Green thumbs

Friday afternoon, after arriving back at my undisclosed location in town, Joe and I went to Home Depot for some plants.

A little background - every year, we bury plants plant a garden in the backyard. We always do this too late in the season and then forget to water things so we'll just say it's not usually a successful undertaking. Last year, after planting zucchini, jalapeno peppers, squash, tomatoes, parsley and basil, we had one watermelon the size of a softball and 3 cherry tomatoes (except, I could've sworn we planted "big boys", not teensy cherry tomatoes). Everything else died. Except the basil because we smart enough to keep that in a pot on the porch.

This year, I was determined to plant a larger garden and actually take care of it. We've had some work done in the backyard and I'm all inspired and outdoorsy. Except... I really hate working in the yard. To be fair, the yard started it. Or, technically I could blame this on my mother, just like everything else. You see, I'm allergic to the outdoors. Several kinds of grass, trees, molds, pollens, dusts are all on my no-no list. I also hate any and all species of bugs, whether they be flying, crawling, or slithering.

So, back to Friday. We went to Home Depot and bought many plants. Two kinds of bulbs (I felt so grown-up, planting "I don't know if they're annuals or perennials, I just want the ones that come back next year!"), zucchini, squash, green bell peppers, strawberries, ten (yes TEN!) tomato plants, a blueberry bush, and two citronella plants to ward off mosquitoes. Also, I planted my most favorite flower in the entire world, a lilac tree.

I grew up in a climate where lilacs were plentiful. In fact, I was mad we couldn't plan our wedding for May so I could carry lilacs and roses for my bouquet. But since moving way south of "home", I've been told our climate is too warm for lilacs. Then, I dug around online and found out it *is* possible to grow them here at my undisclosed location!

We searched several stores over the past few weeks, looking for lilacs. I looked again on Friday but was unsuccessful. Until Joe points out three lilacs all in a row. "Are these not what you're looking for?"

Well, excUuuUUuUUuse ME! It's not like they were in bloom or looked like lilacs. It was more like a twig in the dirt with a minimal amount of green leaves on the end. What, I'm supposed to read the little tags? Pffft, this gardening is hard stuff! (By the way, also, I kept seeing "early divided broccoli" and just figured the little plantling was weaned really early from its mama-plant. But I just read a post by Reggie Girl and it turns out it's early divideNd broccoli. Like, early yield. Ooooh!)

Then on Sunday, it was time for the actual yardwork. I chugged my cocktail of benadryl and valium, put on my big girl panties, and covered myself from head to toe in some sort of cancer-causing bug repellent so I could get to work.

This is getting ridiculously long so I'll spare you the details except to say that it was a bug-infested, killer-bee-dodging, sweat-inducing, icky yucky dirty five-plus hours to complete our tasks. Which didn't include spreading mulch (he did that at night) and planting my three potted flowers, two basil and one rosemary plant on for the deck.

After all of that, guess what? A surprise late-Spring freeze tonight. So now the question is - do I let them die now or do I prolong the inevitable and cover them up?