Have you ever looked at a project and thought “it shouldn’t take that long” and then it does? This is a reoccuring theme for me, mostly because of the optimism I have in my own abilities. Sometimes, such as during these past several days, that rosy outlook has been followed by “ouch, ouch, ouch” and long, heavy, pain filled sighs. Sheer determination and willpower may be able to push a project through to completion, but if you’re a middle-aged woman in moderate shape, it doesn’t happen without a physical toll…I ache all over.
A small part of the yard rework I’ve been slowly moving through is my lavender bed. A few years ago, I dug up the earth along the garden fence, quickly outlined it with old bricks that I honestly can’t remember if the previous home owners left them behind or if I brought them from my place when I moved in with Dave. Does it matter? Not really other than making me wonder how much of a craft pack rat I am. These bricks are old and worn and not good for much other than being a border but I love them in that capacity because it gives the place a bit of a time worn, lived in feel. So I threw a pack of lavender seeds into the freshly dug earth and hoped for the best. As usual around here, grass over grew the space and I gave up that my seeds had survived. Much to my surprise, as I was cleaning the grass out of the bed the following spring the scent of lavender wafted on air. I started pushing the grass around and was delighted to find little lavender plants interspersed with the grass.
My plants are now about three or four years old and densely packed. With the garden fence moved back, my poor lavender (along with my comfrey, sage and rhubarb) plants are now out in the open and need to be either moved or given up on. The lavender and comfrey I refuse to give up so move them I must. In my mind, this doesn’t seem like it should be that difficult. Yes, there were strips of gravel between the vegetable beds I had removed but I figured I could get through those areas without too much trouble.
Yeah…optimism. Turns out that the pick axe I thought I would only need for the gravel areas was necessary for EVERY shovelful of dirt removed. The ground was so hard packed that for me, it was impossible to simply use the shovel. In the end, my trench was almost two feet wide, 6 – 8” deep and 15.5 feet long *whew*. Saturday and Sunday had me working under the blazing Utah sun, fortunately it was only a mild blaze so I hadn’t melted into puddle by the end of the day. Still, after two days I had only managed to dig the trench and place less than half of the bricks. I was sore and tired.
4th of July provided a mid-week opportunity to finish, which I took advantage of. This time I was smarter, having my husband help me set up our 10’ x 10’ pop-up to provide much needed shade. I like Steampunk and Victorian exploration so having the pop-up in place along with digging in the dirt made me feel a bit like treasure hunter…of course the only thing I found was a green plastic army man, so score!
In case you have never grown lavender, let me tell you something about the plant, it’s not always as dense as it seems. Apparently, I have a lot of scraggly individual plants even though it looked as though I only had a few really bushy ones. In the planning phase I had incorrectly assumed I wouldn’t have enough plants to fill a space which was roughly one third larger than the original….ummm….anyone need lavender? I still have almost a third of the lavender since I spread out my transplants. I’m just hoping they survive the move.
I also now have quite a bit more dirt than what I dug up…I made it fluffy dirt? We’re planning on adding a strawberry patch to the garden area so I guess I’ll shift it over that direction for the moment. It’s like a giant cleaning project, move this here and that there and eventually everything will be as you want it.
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