Smelly and Sore

Gardening again. I think I garden out of guilt. The woman that lived in this house was 82 when she left. She was a gardener and had a beautiful perennial garden in the backyard next to the patio and it was like her baby. I know this because her children told us at the closing. The first year we were here, it was somewhat easy to maintain. As time has gone on, it has gotten increasingly difficult. Today I spent two hours just on that garden and it looks like all I did was trample the daffodil greens down. What I actually did was remove all the dead stuff from last season (I know I am late in doing so) and release all the peonies from the grip of the cancer vine. I call it the cancer vine because that it what it reminds me of. It hides, pops up then grows and strangles the pretty plants. It doesn’t flower and it grows about a foot a day. It reminds me of kudzu. It’s easy enough to pull and break but you never get the damn root and then it pops up again. It is the bane of my gardening existence. I now have to wait till the daff foilage dies back so I can do some rearranging. I am determined to do it this year I just don’t want to ruin the peonies.

ASIDE: Just went down to check to see what G-dog was barking at. Two flippin’ squiriels sitting about 2 feet from the poor girls nose through the screen door. Jackasses were teasing the poor girl.

Anyway, I got rid of the rest of the mulch pile on the side gardens and around my herbs. I have been taking tufts of G-dog’s hair from brushing and placing it around my herbs to discourage forraging critters. So far, so good. My only worry is that there is enough sun hitting the areas where I planted sun loving plants (2 butterfly bushes and some lavender). It’s tough because we have very large oak trees which provide lovely shade but might be too much of a match for my plants. Time will tell.

No plans tonight. This would normally be ok but I can’t cook either. P’s project for this weekend entailed repainting the kitchen cabinets. I don’t want to cook in the midst of the painting for fear of getting grease, etc into the paint. It is going to look so much better in there when it is done. I just need to pick a color for the walls. There isn’t much to the walls b/c there is this odd tiny tile halfway up but I’d like to go with something a little deeper than the light blue that is there now. P isn’t so sure. If I though it wouldn’t darken the room, I’d go with a deep blue like navy for contrast with the white cabinetry and moulding. It’s not a big kitchen. Maybe I’ll post a pic and you can help me.