Garden effort – Delight 30

This Saturday, I had a welcome stretch of unscheduled time between two Zoom calls, and so the sunshine drew me outdoors. Before the first zoom call, I’d made a donut run for the Easter breakfast at church tomorrow, and I made a visit to Home Depot to find a tool that could help me address my decorative grasses. I was eager to see if these grass scissors would do the trick, so I put an earbud in and let the Tig and Cheryl: True Story comedy podcast keep me company as I worked.

Adults are encouraged to incorporate play into our daily lives—a thing we often let go of from childhood. It helps reduce stress and makes the burdens of everyday life lighter. I can really evoke a playful spirit in my backyard. Having a stretch of hours with no particular plans or goals unleashes creative space in me. It also reminds me of cherished childhood memories when I worked side-by-side with my dad or my grandparents.

When I got bored of trimming the grasses, I moved on to the next thing. Something would catch my attention, so I’d move on to that. In the course of the day, I pulled out more tools, the podcast keeping me company and laughing hour by hour. The sun warmed up the day, so I moved where there was shade. In the cold months, my patio becomes a magnet for leaves, so I raked them up and moved them to my trellis garden for an extra layer of natural leaf block. I removed last summer’s zinnia and sunflower stalks and cut them down to fit into my yard waste bin. I snipped the old woody bits away from the emerging asters and thought about ways to guard them from this year’s rabbit population. I deposited my new cardboard mulch on my shade garden–an experiment I’m trying from a French gardener I saw online.

I moved my creaky, winter body and enjoyed the warmth of the sun heating me through my long sleeves. All this garden work over the past six years has taught me how to gauge my energy by listening within. I surveyed Mahoney Manor and was delighted by the unplanned progress I’d made in a few short hours. I was tired and dusty and ready to call it a day.

I stepped into my kitchen to wash my hands and looked at the clock. I was ending just in time to join my next Zoom meeting—time with my poetry friends. Perfect timing and a day well spent. May and June Julie will be grateful for the work that March Julie accomplished. Now to be patient until it’s time to sow this season’s seeds.