I have the black garden cloth under this and the d... crab grass grows right through it. Then I found some strangle vine and dug that out. I found leeks, a small bulb onion with nice greenery, had just buried the stump at the back. I must have yanked 50 of them.I might have one tiny piece of spiderwort still growing, am not sure.

I had been working in the classic old lady gardening pose, legs apart, bent over from the waist and pulling with both hands. For the last hour I had been having to straighten up, stretch and walk around a minute to get my legs to stop shaking. It just went on and on, I would just pull one more root of crab grass then quit. But I didn't quit till the mate came around back and said oh THERE you are, I recognize THAT. I just turned around and looked at him with my red face dripping floods of sweat and said I was glad he got a look, because now I was going to sit down on it.

I looked around and saw I had cleared two thirds of the garden out and had three piles of weeds about 18 inches deep and 3 feet around. Impressive! Also exausting. I abandoned everything and went in to cool off. We had cold sandwiches again and by the time I was done my glasses had stopped steaming up and my heart rate was almost normal again.

I went back out and moved the mulch, laid some planting dirt, seeded 3 kinds of zinnias, including the minis that are so cute, watered the whole garden, sprinkled mulch over the seeds and put my tools away. I skipped my bike ride but I don't think it hurt anything.

I really wanted to finish it tonight but I've had this cold and it was chilly and raining. So I got tonight off.

The cousin called and he has the seat I need along with a few other things for my bike so I will be making a trip to meet them sometime soon. Number One Son and Wife will be down this weekend to make a mother's day dinner for us. Number Two granddaughter will be with them. The mate leaves Monday for the south with my Mom and her motor home. I got the computer at work back in one piece and the office cleaned yesterday, too. So stay tuned for more adventures.

Hoping for an easy Friday tomorrow and a nice day to ride both bikes when I get home.