Moody Monday's: Gardening Is Good For The Soul

tlpoague

I got into a mood this morning. I told myself, after a night of lacking sleep, that I needed to get more exercise. (I was seeing fluffy in areas that didn't need much fluff. If anything, they needed the elastic tightened.) I heard that housecleaning was a great form of exercise, but it sure wasn't cutting it for me, no matter how many times I trampled up and down the stairs. So...mood set, tools in hand, I headed out for the garden at six this morning.

It was a disaster!
All the hard work felt wasted as I stood there, hands on hips, surveying the tundra of weeds. With the help of our son, my poor hubby had struggled to till the plot. Then helped me sow seeds into the neat rows. Only to watch the weeds grow instead of our precious plants. (It was apparent that my seeds were too old.)
I wanted to admit defeat, but my soul said no. (And the part where certain critics wanted to say...I told ya so!)
As luck would have it, a small tornado came for a visit Saturday. It did a hop and skip over town, leaving signs of its presence behind in many forms of wind damage. Even a small plane was flipped on its top as it passed. This meant that most of Father's Day was spent squaring away the debris left from our visitor. (I am grateful that no one in our area and the surrounding areas were hurt.)

For my good fortune, this also meant that plants at store were on clearance. I grabbed as many flats as I thought would fill my precious space.
I wasn't too worried about the root plants or ones I could sow from seed for a fall harvest. Instead I felt a great joy finding hidden gems like Brussels sprouts in the broccoli and cauliflower, or green bell peppers in the hot peppers. Soon I had visions of my abundant garden dancing around my head.
This also meant that I wouldn't have to worry about being in short supply of exercise.

Here I was...bright and early...ready to tackle the weeds...and plant my produce.
The first couple of rows weren't too bad.

I didn't think my rows looked too bad.
photo by tlpoague

I had my handy hoe, with a fork on the back end, plowing up the weeds and pitching them in a bucket. I wanted to make sure some of them little critters didn't come back for a visit. I would come back, draw out a row, then fill it with my newly, bought plant. I had a pretty good rhythm going.
My hubby, feeling a might guilty that I was tackling such a big job, came out to check on my progress. It was then, with his kind suggestion, that I realized my straight rows had taken on a curved look. (Hmm, I was wondering why I was getting a bigger gap between a few of them plants.)
Horrified, I proceed to fix my mistake, while Hubby helped with planting peppers.

I still have a lot of weeding to do.
photo by tlpoague

Let me tell ya, by the time I was done planting them flats of plants. I had a burn in muscles I forgot existed. I didn't dare complain about it either since I had made such a big deal about needing exercise.
That much work called for a break. Since I had ran out of room for some of my hot peppers, I decided to share the wealth with my aunt and uncle. Snagging my bored nephew, we set off to the restaurant they owned.
I had just settled in with a sweating glass of ice tea when my elderly neighbor from across the street came in. We exchanged pleasantries before she finally chimed, “Girl, I didn't know what to think of you out there sweating in that garden. I feared you were gonna pass out. Don't ya know you shouldn't wear black in a hot sun? And that poor hat of yours fallin off your head. Ya really needed to tie it down with a scarf.”
It was my turn to chuckle at myself as I replied, “Well, when I started it wasn't that hot. As for the scarf...its around the hat.”
We both had a good laugh at my mistake.
Having a garden is good for the soul...and great exercise too!