title explained

Onward and upward! something that you say in order to encourage someone to forget an unpleasant experience or failure and to think about the future instead and move forward.

My e-mail: jjmiller6213@comcast.net

Tuesday, October 10, 2017

Night-Night

I've been working on the gardens--getting them ready to go night-night for winter.

What a job!  What would have taken me a day to do, back when I was 70, now takes me a couple of weeks.

I work for an hour each day.  I have my canvas chair ready to sit and rest when my back can't take it any more.

I didn't like the way my Iris bloomed this year.  I was missing about 3 that normally bloom.  They needed digging up and replanting.  I got that done using the garden fork to loosen the soil and pick all the grass and dirt off their corms.

Yesterday I wasn't in the mood to do anything.  I woke up feeling sick and didn't know if it was physical or emotional--sometimes the two are very closely tied.  My eyes didn't seem to want to focus, my hand tremors were worse than normal.  I wanted to attend the funeral of one of my sister's best friends.  She was only 64 and died in her sleep Friday night.

I am quite close to my sister's friends, because being 13 years older than them, when they were little, they all looked up to me and thought I was somebody special.  

I figured being in such bad shape, I shouldn't take the chance of driving up and back--50 mile round trip.  So that made me even more depressed and angry.

I got the garden all done weeding yesterday afternoon.  I went up to Lowe's and a nice young man from the garden center, followed me along as I picked out 3 big bags of garden soil amendment, loaded them on the cart, and 3 big bags of dark brown mulch.  

We had a conversation, because I like the chunky Pine Bark mulch spread on the island where my Lilac bushes and hosta's grow, but he said it was too big and chunky for a flower garden.  He showed me the kind he uses--the particular kind I really detest.  HAH.

He loaded my car and trunk.  I had him put the heavy bags of mulch in the back seat of the car.  I figured I could slide them out and into the wheelbarrow.

This afternoon, I laid down a nice coating of Preen, then put a bag of garden soil on top.  Planted my Iris, with their roots under ground and their corms riding nicely on top of the dirt, like ships on the sea.

I then got the bag of mulch into the wheelbarrow and went around with a sort of light covering--as he had advised.

I guess you are suppose to mulch in the spring, but I am hoping this will make spring weeding easier.  The weeds that do come up through, should be easier to pull out.

Boy oh Boy--bending over spreading mulch can be a real back breaker!!!!!

I still don't like it, but it is dark enough to look like good rich black dirt, so...................
I need a new edging for that garden, but Fred put it in for me, so it will never be taken up as long as I live.

Speaking of living...this gardening is about to kill me!  But at least the yard will look good when the kids sell the house.




The rocks in the back are from the farms I lived on.  I am more sentimental than a normal person should be!


12 comments:

  1. you did so good and I envy you
    had to stop doing this at 80 and miss
    Going to go out now with scissors and clip all I can from edge of drive and put in a container out there. Cannot chance walking in the mulch or dirt with cane. Keep moving and take care.
    You man that helps me 2 hours a week now has a weekly job and last
    Saturday pouring rain, maybe he can come this Saturday. He is the only one I would trust pulling up and transplanting things.
    Trying to just ignore the weeds.

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  2. Looking good, Judy! I know that's back breaking work, so I'm sure you're glad it's done for now.

    xoxo

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  3. Isn't it just plain awful to be getting old! When I work in the flower beds I pay for it with back and leg pain. Yesterday I worked on the kitchen floor (it's a wood floor and I didn't want to use a lot of water on it)on my hands and knees. Now ~ how am I going to get up? Scooted around until I could prize myself up, uttering all kinds of word grips. I'm sure when the kids see things, when I "go", they'll wonder how things got so dirty. :)

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  4. I know it's not going to do any good to tell you you shouldn't be doing that heavy work, so I won't do it. Your yard looks good.

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  5. STOP doing this stuff yourself! Are there no teenagers you can bribe??? It does look fabulous!!

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  6. I'm not sure there any teenagers left to bribe to garden, or anything else! :( I hope you feel better...kinda hoping I---and all of us do. It's been a long summer, and there have been some things going along that stay on my mind....
    xoxos, Trudy

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  7. I'm sorry you had to miss your sister's friends funeral. Your garden looks nice! Your hard work should pay off in the Spring! I am also very sentimental, more so as I get older!

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  8. you are a rock-star (pun intended) hehehehe!!!

    i think you know what you can do/handle and maybe it's good for you to be outdoors among nature. sorry you missed the funeral!!

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  9. Glad I read the other comments first. Since for once I didn't want to be the ONLY one, who questioned the wisdom, of your doing all this yard work. And buying all these yard work supplies. They aren't cheap. Which is your business, but you keep saying how you always come-up-in-the-red, at the end of the month. And this fact, makes you very depressed.

    I want to inquire about your reasoning. Because if it is this hard on you, to do this stuff, why in hell do you do it? Your "wise-arse" remark, about it looking good when the kids sell it, is just black humor.

    Why do YOU do it? When it hurts like hell??????

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  10. The mulch and soil were on sale. 6 bags plus a jug of Preen equaled $22.00. The reason I do it, even though it hurts is, because it had to be done this fall--I did not clean up the garden last fall or this spring, so--IT HAD TO BE DONE. Who is going to do it, if not me?

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  11. It looks good, Judy. It will be beautiful in the spring. Gardening is a continual job, isn't it?

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  12. I really like the sentiment of your rocks from farms you lived on. That's very cool, Judy. The garden looks great. I admire you because I cannot do anything remotely like that, and I'm only 60. Maybe after my next hip surgery, I'll be able to try something similar. But I've got a black thumb, so there's that.

    You made the right call not going to the funeral, with all that driving. If you weren't feeling well, it's better you stayed put. xoxo

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