Life’s A Garden, Dig It
Today was prime for a ‘Lazy Sunday’. But, I have trouble sitting still for long periods of time with nothing to hold my interest. It makes me all too aware of the empty spaces in my life. So…I decided to hit the P-Patch plot.
1st Trip: Went to the plot to turn it under. Let me tell you, for a 10’x10’ space there were about 3 years of weeds and a few trees that had decided to take root. Two hours later, I had a cleared plot, a sweaty brown and a growling belly. So, back to the apartment I went with the idea that I’d be back later to plant.
2nd Trip: Rain clouds started rolling in. I though “oh shit, I don’t want to plant in the rain, best get going”. So, I drug the tomato cages and the flat of plants down to the plot (and must have looked a little crazy walking down the street carrying what I was carrying). Took a bit of muster as it seems that about 2.5 feet into my plot there’s a nice ouklip (hardpan). Several swear words later I had forced my tomato cages into the ground and had everything planted. Had another “oh shit” moment when I realized that both the hose and the spicket were locked up. And, I’ve yet to get the combo. Well…it is supposed to rain right?
3rd Trip: Clouds burned off, shit. Now, I need to go water my plants with the hope that the rain this week will at least take care of the rest until my fellow Nazi P-Patchers give me the damn combo. So…again, I must have look like a crazy person walking down the street with two 5-gallon buckets (you might think that two blocks up, one block over is a short distance, I too mistakenly thought this until I had to carry buckets full of water over that distance…it is a LONG walk). So, watered in my plants just as the evening was starting to get cool.
So, despite that it kind of took me all day, I think my plot is off to a good start. I have plans of putting a small strawberry patch into the corner and planting a few rows of carrots and beets. Maybe next year I’ll get adventurous and try snap peas (yum). The great thing about today, despite being a bit bummed about my anti-climactic birthday and the fact that I seemingly am attracted to unavailable men, it felt good to get my hands dirty. It felt good to garden again. I guess that is what happens when you are a ‘fixed earth’ sigh and you stray far from your element. I guess that is why it felt so good to ‘come home’.
In the words of Joe Dirt, Life IS a garden and I do plan on diggin’ it.