A perennial garden post

I spent most of this weekend in the garden. What I meant to do was to anchor some shelves to the walls so they don't fall down in case of an earthquake, and to do that I had to go to the local big box hardware store, which in these parts is Lowe's, to buy some specialty screws and attachmenty bits that you could stick in a wall and make it be more solid. So I did that, I mean, I took the bus down to Lowe's, but the bus drops you off right at this great garden store, Flowercraft. Of course I had to pop into Flowercraft and browse around.

But I'm not totally without sense. I took a mental note of what I wanted and then went across the street to Lowe's and bought my specialty screws. While I was there I also bought a replacement screen for a screen door and a thing that looks like a pizza cutter but is plastic to stick the replacement screen in. The guys in the door section assured me replacing a screen would be no big deal and that you could just look up how on YouTube. I also bought an adjustable window screen. Thus laden with a roll of replacement screen stuff and a window screen, I walked back across the street to Flowercraft and fantasized about all the things I might be able to plant and grow in my garden, were I the kind of person who takes care of a garden in a sensible, every day or at least every week way.

Then I looked in my heart and knew myself for the person that I am, and instead bought a bunch of drought resistant perennials, as well as a variety of lovely terracotta pots for succulents. And also some sugar pumpkin seeds because I live in hope. The real limiting factor, really, is that I can only carry so much stuff on the bus. Although, this being my third year working in the garden, I also have a somewhat realistic sense of how much I can plant in a single day, which, as luck would have it, is about the same as the amount I can uncomfortably carry on the bus.

When I got home, I thought I had better trim the grass first before I plant new things. So I got out the electric string trimmer, which my dad had helped me pick out and transport from that same Lowe's a few years ago, and I strimmed the crap out of that overgrown patch of lawn. I friggin love that machine. It's a little heavy but utterly satisfying to wield. As I cleared the grass, the overgrown sage bushes kept getting in my way, so I thought, I better trim those as well so I can strim the grass overgrowing the path. After I trimmed back the bushes, I realized the path was covered in fallen leaves, so I swept all of them up and also all the grass, and piled it all up on the compost, and at this point I had been at least two hours and my arms were kind of shaky, and I hadn't even planted anything!

I went inside, fortified myself with tea, and went right back out again. Suddenly it was two hours later, and my arms were trembling with exhaustion, but almost all the seedlings were planted and securely protected with mesh baskets that look like little trash bins.

And that is why I didn't write a blog post last weekend. That, and you know, the horrors, which seem to be making it hard for many creative people to write the kind of stuff they normally write. But for the sake of the argument, let's say it was because I was gardening. My arms were so tired I couldn't even hold up a phone to read it, so really, how could I write?