I Was Here To Do It

It used to be that I could garden all day.  Bending wasn't an issue.  Crouching didn't hurt.  I could lift and carry and push and pull and rarely did I need to ask TBG for help. 

Today was a different story.  Still, I was here to do it, and that's something.

I didn't have any oomph for the gym, so I cut my workout short and drove to the nursery.  There were 3' pink snapdragons and dozens of roses and a very tempting Cara Cara Orange tree.  I stuck to the annuals and the roses and organic soil; that was enough to cart out of the trunk of The UV.  I'm learning to modify my purchasing to meet my physical limitations.  I notice that, and it makes me a little bit sad.  Still, I'm here to do it, and that's something. 

While the rest of you may be dealing with frozen ground, this is the six week window of wonder for those of us here in the desert Southwest.  There's no danger of frost  The ground is cool enough not to burn the roots of newly planted seedlings.  The temperatures are pleasant enough to spend the day in the sun; long sleeves are always a necessity in my spiky environment and today they didn't seem intrusive. 

I used G'ma's wheelchair to cart my stuff.  There was a lot of stuff.  With high hopes, I added a shovel to the mix and headed to the front...... where, to my dismay, the bunnies had chewed off my newly cleaned-up-for-spring yucca and my rock roses.  Undaunted,  I planted a Betty Boop rose bush as I thought of G'ma impersonating her sixty years ago.  I used that shovel and I dug a hole twice as wide and just as deep as the root ball which was mercifully small because the mainline of the irrigation system was right where I wanted the bush.

I stood back and examined the situation and I realized that I was exhausted.  Still, I was there and I was doing it.

I wheeled everything around to the back yard and studied the situation for the umpteenth time.  I started at one end of the bed-to-be-amended with the geraniums, moved on to transplanting the Christmas ferns into the shade, put those giant snapdragons around a sago palm, and finished up with more geraniums.

I dug.  I raked.  I moved soil.  I ached and I creaked and I moaned and I groaned but I was there and I was doing it. 

There were large pots to be moved, one of which is now in a new place.  I decided not to argue with the other one.  Another geranium found a new home in a pot which I wrangled to the top of a not-very-high berm.  The other rose bush will have to wait until I have more strength and energy.  By the time I got around to deciding where to put it I had nothing left.

I would have made this be a picture post, but I had nothing left.

Still, I was here, and I got to do it.