Remedial Gardening

I am apparently a "weekend warrior." I hate that term. I hate it for the same reason I hate having a bluetooth headset: it makes me feel like a tool. But I do own a wireless, ear-dangling device, and I do enjoy wearing myself out on the weekends doing home improvement projects.

This weekend saw my first endeavor into gardening. (Well, nearly. I managed to kill a few jalapeño plants a couple years back.) Not only did it involve trips to greenhouses, home improvement warehouses, Wal-Mart, and Sunflower's mother's house, there were such activities as rock-carrying, wheelbarrow-pushing, and dirt-sorting.

Now I don't foresee gardening becoming my primary source of entertainment, but I can certainly see why people find it enjoyable. You get to be outside with the sun on your back, turning you into a literal red-neck. You roll around and play in the dirt, and nobody tells you that you can't. Tools are involved. And when you're done, you have beautiful flowers everywhere.

Wait a minute. No you don't. When you're done you have a bed of black dirt, forty square feet surrounded by a couple rows of stone. But it will become beautiful flowers, eventually. In our case, it will become a variety of 19 different perennials, carefully selected for us by a plant company that puts seeds in an overgrown pepper shaker.

The biggest lesson learned in 101: Intro to Gardening? Despite being called annuals, they don't come back every year. You have to plant them again next year.