And Finally

Before we left for France I tried to get everyone to come and take away as many plants as they wanted. Oh that garden was so beautiful, how I miss my giant hostas and all of those tulips and the dozens of different colored day lillies and... Ah, well... Some of my 'Agency' friends decided to take me up on the offer of free plants...

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The Story of Three Little Gardeners - posted on July 26, 2003

I’m giving away some of my garden plants to good homes. Three gardeners expressed an interest in taking in some of my orphans and we agreed on 5 pm on Saturday for a good time to get together in my yard and start digging.

E showed up in her Honda wearing espadrilles. P showed up with the family station wagon, a shovel, tennis shoes and a few pots. G showed up with the Expedition with the seats folded down, a tarp covering the entire area, about 8 five gallon paint buckets, a shovel, wearing hiking boots, garden gloves and her hair pulled back.

E wanted a clump of ornamental grass and maybe a few daylilies. She went over to the grass she wanted, pointed it out to me and half heartedly tried to dig it up. “I think I wore the wrong shoes for the job” she says with a girly self deprecating laugh. (Not fooling me a bit.)

P goes right to the back garden and timidly points to a hosta she likes and asks if she can have that one. “Yes of course, take it, no one will remember to water anything here” I say. “It’ll just die” She digs in and I help her hold leaves out of the way while she digs around it.

E comes along to the back having given up digging up the grass, since I wasn’t going to help her with it. (Do it for her more like) “Oh what a beautiful garden you have, it must take a lot of work.” I assure her it does and she wanders around aimlessly. Finally she stops in front of a clump of daylilies, “Can I take some of these?” “Sure help yourself”. She digs around the clump a bit a finally manages to dig up a small clump that I assure you will not live.

P meanwhile has dug up and potted her hosta. “Can I have that one?” “Sure go ahead” She gets to work. Digging and potting.

E takes her one potted daylily out to her car chit chats a bit and leaves.

G meanwhile has decided what she wants, developed a color scheme and started digging. This girl was stamping down on the back of her shovel and making neat slices in the soil cutting a nice wide circle around each clump. She dug up three coordinating colors of daylilies, a black eyed susan, a purple coneflower and three different colors of phlox. She worked hard, potted her stuff, loaded her truck no fuss no muss. She was serious, not shy and willing to do the work.

I was quite impressed by G overall, P was just too timid even after I assured her that that’s what she was there for. E, well, E was useless and I wanted to just shoot her.