Gardening

My theme for the weekend and the theme I'm going to try to keep in my mind throughout this summer is Gardening.

On Saturday, I started my hopefully-summer-long gardening project at my friend Zeph's house. Since my "garden" consists of about a 4' by 4' patch of dirt in my front yard and containers, I am very excited to dig into this very large gardening project. The exercise is amazing and the satisfaction is too!

The Microwaves have 3 teenagers and one baby and to say that the garden has gone to pot while they tend the family is a wee understatement. ;-) That smiley-face is because I am so happy that they have agreed to let me work in their garden this summer -- clean it up, maintain, replant in a harmonious and easier-to-maintain way. The front and back yards are totally overgrown and haven't seen water in (my guess) at least months...maybe since baby Sunshine (now 1 1/2) was born. Even the many containers on their huge patio were unwatered, dead, untended.

Saturday around 12:30, I dug in. I started on the driveway. Yes, the driveway. It had incredible huge weeds growing up through every crack. The side of the house had dried weeds over a foot tall (some much bigger). Dave (Zeph's husband) asked why I was doing this since "no one sees this". I explained that it is horrible feng shui to have dead and overgrown stuff all over not to mention that I knew I could get this done in the 3 hours I had allotted on Saturday. Whew...it was a LOT of work. I weeded the whole driveway, swept up tons of dead leaves, etc., found interesting plants and containers HIDDEN IN THE WEEDS! After about an hour and a half, the driveway and entrance to the patio looked MUCH better.

Then I dug into the patio container plants. Poor babies. They were very unhappy. Many were dead. Many were pot-bound. Many were hanging on to life in the ugly plastic containers they came in. I threw out the dead plants, pruned the ones that were only partly dead, re-potted the ones that were pot bound or in ugly plastic containers (they had plenty of pretty ceramic ones to use). I also had to trim back some dead vines on the patio/arbor area.

The difference when I was done was amazing! I enjoy this kind of work so much that I had to force myself to stop when it was time to go home and get ready for evening festivities (Zeph was getting ordained as second degree Wiccan priestess at Beltane celebration in her garden that night). I could almost feel the plants sigh with relief when I watered them. :-)

Next week, I hope to spend three more hours on Saturday -- starting on the back yard clean-up, hopefully -- and I hope to put in three hours every weekend this summer. This will substitute for one of my usual gym trips on the weekend -- it is certainly amazing exercise -- I am still sore today in all the good places and I was so sweaty afterwards -- it felt great!

Saturday night, we were invited to the ceremony at Zeph's house and we loved it. We have a few Wiccan/pagan friends and we enjoy going to their rituals. This one was very joyous, the Beltane holiday celebrates fertility, fun, summer, sensuality, etc. As you can imagine, this is my new favorite holiday. ;-)

Sunday afternoon we went to yet another Beltane celebration and loved it too. I did a lot of cooking to take for the feasts afterwards and things were a hit (and mostly healthy too): asparagus wrapped with goat cheese and prosciutto, deviled eggs made with low fat mayo and mustard, spicy chicken wings (I removed the skin before eating mine).

We have another week full of social activities so will be challenging again...but my Beltane wish/prayer/meditation is that I remember to cultivate my garden over the coming months...not just the physical garden at the Microwaves home, but also the garden of my life: my partnership with DB, relationships with friends and family, my health, etc.

Thanks to all of you for being beautiful flowers in my garden.