Can you dig it?

I�m hot and sweaty and dirty and and gritty, and I�m not done yet. The burgmansia is now happily rooted in the front yard; I discovered that the pot of dwarf dahlias I keep in the garage during the winter was sending up pale green shoots, so I dragged it out to its summer home on the front walk; I snipped away the suckers that shoot up at the base of the flowering crab and started working on the vegetable garden.

It�s been two years since I dug in that patch of dirt. I would like to say I was letting it lie fallow, but in truth I was just too lazy last year to put in a garden (and besides we still had a freezer full of pesto from the previous two years, so why make more?) and now I am paying for it. I�ve been going at it with the pitch fork, tossing clumps of grass, dandelions, oregano (it�s taking over the backyard)�salvaging worms where I can�into the wheelbarrow and dumping them in the woods that grow right to the edge of our yard.

The garden is only 8 x 12", approximately, and I had cleared maybe 16 square feet when I felt the overwhelming need to come inside and have a cool drink. I am always amazed at how we go from six months of winter here to two weeks of of spring and then immediately into summer. I�m not going to get all of it cleared today, that�s for sure, considering my state of upper-body lack-of-strength and the sheer amount of growth I have to get rid of.

I did notice, however, that the arctic kiwis (two females, one male) vines that I planted many, many years ago, are literally covered with buds. I really ought to get a trellis for them. They�re hanging over the lawn.

Oy! I have so much work to do in the garden. Honestly, I hate doing it. I want a nice looking yard with flowers and trees and fresh tomatoes and basil and parsley, but I hate the actual physical labour. I�m such a wuss!

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