Gardening 103: Maintenance

The yard has come a long way from its initial stages. While we helped define aspects of the design and pick some of the plants, most of the credit goes to Scott for how well the whole thing turned out. Last Year Post Planting: (Photos by Scott) Since he set this up last year, we became responsible for watering the garden and making sure things didn't die. We've been pretty good about the first duty but for some reason not so lucky on the second. As you may remember, the only foliage we saved from the previous garden was the Japanese maple and the Bay Leaf tree but they have since left this world. We were quite taken aback that we lost them because they seemed to do so well after they were transplanted. I guess that is the way of nature.

In their place, we have bought another Japanese Maple, an Emperor type with Red leaves this time, and a Ginkgo Biloba tree. Evidently these Ginkgos can survive an atomic blast, so we figure it should make it in our harsh backyard environment.

I shudder to think what our water bill will be this summer, especially during that hot week. But vigilantly we water the yard every other day and pay special attention to those recently planted in the the last few months.

Fellow Broadcasting grads: here's a practical application of your cable-over-undering skills. Marvin would be so proud.

*****

Like Scott says, it's all an investment and we need to take care of it. But I'm not any more of a green thumb than I used to be. I still feel like the reluctant gardener cursing the weeds and not wanting to get my hands getting dirty.