By some strange miracle, I survived a trip to the danger zone with my bank account intact. I went by Lowe's on my way home from Rotary, in search of gloves that might prove impenetrable to thistle spikes. I found a pair that seemed to have a decently thick coating on the palms. While there, I bought a weed-puller (the long kind with a forked tip, to dig out taproots), and a fresh, un-faded American flag so I have something nice to wave when Honor Flights start back up next month. I also walked past about 70% of the bedding plants, making eye contact with a lot of them, and promising to come back later (think Mr Microphone ad from 40 years ago). All of the vegetable and herb pots were put out, and I was stunned by how many different things they had. Is it just because I'm always so late buying stuff that I didn't know they had all these things? Like for real, I had no idea they sold peat pots of celery! I'd never seen it before, once the shelves had been picked through. And broccolini? Really? I was itching to load up a cart. If I had been standing closer to one, I might have done. With great effort, I made myself stick to the mission, to empty the pots and revitalize the soil first.
When I got home, I did get started on my first tasks. I grabbed most of the pots from the front, minus the one half-full of marigold dead-heads and the one way too heavy for me to lift. I dumped about half of them straight into the compost tower, and lined the rest of them up to finish once we've turned that over a time or two. I also tested out the weed-pulling items, going for the obvious thistles only. Got maybe 20-25 of them. Sure, I had to sit down a couple times during the entire process, but I'm proud of how much I got done. After three years of not having any spare energy to work outside, even doing this felt like a victory. I think spring is much more fun without cancer.
Now the big question is what to do about my front porch herb garden. I kind of want new containers. Do I buy.....or build?
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