Beginning from scratch

Mother’s Day is supposed to be a happy day.  I would rather regard it as a “Happy Farmer’s Day” because the celebrations for the whole day revolved around our garden revival project.

To be fair, the front lawn, back yard, side yard, planters, shrubs, flowers and trees were all dead or almost dead when we moved in last winter though we did not notice because they were obscured by snow.  Yes, it is a bit late to start our garden revival project at this moment, especially to take up someone else’s neglect.  However, we believe it will never be too late to do anything if we really want to do it – always too naïve, sometimes too stupid.

Finally, I realized that :

1)   The garden is just too much work : re-turfing, re-seeding, lawn renovation, the badly made rockery, renewal pruning, weeds control, poor soil, brown lawn.

2)   The garden seems to be full of weeds.  We are so lucky to find all kinds of weeds that we can name : broad-leaved dock, common ragwort, dandelion, crabgrass, shepherd’s purse, ground elder and everywhere : between garden plants, on lawn, on paths and on even on bare ground.

3)   Our ad-hoc trial pruning few months ago is now proved to be an error.

4)   Worms, insects, weeds, mosses and fertilizers will never be good companions to me.

5)   Bags of potting mix and fertilizers have aired the car, the garage, the patio and the yards with bad smell that I can finally find a chance to spray my perfume.

6)   Shopping yard tools and supplies for “Happy Mother’s Day” are just marvelous and extraordinary gift ideas : fertilizers, potting mix, pesticides, weed killers, mower, weed puller, fork, hoe, spade, gardening gloves, pruners, pre-packed shrubs, seeds., watering can…

Last and most important of all, I am so proud of my kids’ energetic and cooperative efforts in helping the yard works.  “Happy Farmer’s Day! ”