Closing Down the Garden: Part One

October 1st!  October 1st!  I am so happy!  This is quickly tempered when I walk out my back door and see that what I have created over the past summer, must be undone for the winter.  Do I still not understand that all the planting and buying of flowers I do in May means I have to go back out in October and cut down, rip out, and pretty much denude my yard?  Of course, the Creeping Charlie is still thriving.  If I had a nuclear device that would harm nothing other than Creeping Charlie, you can bet I'd have a "Say Bye-Bye to Charlie" launch complete with nibblies and drinks for guests.  


Yesterday I decided it was time to start on the yard.  In order to not be overwhelmed, I've figured out that I will take one section at a time and work on it.  Plus, the Yardy fills up quickly, so it's either do a little at a time, or have a big pile of dead vegetation in the back yard waiting until the next week.  And it saves my back and legs.  Did you know gardening is a great kick--butt leg workout?  Just try it.  You'll see that night and the next day that you can't move your legs much.  Building muscle!


My neighbor has a long fence along one side of my yard, and I have planted lots of hostas along the fence line.  This was my first area of destruction:

My sad lookin' hostas

Hostas are pretty indestructible.  After all, it only takes one leaf to make a whole new plant!  All of these hostas began as just one leaf each.  Bud bought them at a garage sale years ago, brought over the bucket, and says "Here you go!  Have fun planting!"  Yep.  Took me a few days.  


After about an hour of hard work, here are my results:

No more hostas!

Next week, I'm finishing off the rest of this run along the fence.  I still have the side of my house to take care of, and last but not least, the garden out back that had a bad summer.  I whacked a few things down, but was too disheartened and overwhelmed to keep going.  More sunny, cool weather is in store, so I should have plenty of backyard time next week.  I did find a few things blooming in my front yard garden:

Autumn Joy Sedum

Mums gone wild

Time to get out the pumpkins and ready the rake for some leaf action!  So looking foward to that.  Not.

Mental and Physical Update!

It's been a few days since my disastrous half-marathon, and today's another day off.  Yesterday I made it through about 2 hours of work before I threw in the towel and came home.  We have a large store, and for the first hour, I was "on duty", which meant every five minutes I was being paged to the cashwrap.  It played havoc with my leg, and limping around was making it worse.  It didn't help that the only ibuprofen I have at home expired last September--oops.   I took some anyway yesterday morning, and I'm still alive, so phew.  But it proved highly ineffective, so I stopped and got some that wasn't expired and came home to my purple couch island, coffee, and sweatpants.   


First order of business:  Ice pack on the back leg.  It felt soooo good.  Next:  food and ibuprofen.  After that:  reading a book, and finally taking a nap to make up for the sleepless night I had before.  I was on my couch island for pretty much the rest of the day and night.  My leg was continuing to give me occasional charlie horse twitches, but the ibuprofen certainly took the edge off of it.  I don't know how runners put up with these injuries all the time.  They are just downright irritating!  Oh grasshopper, you must have patience.  


Last night I finally slept most of the night!  Although I did wake up at 4 AM  (this seems to be a pattern lately).  I keep expecting to see some strange phenomenon standing at the edge of my bed (shades of Amityville Horror!) so I read some more.  Hey, I'm getting my reading done!


I felt better this morning; my hamstring is still sore, but much improved over yesterday.  As long as I don't make any sudden movements, I can hobble around more gracefully than yesterday.  It's a beautiful day, although a bit windy.  I would love to mow my yard, but the sidewalk dudes are in my  back yard (yes, it's STILL not done) and I am not up to being stared at whilst I mow.  I did wash and scrub my front porch free of all the dust and muck from my sanding project last month.  It looks so pretty now!  I will have to add repainting my railings to my spring to do list.  For now, I'm just glad my house doesn't look like a roadside disaster anymore.  At least from the front! Kinda like a mullet--business up front, party in the back!  Yard work and cutting down the dead stuff is on the list for next week.


Anyway, thanks to those who have talked to me and left comments about Sunday.  Love to you all!  I'm taking the week off from any exercise (does Sunday count?  It didn't seem like exercise, just a living nightmare :P ) and getting my leg and brain back in a happy place.  The weather calls out for comfort food, so it's enchiladas tonight with gobs of sour cream.  I could and do eat sour cream by the spoonful.  The enchiladas are just an excuse to eat sour cream.  Is that wrong?  I don't think so.  Damn tasty.

I Have Some Work to do

It's been close to a week since I've actually been outside in my yard.  Between work, running, and the rain, the most attention I've paid to my yard has been a cursory glance as I walk to my truck to leave.

Today is the first beautifully nice day we've had for quite some time.  The birds are chirping, the sun is shining, the wind is very light, and it's warming up quickly.  Time to mow the yard.  Amazing what rain will do for growing grass.  I generally mow with half my attention on the mowing bit, and the other half looking around my yard and seeing what needs to be done.  There is so much to be done in my yard, it may very well take me a solid week of work to get everything in order.  Weeds are now taller than plants.  Some weeds I can't tell apart from stuff I want in my garden.  Daisies needs to be dug up--somehow they have taken over everywhere.  I still need to buy some annuals to plant around the yard, and flower baskets for the front porch.

This is usually how it is--a slow, steady showing of flowers, then Bam! It all explodes into  chaos.  Bud points out that I wanted flowers and a garden, so now I have to maintain it.  Well, really what I wanted was not to mow so much lawn! So, this weekend, between a good long run, working both days, and dodging a chance of rain, I will venture forth again to attack the weeds and dig up the daisies.  I can't wait to plant some yard "bling" in the next few weeks!  Stay tuned for pictures.

The End of Another Week

I'm watching the weather on TV, and I'm plotting my running days according to the weather.  It looks like next week is going to be excellent weather for outdoor activities! After my running is done,  I plan on actually going out into the yard and cleaning up all the junk I decided to leave last fall.  I've got tulips pushing up,  daffodils ready to bloom, and iris  peeking  around the garage.  I've avoided Menards because I know once I step in the doors, I will gravitate to the seeds and drool over the pretty pictures.  I must have control!

 I'm excited to get things rolling outside--wash the house, sweep up the sand,  pick all the rocks out of the yard, and decide which plants to dig up and gift to someone now, before they grow out of control. Has my lavender survived from last year?  Will my poppies pop up or do I try again this year?  Has my green thumb ditched me for someone who actually weeds on a regular basis?  I don't know, but I'm happy to try again to bring some color to the yard.  Zinnias and morning glories  are definitely on the list.