Suncoast Living: I garden! I'm a gardener!

(said in Bill Murray's voice from What about Bob-- I sail! I'm a sailor! Dr. Leo Marvin! I'm a sailor!)

Whew! I ache in places I didn't know I could ache, and it's a good kind of ache. Brad and I tore it up outside this weekend, literally and figuratively. In typical Kathleen fashion, if there's a way to take the fun out of things, generally by rushing, that's the mode I pick. It wasn't completely fun-less, but we had to get it done by tonight so I can take pictures and send them in to the newspaper for our open house ad. Gardening with a deadline somewhat hinders the fun, relaxing aspect. But we got it done, we had a really great time, and it looks good, if I do say so myself!

On Friday I came home from work and we jumped in the car to head up to the Plant Lady's place. We saw Pinky the sweet cat again and I just fought. so. hard. not to pick her up-- sweetest meowing thing ever. And we bought plants-- a five-foot foxtail palm, seven more ruellia bushes with purple flowers, fifteen more lantana plants (that's the name of the yellow flowered groundcover) and a red flowering bush that will attract butterflies. Which it does. We had to steal it away from the lovely monarch that wanted to hang out in it. We drove home with the palm tree standing up in the open trunk-- a true Sanford and Son moment. We emptied the car and then went out for dinner. Here you can see all the plants crammed into the entryway, as well as the foxtail palm bungee-corded to the post. It's wicked windy these days.

Saturday morning we woke up and got started on removing the grass outside the guest room. Here's the before:

Mom had helped me figure out the plan, sort of a kidney bean shape with curves so it looks more organic than straight lines. We got about 2/5 of the way done and couldn't do any more. It is such hard work, this sod!!! It is dang heavy and takes all of my weight to jump on the shovel to break it apart. Hardy, thankfully, in this Florida sun, but very hard to remove! I tried to keep our spirits up with creative fractions-- "We're one-tenth of the way done! Now we're about a quarter of the way done! Now we're nearly one half of the way done, about two-fifths!!!" But after those two fifths only a half hour had passed and we were ready to pass out. We went in to clean up and I headed off to a baby shower for a few hours while Brad napped. When I got home, I napped, and then we started up again once the heat of the day started to wear off. We got it all done around 7 p.m. and headed out for dinner again.

Brad was incredible, working with the strength of a very determined man. I knew he was a hard worker, but I was impressed all over again. If you look behind him in the picture you might be able to see the little lumps of sod in the vacant lot. I jumped on the shovel, breaking the sod up into squares, and Brad ripped it up and took it down to the lot. Over. And Over. And Over. Probably about 75 trips. So the burger at Chili's was well deserved.

This morning we went to early church and then to Lowe's to pick up 15 more bags of mulch, some bypass pruners which I had previously only known as clippers, and a tree strap. We got home and decided the 85 degrees was a bit much, so we rested all afternoon. It was much needed and glorious. I watched Mostly Martha while Brad napped, and then fell asleep as Brad watched a basketball game. By 5:30 we were ready to plant the stuff we bought on Friday, and it only took us an hour and a half to plant it all and mulch! Talk about determined! We're terribly proud, even though it looks sparse right now. The ruellia will grow like crazy and fill in quickly, and the lantana ground cover will spread in a while. The little foxtail palm (half the price of Lowe's, thank you) will grow slowly but that's ok. It all looks new and small, but it's ours and we're proud.

The one casualty-- Brad's skin. When he picked up the foxtail the first time, he found it was covered with ants. Two of the ants found their way onto his thumb and took a hefty bite out of it-- immediately! That was Friday night, and by Saturday morning there was a big painful blister at the site. We hate these ants.