busy day

The day started off innocently enough...mowing the grass. Something had to be done, since we didn't cut it last week and it had started to get a little out of hand. While Tom cut the grass, I decided to take out the privet at the side of the garage. In this area privet is well and truly a weed, that will eat small children, houses, and even entire neighborhoods if left unchecked. The privet was at the top of a retaining wall, occupying the space the Landscaping Master Plan (as interpreted at this moment in time) dictates there will be azaleas. This is the The South, therefore there shall be azaleas. I believe this is a law. As I cut down the privet, I realized that I had underestimated the magnitude of the infestation. Nevertheless, I perservere, using merely a pruning saw. Luke saw what I was doing, and proceeded to use the loping shears to remove the smaller branches.

After about half an hour, all but the main trunks of the Massive House-Eating Privet had been cut down, and piled at the curb. Tom sprayed the stumps and the Poison Ivy that we discovered when we had the area cleared with some liquid woody-stemmed plant death. After our labor in the yard, we went to a nearby family-owned eating establishment for a tasty cholersterol-saturated breakfast. After consuming our meal which will hasten our deaths, we decided to go to Lowe's to look at the plants.

Ah, such a bounty of plants. The gardens had not yet been tilled and prepared for planting, but we perused the plants anyway. First, I was going to purchase a couple of herb plants. Then I saw the tomato plants, Luke spied some corn transplants. What started as just a couple of plants ended as fern-leaf dill, chives, sage, bee-balm, lemon balm, sweet corn, jalapeno peppers, sweet banana peppers, eggplants, grape tomatoes, an heirloom vine tomato, and bush tomatoes. In addition we picked up several packets of seeds - zucchini, green peas, broccoli, oregano, thyme, cilantro, parsley, marjoram, lavender, and catnip. When we arrived back home, we put the plants up, and decided that a nap was in order. I awoke to the sound of a tiller; Tom and Luke had decided to till up both the vegetable and herb planting beds.

We planted both gardens, the only thing we didn't plant was the broccoli and zucchini seeds. Everything else went out this evening. The herb garden should be fairly low maintenance once everything sprouts, most everything is perennial, and I hope the rest will self-seed. Once the vegetable garden starts producing, we will be up to our eyeballs in fresh produce.

I have no photos of the gardens right now, we worked until after dark to be sure we had all of the plants in place, herbs sown, and everything watered. After all of that, and we still didn't get any azaleas to put where we eradicated the privet. We will have to see tomorrow if I am still immune to the effects of Poison Ivy. Like Dad, I can handle the stuff with my bare hands. We shall see in the morning if this is still the case. Luke also says he is not effected by the toxins in the plant. Ah, well. I have cortisone cream and benadryl if anyone needs it tomorrow.