Della’s Talking Blog

Maggie took me to the garden shop to help her pick out some flowers and herbs for her house. I didn’t mind and actually enjoyed myself. It was nice smelling all my old friends from childhood. It brought back alot of memories working first with Mom and then Aunt Grace. All the GOOD memories.

I was sitting in the living room thinking that i really missed the smell and just plan puttering around the yard. Granted the vision wasn’t affording me much joy these last few years. Tony never allowed me to have a garden. He said it was dirty and unkempt to have a flower garden. So i got out of the hobby of gardening. Maggie made me remember how much I loved it.

So i took a cab down to the garden shop and one of the sales people came along with me as i loaded up a wagon full of flowers and dirt, enough stuff to fill a station wagon full. Which the cab company so sweetly sent over. I had to haul the dirt out of the back of the wagon while the driver sat in the cab. He was on oxygen so he couldn’t help. I just put everything on the curb and he left. From there i got it all up the front steps and then opened the door. Then i carried it all to the back door. I was building up a sweat. Just as I was about to get the last flower, one of the neighors asked if they could help. I wasn’t sure whether to hit him or smile. I just closed the door.

After getting a ‘Diet Coke’, I set out to put the items in the back yard. Another trip up and down stairs. The rest i thought I would do the next day. I didn’t realize how hot it had gotten outside either. By the time I finished I thought I was going to pass out. Then I realized I had been at it for well over eight hours and NO food. I fixed that in a hurry. Popped something in the microwave and sat and ate it while drinking a flavored water.

Maggie the next time i think about doing something like this….hit me over the head.

The muscles in my legs started to twitch. Wonderful. i smelled and was gritty. But still I started to feel…..happy. Something I had not in a while. But it was enough for the first day.

The next morning the sun was warm. I could feel it on my face as I headed outside. I even brought a silly garden hat like Aunt Grace used to wear. No gloves, granted my long nails would take a beating, but why garden if you are not going to put YOU in the soil. I think the plants can tell if you really care about them rather then having something between you and their “toes”.

First thing I need to do was figure out WHERE all this was going to go and make the bed. the more I thought about it the less happy I was about putting it IN the ground. weeds and slugs and….mmm. So I called the cab again and headed back to the garden shop. This time I came home with some ten pots. Thank heavens they now make these wonderful foam pots. They look fancy but weight NOTHING. I filled them with dirt and placed them all over the yard. The filling part was SO MUCH FUN !!! I forgot fifty pounds of dirt gets heavier when you have a rain over night. Seems the water gets thru the plastic. So there I was lugging sacks of wet dirt from pot to pot.

Maggie if I tell you another bright idea like this…hit me along the side of the head.

FIFTEEN bags of soil. That’s errrr I need to take my shoes off to count….pounds of dirt I hauled all over the yard. FOR WHAT? I’m totally nuts for doing this. By the end of the afternoon I was shaking again. Once again the hours slipped away from me and I was hungry and thirsty. Once again I realized I missed doing this. Once again I thought I was crazy. I still had not planted a damned thing.

MAGGIE !!! RIGHT HERE !! SMACK ME ONE GOOD !!!

I’m glad I work for myself, I can take off whenever I want too. Maggie was on a new assignment and not in the office. I was loney sitting there day after day not seeing anyone. So I decided to take the next day and finish up. As I was sitting in the kitchen eating yet another microwaved dinner….did I say I missed the Food Fairy? Maggie would have given me leftovers to bring home. Damn I miss her. But…. I was sitting there and I smelled something. What IS that? I reached for my ‘Diet Coke’. LORDY, IT WAS ME !!! I also forgot what a sweat you build up along with the grit. So upstairs I trekked for a long hot bath and bed. Oddly I found I slept really well. Another reason to take up gardening again.

Finally it was flower planting time. I potted several roses and all kinds of bloomers. Peonies, snapdragons, plenty of daffies and hyancenes to make my garden smell like a funeral parlour. Foxgloves and pansy along with phlox and sweet william. Oh it was going to be so pretty. Oh wait, I forgot I brought CLIMBING roses too! Nuts. another trip to the garden shop. They were looking at me now as their cash cow. I think I paid the rent on the place for the next three months with all that I brought. So I picked out a nice white plastic trellis, good for twenty years they said. I waited and really didn’t pay much attention as they packed the cab for me. I got home and the cabbie put the items on the doorstep. I felt around for the trellises and found skinny boxes. Oh crap they were NOT put together!

Maggie, if I ever do this again……

It’s bad enough my vision keeps me from reading normal print, but instructions ARE written in Chinese. I got the magiflier out and looked it over and finally threw the paper in the recyle bin. I was going to figure this out on my own. The first one took a whopping two and a half hours to put together. The second one …twenty minutes. But I can say I DID IT !!! I was pretty pleased with myself in spite of the nicks in my fingers from missing with the screwdriver and time spent looking for a dropped nut. But they were done and in the pots for the little roses to climb their roots off.

I watered everything and threw some seeds in pots to boot. once again I started to shake and feel like I was going to pass out. Once again the hours slipped past me. I came inside to realize I missed a call from Maggie. I was so intent in the garden I didn’t hear the phone. Damn. but I was done. I got out a lawn chair which I had not used in a long time and opened it. I set it on the ground planning to sit back and watch the flowers grow.

Right. the webbing on the chair had dry rotted. The moment my butt hit it, I went through it onto the ground. Now I was stuck in the chair.

Maggie….right here. RIGHT HERE…..