I can’t tell you how nice it is to have a chunk of days off the road and working from home. This has been the longest number of consecutive days where I have not had to travel extensively and I love it.
The timing certainly doesn’t hurt. The gorgeous and pleasant spring days are forcing me to exercise all my self-control to stay focused on my business. I still manage to find some time in the early morning hours and then again after dinner to piddle in the yard.
Unfortunately my yard and garden has been neglected for months, but only because of this absentee 
gardener. Now that I’m here for a few more days and spring is in full swing, I’ve been making quite a few trips to the nursery lately. The plants are accumulating and being placed in groups as I decide where they’ll go.
And there’s another reason for the delay in getting my plants in the ground. I’m still looking for a reliable place for great soil. I plan to have lots of planting beds and I want to amend the soil and build up the beds with plenty of rich, earthy compost. The only problem is, in this small town, I’m having difficulty finding it.
This past Saturday I dove into my gardening projects with pent up energy and excitement. I even got around to painting lines on my lawn with bright orange marking paint. This helps define the separation between the grass and the beds and allows me to try out the new look before being fully committed. It takes a bit of courage to give up a big part of your lawn to planting beds. But this is not the first time I’ve traded turf for tulips and I’ve never regretted it.
This year will be the first time in a long while since I’ve had a full sun front yard and I intend to exploit the opportunity. This weekend I’ll start cutting into those lines I’ve painted on the grass and start to amend those beds. The garden is starting to come to life, and not a moment too soon.
JL