Amy in the Garden

On the 4th anniversary of digging my garden, Husband announced, “It is time to re-lay those beds.”

Sigh. That meant stakes, string, tripping over string, and lots of long, hard work. The end result? As (infuriatingly) always: perfection. Husband is an artist, and to him that means straight lines, clean edges, order — at least when it comes to building furniture or landscaping. There was no point in arguing. He was right, and I trotted along behind, toting tools, holding the tape measure, and trying not to trip.

Because my garden is on a gentle slope, and because my beds are not raised, or contained in any way by boards, they do tend to sag a bit. I tried not to draw analogies between my advancing years and my accompanying sag, and instead cheerfully helped Husband get my garden back in line.

Here are a few photos to give you an idea of the precision of this operation:

The top of the garden. Note the neat edges of the bed that will hold the carrots and beets this year.

And this is the pea bed. I asked for this first, as the peas were going in first:

The far edge of the garden that borders Good Neighbor is also the source of poison ivy. I already have a case of it, as I went in to clear the edges and I forgot that the leafless vines were poison ivy vines. I guess it is a small price to pay for a clear flower bed for Red Spider zinnias, but it doesn’t feel like it right now. Here is the bed marked with string:

The newspapers are placed between the strings. They will suppress the weeds. The zinnias will go to the right of the paper. Then I put straw on top of the newspaper, to give me a cushion-y place to walk, and to have it look nicer than a path of faded NYTimes.

Then I saw that my garlic, planted last fall, was Husband’s perfect evidence for the need to re-lay out the garden: I’d not paid attention to the bed’s intended borders, and (gasp!) a few garlic plants were placed OUTSIDE THE BED. Horrors.

Here it is: Garlic Out Of Line:

And, huge relief: Garlic, relocated:

It was getting late. I was getting tired. Gordon, the new puppy (to be introduced to you soon in a post tentatively titled “Staff”), likes to dig (as he is part terrier, we think), and he “helped” by trying to dig.

Gordon Between The Strings, thinking about digging:

And then, Gordon with his nose down, getting ready to dig:

And finally, Gordon, broken-hearted, on the wrong side of the gate. Sorry, Gordon, but I chose my garden today over your feelings.

As I said, it was becoming a very long day, with disciplined Husbands, undisciplined dogs, and Practical Amy, who just wanted to plant seeds in the dirt and stand back. I was trying to ignore the fact that I was starting to lose it, when I noticed a shadow of the cherry tree on the ground. The shadow looks like a crazy woman in the garden. I think it is MY shadow.

Straight lines don’t really matter that much to me, although I do appreciate them. My garden already looks nicer, darn it. This beauty stuff, this Good Results stuff, always encourages Husband. I just have to accept that fact.

WORDS FROM OTHERS

“When builders lay out straight lines, they use stakes and string. Although stakes and strings are low-tech, they’re almost fool proof: The shortest distance between any two points is always a straight line, even if the points are stakes driven in the ground.”

— From Home Depot, Canada, website