The garden designer returns tomorrow morning with trees to plant the copse in the backyard. Did you note that?
Tomorrow.
The garden designer returns.
To my garden.
I made myself up a little “to do” list so that she won’t think I’m a lazy gardener if she might happen to look around.
I need to…
Spot weed. I should at least pull any obvious weeds because I won’t be here to explain them away as some kind of horticultural experiment that I’m conducting. Back up plan is to put up a sign that says “All weeds are part of an important experiment, please leave alone. Sponsored by iGROW.”
Deadhead. If I can’t dead head, maybe I should put little tags around some of the spent blooms to make it look like I’ve marked those to save the seeds from.
Plant. I still have “a few” plants on the front porch that should be potted up or hidden away. Did I say hidden away? What I meant to say was move them to the back somewhere and put them in a location that makes it look like I… well, no excuses. Everything gets planted tonight, even if it is into a plant holding area.
Tidy up. The garden designer is planting the copse near the vegetable garden so in case she glances that way I need to pull out the bolted lettuce. I won’t be there to explain how good bitter bolted lettuce is! But it is kind of interesting so maybe it can pass as an ornamental plant?
Dig up. There are just a few more plants to dig up around the patio, or where the patio used to be. The “patio” is now a big sand pile, with the brick pavers all stacked up neatly nearby. I’m going to dig those plants up and take them to work. Free plants! Black eyed Susans, Shasta daisies, lily of the valley, rose campion, phlox, ‘Stella d’Oro daylilies, to name a few that I need to dig out. If I don’t get them dug out, I’ll just put a sign in the middle of that area that says “Free plants, dig what you want and I’ll take care of the rest”, so it looks like I am offering them to her first.
Once I get through this “to do” list, I think my garden will be quite ready for the garden designer to see again, and she won’t think I’m a lazy gardener.
Reminds me of an old Phyllis Diller routine…about leaving the sweeper out in the living room so it looks like you were just getting ready to vacuum.
Reminds me of Monday nights when I was younger. Monday night was cleaning night for my mother. The cleaning lady came on Tuesday's is why. Go figure.
I had to turn down a garden tour of my garden for the same reason. Lots of weeds here and there; plants not yet put in; a shed about ready to fall down. I tend to put up blinders to things I can't get to anytime soon, but it's good to have occasional visitors to stir us into action.
The "seed tag" idea is brilliant.
Your adventures with the garden designer have been so exciting. I can't wait for the next installment – not to mention the final wave of her hand when all is accomplished.
If you can really get that all done in one evening, you haven't been lazy at all.
It seems to me that it would take as much or more time to tag the spent blossoms rather than just deadhead them. I'd leave the lettuce. Heck, last year I did leave the lettuce. It had pretty yellow flowers.