Garden Detective

You might be wondering what happened to me. How my planting day went. And what my gorgeous garden looks like now that it's completed.

Well, in that order: I've been trying to fly under the radar, unnoticed; planting day was unusual, to say the least; the garden is neither gorgeous nor completed.

Yes, the landscapers showed up, ready to dig and plant. But they had instructions from the boss to plant now and create the beds later. Huh? Something about being short a truck and not having enough time and crew and I don't know what else.

I had met with him twice. Discussed cutting the beds, turning the soil, enriching it with compost and installing the plants according to my graph-paper plans.

So when faced with this reality Saturday morning, I resisted a bit, cringed, and soon came to terms with my options: Plant everything myself (not an option, considering the number of plants involved), go along with the crazy-backward scheme or send the crew away and wait until, well, I don't know until when. Probably until all my plants died in their pots. They'd been sitting out there for two weeks already.

So the plants are all in the ground. Just where I wanted them. There's some grass growing between them and the beds aren't defined. And what hurts the most is that I'm always preaching about how gardeners have only one chance to improve their soil -- BEFORE planting.

So, a bit frustrated, a little embarrassed and incredibly hopeful, I don't have any photos for you yet. But my glass is still half full: Come July 4, this will all be behind me.

I hope.