Summer has arrived, and I'm working in the heat

 

This week temperatures are supposed to reach 90 F for the first time this year. We have had such a lovely cool spring in the Atlanta area, but now summer has arrived, and I am still preparing my garden areas for future planting. 

Every time we moved to a new home, I would wait for spring to see what plants emerge that previous owners planted and cared for. Then I would decide what to keep and what to replace (the green, non-native bushes often disappeared first). This year many flowers from bulbs emerged: bearded Iris, Japanese Iris, tulips, paperwhites, Grape hyacinths, miniature gladiolas, and a few daffodils. I planted more daffodil bulbs in the fall and so inadvertently added to those already well-established. 

Last year the previous owner had planted zinnias in a front flower bed with perennials, so when I pulled up the dead foliage late last fall, I sprinkled zinnia seeds in that bed, and the new plants are now over a foot high.

One of the first tasks I had as a new home owner was to have a gardening shed built in my backyard for my gardening tools. As I organized the tool shed, I thought of Tom, who was responsible for buying (or finding and repurposing) most of the tools I hung on the walls. Everything I do that relates to gardening reminds me of the many years we shared the tasks of planning, planting, cultivating and gathering of the fruits of our labors. Gardening for me is the best way to remember those years and the love we shared.

Now I am adding to the garden areas that were already here at my new home. My backyard is too shady for growing vegetables, so I dug a bed in the front yard for tomatoes, peppers, and basil, attaching that bed to one already there. And yesterday evening, after the cool of the evening had reduced the temperatures to the low 80s, I extended the original flower bed again to accommodate my plans for dividing the Irises and miniature gladiolas which had begun crowding the bed.

My dream world would be one in which I have all the time for gardening, reading, and the occasional long trip, without having to pay attention to deadlines for paying bills or doing house repair. In the past, I could depend upon Tom to help with the mundane duties of everyday life. Now it's all up to me, and some days I get a little anxious over the small emergencies that suddenly appear or the decisions I have to make that I once relied on Tom to make or to advise me in making: Should I drive to Texas to retrieve my diningroom furniture, or should I fly? Should I set up a U-Haul pod to deliver the furniture, or should I hire a small U-Haul truck and drive it myself? (Everyone cautions me against the latter. The problem is that I really don't like flying anymore.).

But gardening centers me. I even like the manual labor....when I'm not in pain. My right hip began hurting a few weeks ago,  and the pain wouldn't quit, so I went to an orthopedist who gave me a cortisone shot. In a day, the pain had disappeared, and I was out in the yard, digging up more garden beds. I hope to finish before the pain returns.  

In the midst of that pain, I consulted a landscaper about preparing garden beds in my front yard and building a dry rock creek bed for rain water diversion, but after meeting in person, exchanging several texts and emails, she dropped out of sight. A friend who works in real estate tells me that "the most reasonably priced people are always flawed that way." So here was another decision:

should I get another landscaper? My friend sent me several suggestions. But then I had that shot, my hip pain disappeared, and I thought I might as well do what I can while I can. I have reached the age at which pain and death are always in the background. Tom's early death--as well as those of his parents years ago--just reminds me of the transience of our lives. And so I will do what I enjoy as long as I can.

I do enjoy the manual labor of gardening. Otherwise, I would have immediately called up another landscaper (a task which I will do for the dry rock creek bed unless I get REALLY motivated and long-term pain-free). But I know that my physical strength and capabilities will not last long, so if I can just get those gardens dug, then I can spend the remaining years doing a little weeding, planting, cultivating, and enjoying the fruits of this early labor, leaving what heavy work remains to younger hands and pain-free hips.