We have no pansies in our planting beds this spring.
I don’t know where my mind was last fall, but it wasn’t on planning ahead for pops of color, courtesy of pansies, around the house.
My bad.
No, instead, the little bit of color that we have in the planting beds is from a few bedraggled, unenthusiastic, ancient daffodils who look like they’re huddled together outside taking a smoke.
If they could speak, they’d be talking in an old guy NJ accent, asking each other for a light. “Hey, Murray! You got a lighter over dere? Whatcha say you lets me use it. Tanks, buddy.”
I feel that I’m working with the landscape crew in spirit.
The crew started our spring cleanup yesterday, but it takes them a day or two to complete our property. When we used to do the clean up ourselves it took us at least 4 weekend days, working together for 8 hours each day, to get this yard looking snazzy.
Too much for us.
So today while the crew is making things tidy outside, I’m inside perusing garden websites and gardening catalogues. It’s amazing how many plants and garden doodads we need when I apply myself to the task of helping the landscape crew in this way.
And that, kids, is what’s going on around here. I’m waiting for the big reveal after the landscape crew finishes, feeling that this expensive indulgence is worth the price. And I’m grooving on the idea that when you get down to it, middle age has its perks.
THE SPECTACLED BEAN 
Sounds like a good investment. Will be nice for you to have everything spruced up for spring and summer. And with no resulting back pain on your part…
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Carrie, you’re right. Our backs thank us for letting other people do the hard work. Then we maintain what they’ve gotten ready for us. It works out nicely and lets us enjoy our outside spaces without worrying each weekend about what has to be done next.
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I don’t miss our yard. At all. We’d totally have to hire a crew if we ever bought another house with a yard. Don’t blame you one bit.
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Andra, I’ve come to realize that it’s better for us to invest our time in enjoying our outdoor spaces with friends and family, than to spend our weekend trimming bushes… edging planting beds… lugging mulch around. Once upon a time that was fun, but not anymore.
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Funny how once those things were exciting, now not so much. I foolishly decided to trim the fruit trees myself. Should be done in February. Remember February? It was all covered in snow. Now I have that job to do and my thumb isn’t quite ready. Should have had a service do it in the winter. You are smart. Enjoy the good parts of outdoor living and let the rest for others.
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Kate, the decision to hire a service didn’t come easy to us because we’ve always adored gardening, flowers, herbs, pots, outdoor living. But now I think it was a smart move. More fun for us.
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Well worth it. We haven’t even thought about it yet, but we certainly should. I’m with you, however: I’d much rather spend the money and let someone else do it (and far more quickly and efficiently) so that we can spend our time enjoying our yard instead of resenting its demands.
It’s not like we don’t have other things that Need Doing…sigh.
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nance, you’ve nailed it. Why be resentful of your yard, when you can enjoy it? Of course, when we were younger we loved doing all the work, but with age comes a different set of priorities. And healthy backs are high up on the list.
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Perhaps a nice balance of hiring someone else to do the big, back breaking work and doing the creative things you enjoy yourself. Either way, it’s more fun to enjoy the outdoors than to spend all your time sweating in it.
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Zazzy, you said it. We still do lots of pots of flowers and herbs, plus I’m always fiddling with some planting bed moving stuff around to make it look better to me. So we haven’t entirely dropped out of gardening, but less is more for us now.
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I hope you’re loving your newly finished garden. 🙂 What a cheerful sight that will be, and it will surely bring you much joy and happiness this summer. We’d like to do more planting, but with the drought, I can’t justify bringing in more plants that need water. I guess we could (and should) go the drought tolerant route. Maybe next year.
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J, we are loving the finished product. Today is the first day when there’s some color on the bushes and trees, so the daffodils don’t look so lonely out there. When spring arrives here, it’s dramatic… so I suspect that by next Monday all will be colorful here.
If you do the drought tolerant route, I’d love to know what you use and how it works for you. I’m fascinated by different sorts of gardens. I bet that it’d be work to install, but the results would be cool. And most importantly, sustainable.
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