No sooner had I returned from Burke Nursery than the sky opened up and dumped on our area. Northern Virginia spent many hours of June 3rd under tornado warnings, severe thunderstorms and the like. I saw the storm approaching as I was unloading the car. Not realizing that the storm was armageddon-like, I thought I was being clever by distributing the plants, still in their flats, around various places in the garden to be planted. "Oh," I reasoned, "they'll get a nice dose of water."
Needless to say, with tornadoes and 70 mph winds, not to mention copious amounts of rain, many of my new plant purchases were smashed flat and flung around the yard. Luckily no damage was done to my home or any of the people. Our American flag wasn't so lucky. The wooden pole cracked in half and we found the flag wedged into a tree about 20 feet away. In any case, as the plants dried out today in the 90-degree sun, they looked much better.
Since the ground was, shall we day, damp...I found today a very good day for planting new plants, regardless of their general shabbiness. The soil was easy to work which was a nice break for my arthritic hands. Actually, I used a pitchfork to turn over large areas of soil just to get a running start on hole digging. Shovels and I do not get along, but that pitchfork is my new best garden buddy. With the sogginess, the fork and I made quick work of the plants.
The muscles are paying the price, but all in all it isn't too bad. The humidity was high and the work was difficult; but I finished before 11 am and before the heat got too bad. Rest was the key for keeping the joints from shutting down or locking up. I didn't even topple over into the garden, not even once!
No comments:
Post a Comment