Back to the World

Uggg. Drove my Sweetie to the train to get back to the airport. After 4 days off my brain is not into work. Oh well. I'm here anyways. Things are busy, which is good.

This weekend was a lot of yard work. Heavy lifting. We rented a heavy duty high powered tiller that was bigger than me. It's a good thing too, because we have blue clay, and not much else, around the house. The construction company prepared the front and back yard with a fine veneer of soil to lay sod in. The rest of the lot was literally clay. I could have made myself a friggin tea set out of this clay, whith matching tea cups.

With the tiller came the big bag o' dirt. It's a white mesh bag, taller than me, which contained 3 cubic feet of nursery mix. Bark, dirt, compost and perlite. We made a few passes with the tiller, and then wheelbarrow loads of the nursery mix were tilled in as well as the old bark mulch. It made a nice fluffy dirt which should last until the first rain. Then it will be mud with some wood fiber and perlite. I'm hoping to put down more bark mulch before it rains.

Next, we planted a shade garden against one side of the house with a lovely climbing hydrangea on a trellis. And then there were the hanging baskets on the porch and the lavender we planted in the front yard. The landscaping is supposed to be the responsibility of the HOA. They planted the most hideous, vile, thorny, pathetic looking plants you could find anywhere. We tore one of the thorny nasties out and then put in 4 lavenders. The cute Spanish ones with the little purple feathered head dresses.

It felt good to be out working in the dirt. It also felt great to work next to my sweetie. Let's just say that previous attempts at working with a previous significant other haven't been quite so cozy.

I will try to post pictures of the new plants.