Written for:
‘PCGuyIV’s Truthful Tuesday.
How do you feel about gardening and yardwork? Do you differentiate between them or are they basically the same in your book? Are they fun activities that are more hobby than chore, or are they tasks you’d pay good money not to ever do again if you could afford it?
When we decided to move to Pittsburgh, I pushed my husband, saying I wanted a house with a yard. Oh, I did not want to do gardening or yard work, but for my then-special needs teen to run around and exhaust himself. Even though the house was more than forty years old, we got our current home.
It took us a few years to even understand what our garden had. You keep putting off fires inside the house while raising a special needs boy; the outside garden overwhelms. The previous owners had a vegetable garden, and our garden had beautiful flowers. It took us some time to get used to the whole garden.
Fast forward thirteen years, and we know every inch of the garden and our yard. We have been planting vegetables in our patch for the past ten years. We use our special boy to help us with gardening. I also make him fill up pots and plant marigolds and zinnias.
We do have someone come and tend our shrubs and mow our lawn. Yes, this is too much for our busy lives. Every year, my husband says he would mulch our garden and would start the process, only to give it up to professional people. Today morning, when I asked him what was going to happen, he said he would be calling professional people.
I have written multiple times that my garden has a lot of critters like chipmunks, squirrels, and rabbits. It is really hard to plant anything new. I have a Buddha statue and wanted to create a beautiful zen garden with some succulents. I found out every new plant was munched by my critters. Yes, I have accepted them as a part of my family. So this year, I am on a mission to find out what plants these critters hate, and I have purchased a couple of annuals. If they survive this year, that is what is going to be planted there every year.
Gardening is therapeutic, according to me. Yes, we spend money and exhaust ourselves outside. But it is worth it.
My Zen Buddha! Will the plants survive this summer?
I saw some pebbles move from that place. I was shocked. Was there a bigger animal coming to move my pebbles? But my husband soon solved the mystery. He told me he took some pebbles to hold something!
Special Mom’s blog 
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