Day 9 Arduous Toil

 OK, it's true I hurt more tonight than last night.  But Greg hurts more than me.  His job involved the heavy lifting and the pic axe.  We call that arduous toil here in Kochville.  It's usually passed out as penance for errors of omission.  I think that I should have started in January getting ready for the gardening season...maybe a bit of weight lifting and yoga.  My omission!   All the trees are planted.  The rocks are rearranged.  St. Francis has a circle of Flox....still no more hostas split and that old fence isn't out yet. But hey...tomorrow it's supposed to rain and that will make it easier.  Weather was decent today, got a bit of pink on my cheeks.

So today I learned that Moss Flox requires a knife to split.  I bought a patch of it, about nine inches square which I wanted to put into small bits to put around Francis.  The stems do not separate by pulling apart. Hoping that I didn't shred it to bits and that what I tucked into the dirt will thrive.  We added a bit of white alysum and a few orange Viola.  The alysum smells so sweet, too bad it's just an annual.  The other two are perennials and with luck they will be back every year and not look so traumatized as they do now.  Aunt Karen caught Merdi and me while we were out shopping at Beehler's Green House.  She vetoed any Marigolds.  Merdi prefers yellows and oranges...or pinks.  We settled on the violas...just to give a bit of accent.  

My grub posse has managed to untidy every bit of mulch that I put down today.  Hopefully they will be done with their work soon.  It is only the second week of May.  I've decided that if we get this heavy lifting done by Memorial Day that it will be just a little maintenance here and there.  Right?  May is so sweet...no monstrous weeds, you can pass through places now that you won't be able to in just a month.  The knack of gardening is timing and remembering.  Remembering what you planted when and where and why.  I always save those plastic sticks and then forget what plants they match up to the following spring.  I have a wonderful perenial edge with small red flowers coming up this year.  But I don't remember what it is.  I was quite surprised to see it.  Guess that's the sweet side of loosing your memory...life is full of sweet surprises.