This website is becoming a part of my life. WordPress tells me that I have written 117 articles and that this one will be number 118. My wife, Dekie, tells me that she is impressed with my self-discipline. Hell, I’m impressed with it, too. I never thought I had it in me.
My new truck has a pocket in the glove compartment that holds the camera perfectly. I take it with me every day. There’s also a little compartment in the back of my mind that calls for ideas every week. I know that I will need information, ideas, and photographs for the coming Sunday morning.
I also know that I have a following. I don’t know who many of you are, but I know that you are out there. I know that if I skip a Sunday article I will get a phone call from someone who wants to know if I’m all right. That’s comforting and a compliment. The WordPress stats tell me that over a thousand people a week visit the site. That’s also a compliment.
Several people, including my astute father-in-law, have told me lately that the articles are getting better every week. I like that, too—it’s part of my pay. Any time I want to let Patsy know what is going on in my life, I just put it up on the blog.
“Blog” is a funny word, too. It is short for “web log” which would remind one of a “ship’s log” which would segue over to the word “journal”. And, that’s what it is—My personal work and life journal that is put out there for the world to see. I have total control of the content, and that is why I have decided to share this introspection.
Lynn and Joel Todino had asked me to come out and look at a part of their yard that needed help. The area had been installed as a rose garden which did all right for a while and then turned into an herb garden which became overgrown with Bermuda grass and other creeping weeds that show up when one lives in the country. Part of it was this wall of ivy.
I had no idea where to start. If the house had been a McMansion or something like that, I could have said, “Ok. We’ll do a wall and then put down a flagstone patio and then place the fire pit over there and the water feature over there…” That would have worked.
But this wasn’t that kind of location. It was a most intriguing country house that looked comfortable and lived in. The funny thing was that the appointment was in the afternoon and I had stopped by the house to put on a clean shirt because I had mud on the one I had been working in all day. You know—I wanted to be presentable when I met the Doctor and his wife.
And then he showed up at the door dressed in a pair of dirty jeans and a t-shirt that he had wiped his muddy hands on. “Ok,” I thought. “I can handle this. It’s like meeting a guy and he has a tie on and I don’t, only this time the badge of honor is a muddy shirt and I’m not dressed properly because my shirt is clean.”
He took me out to see his garden. I am totally intimidated by someone who has the conception, motivation and discipline to plant and maintain a garden at this level.
Now I will post this article and go to work on designing a garden for a lady who I have seen dressed in formal attire for the symphony as well as barefoot in newly mown summer grass on a Friday morning.
We had to clean the garden site up before I could even visualize the design. Here is the picture after the clean up. I’ll show you the design next week.
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And a Word from Our Sponsor:
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If you want a consultation in your yard in N.W. Georgia, send me an email at wherdepony@bellsouth.net
johntheplantman--Gardening 