There are days when you should just hang your shovel up, put the wheelbarrow back in the garage, and go inside to water houseplants.
There are days when everywhere you dig to plant bulbs seems like the wrong place to dig. There are roots in the way. Or you keep hitting rocks. Many rocks. Too many rocks. Where did all these rocks come from?
There are days when you dig up bulbs from previous years, which is not what you want to do when you are planting more bulbs.
There are days when it is just better to sit and think, to look and contemplate and not try to dig, to follow the advice of Elizabeth Lawrence, “Everyone must take time to sit and watch the leaves turn.”
There are days…
May those days be few and far between for you.
May those days pass quickly and take with them their roots and rocks.
May those days be filled with colorful leaves, to remind you of the beauty of the garden in all seasons.
May those days never keep you from gardening.
Thank you for the good wishes Carol. I hope you didn't have one of these days which brought you to write about them. It is most annoying to dig up bulbs when you are planting new bulbs. I did that this fall and it is even more annoying when the ground is so darned hard and it is difficult to replant them. It is time to sit back and watch those leaves drift down to the ground.
I'm guessing you had a bad day… that you turned right side up? Bad days can be like that. You can choose to dwell on the bad or pull up your bootstraps and find the good. It's always there, just have to look a little harder for it. Great post, i really enjoyed it.
Dear Carol, as Paul Simon so brilliantly said, "These are the days of miracles and wonder". Good days or bad, fall flashes forward, to be savored with each leaf that falls. Your dug up bulbs will be a nice contrast with the newly planteds, a surprise in the spring. 🙂
Frances
Carol, Many is the time I've chopped a few bulbs in half or clunked once too often on a big rock. That's when I am grateful for the garden bench! I always find something wonderful to make me smile from that vantage point. gail
Ah — the trials of gardening. I try to take pictures of the blooming bulbs each year so I can find them again, but alas, I still run into them down there! Enjoy watching your leaves turn.
thank you for the blessing. I am happily watching much needed rain fall, and reading No One Gardens Alone: A LIfe of Elizabeth Lawrence, by Emily Herring Wilson. As the originator of Bloom Day, you of course, know her devotion to having something in bloom all year long, but as you mention today, she had many other thoughts, opinions and information to share.
Lovely thoughts, Carol. I've had a few of those days lately, but fortunately, they don't last long before I notice the colors of autumn and feel more optimistic again. I dug up a few bulbs accidentally, too; we'll have some surprises come spring, won't we?
I'll quote Mark Knopfler, "Sometimes you're the Louisville slugger, sometimes you're the ball." Sorry you were the ball.
Thankfully those days are indeed few and far between. We get through them fast enough even if it may not seem so during. I hope that day has ended for you.
There are days when we share veggies with pests and we never feel bad about it. ~ bangchik
Unless I'm planting huge quantities, I plant bulbs in plastic pots or flats from the nursery. When they're blooming I spot them around the garden where a little color is needed. When they finish blooming, I plant them right where they are. The garden looks so different in the fall and spring. I have trouble figuring out where to put them then. In the spring it's obvious.
Deirdre
Momma said there would be days like this.
Wanted to pass along a great way to mark your bulb plantings. Muscari, or grape hyacinth, throws up leaves in the fall. They look grassy, but you will find them. I use them to outline bulb plantings then in the fall when I am looking for a bare spot to plant and see the ring of muscari leaves, I look elsewhere.
Am torn between offering sympathy and shouting "hurray" that I'm not the only one to grapple with digging up existing bulbs when attempting to plant new ones, and as for tree roots, there are areas I have just given up on…