In the garden...after

It's done. The garden has been cleared. It's not perfect. It's not even really beautiful. But it's done. And it's such a relief.

Whew.

It took my friend Steve and I many hot, muggy and buggy nights of digging out good-sized saplings, ripping out weeds, relocating hollyhocks and phlox to better spots in the garden, cursing at thistles and untangling roses and grapevines. Steve was the positive one during this whole process. When he'd pull up in his big red truck, I'd be sitting on the front steps dreading going back to the garden. And Steve would say encouraging things like, "It'll be fun! We'll get to the end, don't worry!" I had to believe him.

And one night when a random cool breeze rustled the grass and the sun gave one last shot of pink before it set, I looked up and there it was. THE END. We'd made it. Steve and I leaned on our shovels and took it all in. Then he said, "You'd better take some after-pictures. For proof." Yes, sir.

We unearthed my America lilies, 

which bloom every year on the 4th of July.

I'd forgotten all about them.

We also unearthed a lot of bare ground

where plants (I don't remember what)

used to be.

Look! A birdbath!

Now maybe the birds can actually get to it.

There's Steve in an epic battle with 

a well-established hackberry sapling.

The only things left blooming are the hollyhocks.

(And the battle with the hackberry continues. 

Steve eventually won.)

We somehow managed to save one

hollyhock of each color.

Thanks for sticking around, hollyhocks.

Oh, thank you.

Then we celebrated with some of this.

And even though I'd hired Steve,

he insisted on buying the ice cream bars

on the way back from the compost heap.

There's still more work to be done out there, though. I need to get mulch, put down weed control (I hear Preen is a miracle substance), replace some of my favorite plants that didn't make it (delphiniums, white cone flowers, "whirling butterflies" gaura, artemesia, coral bells). But I think I'm done gardening for this year other than a quick weed pull here and there. My energy and focus is on writing now. I hope the garden can wait until spring. I'll have to check Steve's availability for May 2012...