March 20 – “Galveston gardener”

 

 

Chris and I took a ride yesterday.  Actually Chris decided to take a ride and invited me to come along.  Always up for an adventure, and ever ready to be at her side, I jumped at the chance.  And we were off.  By the time we returned home we had a trunk full of plant stuff for the back yard.  And here I thought we were almost done back there.  She now has three or four different kinds of lilies.  Some of them are just about to bloom.  Others just look like an onion recently pulled out of the ground, with that bulb thing on the bottom.  One thing looks like a patch of grass, but close up it has a very strong smell, like the inside of Mario's Pizza Place.  It's quite … garlic-y. 

 

We also had to get some more topsoil to finish filling in low places back there.  One in particular is our next target.  The dogs have a nice little hole dug under the steps to the deck.  It's where they dug into the cool lower soil to escape the harsh Galveston sun.  That sanctuary is soon to be no more.  Sorry Fritz and Heidi.  Chris' plans are to fill in the hole and put some concrete pavers over it.  Gotta protect the stairs infrastructure, you know. 

 

Next we needed a huge bag of potting soil.  What I didn't realize at the time was the intent to pot and repot.  Sounds like a criminal charge.  Some of the new plants will live in the ground.  Others will live in pots, but still outside.  I have never understood the designation involved with that, but pots do need a special kind of dirt, I'm told.  Hence, POTting soil.  While she was at it Chris took the opportunity to move some her old plants back there into bigger pots.  And I took the opportunity to dig up some of the random sprouts of daylilies that I have had to carefully (or in some cases not so carefully) mow around.  Of course Chris had the exact spot she wanted them to go in flower beds.  She also had a plan for mulch.  Not the artificially colored kind, mind you.  Just simple mulch.  Made from pine (it was the cheapest).  When she pronounces the flower beds complete, the mulch will go to cover up all the empty space in hopes of preventing extraneous weeds from filling in the blanks. 

 

Finally on the way out of Home Depot's Home and Garden section, I saw the bags of Weed and Feed.  Why not?  We threw in a bag for our lawn so I would have something to do, too.  Now if the rain will hold off until I get that stuff down we won't even have to water it in.  Ah, the life of a Galveston gardener.

 

Hebrews 13:5-6 says, "Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, 'Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.'  So we say with confidence, 'The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid.  What can man do to me?'"

 

Father, please help those plants grow.  It'll make Chris really happy.  Amen.