It becomes important to leave reminder

It sounded so simple. The plan was to dig up the peony and move it over a few feet so that it was no longer in the shade. I also intended to divide it and put part of it in one of the flowerbeds. I estimated that it would take an hour or two at most.

I should know better. My hubby dug out the peony for me. So far it has taken several days, not hours, to get it back in the ground.

The flowerbed was the first problem. That bed is almost full of other stuff. There is already one peony in it. I selected two small divisions and tried to find a space for them. I am letting the pink lilies that aren’t really lilies go to seed. I was careful to not step on anything that was already there as I tucked the peony divisions into the bare soil. Two of the lilies that aren’t really lilies fell over and pouted until I cut their stalks down. That didn’t take very long.

I should have known the powers that be were already snickering. For whatever reason I didn’t get back to the flowers until Saturday. It was chilly in the morning so I waited until afternoon. By that time the peony pieces had multiplied in the wheelbarrow. I dug the hole where I intended to put it. Then I picked up each piece and laid it in the hole. No matter how many pieces I put in the hole, the wheelbarrow remained full of plants.

Somewhere along the way three packets of tulips and a bag of crocus hopped into the wheelbarrow.  I put a couple of the bulbs on the edge of the excavation and saved the rest for later. 

My plan for this afternoon is to get the rest of the plants in the ground. I am surprised at how many breaks I had to take just to get done what little I did yesterday.

For me, the cooler days and nights signal the return of energy. I plant flowers to remind myself that tomorrow will come. Tomorrow may be the best day of our lives or the worst, but it will always get here, with or without us.

Those teardrop-shaped tulip bulbs, the flattened disc-shaped crocus and the gnarled peony roots will grow during the winter, and when the time is right will push through the ground and bloom before retreating back under the surface.

In addition to the urge to plant and play in the dirt comes a need to give the house a good spring cleaning, or would that be a fall cleaning? Whatever it is called I need to clean and in the process find winter homes for the houseplants.

Every year the houseplants make a spring and fall migration. They are repotted as needed. They all spend the winter indoors and when spring comes they all go back outside. They are checked for bugs, spiders, roly poly bugs and even slugs when they are brought back inside in the fall.

There are a couple of points I have wanted to make. Everything takes longer than it should. The older we get, the more breaks we need, and it becomes more important to leave something behind, even if it is only spring flowers.