In which I get my way

Phillip likes to wake up on Saturday mornings and stay in bed for at least another hour. Then he likes to shuffle around in his pajama pants, watch TV, read the paper and eat enough breakfast to make up for not eating breakfast at all during the work week. He doesn't give one second's thought to where the day might take him. Me, on the other hand, I need to GET UP and DO STUFF.

We would have actual fights about this, way back before The Children when we had the OPTION of sleeping in. It drove me kerrrraaaaazy that we could waste an entire morning sitting around doing NOTHING. And that's exactly how I saw it: a waste. Phillip calls it "relaxing" as in, "I need to relax after all the what-are-we-going-to-do-today nagging", and I'm still not sure if I've managed to effectively communicate the fact that sitting around in the mornings is NOT RELAXING. For me. I understand that's what most people like to do on Saturday mornings but SERIOUSLY, SHOOT ME NOW.

I am a big fan of sitting around AS YOU KNOW, but Saturday morning is prime time for DOING STUFF and while Phillip is relaxing I am sitting there calculating all the time I'm losing. Now that we have kids, though, Phillip can't relax and I can't get anything done. So we don't argue about it anymore, but neither of us wins, which is lame.

Every once in a while, though, one of us calls dibs on a Saturday morning and the other is required to participate. Phillip will be all, "I had a harrrrrrd week," and give me The My Dog Just Died Face and then what else can I do except put on my bathrobe, make pancakes and watch The Simpsons until it's time for lunch? Other times (okay, a lot of times) Saturday is MINE. We run errands or do some contrived Family Outing or visit friends or do ten loads of laundry in a row. And this Saturday? Was reserved for the garden box. Phillip was sooooo excited.

Saturday involved one trip to Fred Meyer, one trip to Lowe's and three trips to Home Depot, the last of which Phillip completed by himself as was required to save the marriage. Fred Meyer because we thought dirt might be cheaper (nope), Lowe's because in our side streety efforts to avoid traffic we completely missed Home Depot, and Home Depot because its garden center is so much better than Lowe's IN MY NOT AT ALL EDUCATED OPINION.

We ended up with thirty bags of dirt (that's 30 cubic feet for those of you playing at home). The box could have actually used 40 cubic feet but my goodness is that a lot of dirt, and also, maybe you did not know this, you have to BUY the dirt. Dirt! It reminded me of when people would take Soils in college. A whole class on dirt? Seriously? It's worth that much?

I did a bit of research on what kind of dirt I was supposed to buy, but in the end I bought the cheapest stuff they had, plus seven or eight bags of steer manure, which completely grossed me out, but which was insisted upon by my father-in-law, who knows his dirt.

I bought these start-your-plants-inside peat pellet things recommended by Tara and six or seven bags of seeds. (I was going to link the peat pot thing, but when I searched for the link I found a HOW TO GROW MARIJUANA site and I don't want to be accused of, you know, corrupting America's Youth.) Cucumber, zucchini, peas, lettuce, beans and a butternut squash, because I buy a LOT of butternut squash. I planted the peat pellet things and then I planted seeds outside. Sounds redundant? But I will need something to plant in the garden box when my seeds refuse to sprout. Or, as was evidenced today, they are unceremoniously dug up by Jack.

I'm going to have tomatoes, but I'm going to buy seedlings. And I sort of want to grow them upside down, maybe, I don't know. And it's pointless to plant them now anyway because it won't get hot till, oh, August. (We were supposed to have nice warm weather this weekend, hence the garden boxing, but the best I can say for this weekend is: it didn't rain. Stupid weather people and their stupid forecasts.)

The last trip to Home Depot was for edging bricks. Phillip managed to sink about a fourth of them into the ground, but we've still got a lot left. And then I will be buying mulchy stuff to spread in the edged off area, transplanting some dahlias and camellias, shoveling up fifty tons of rocks and moving them out of my way, and figuring out a sandbox. So that when Jack follows me around trying to dig up everything in the garden box I can shriek, "Go dig in your SANDBOX!" and he can look at me like he doesn't understand English and go right back to hacking the seedlings to death. And that's just Phase Two of the Yard Improvement Plan. Phillip is SO EXCITED.

And if you thought THIS was fascinating, I bet you'll find the post about My Very First Run Outside a scintillating read. Weigh in Monday morning!

Comments

[Jenn]

I have never had luck growing seedlings, ever. They come up, split into two leaves (whatever that is called, I can't remember) and then unceremoniously die.

I'm going to have to side with Phillip here, weekend mornings are for shuffling around in your pajamas and staring at the TV, trying to make up for having to get up early for the rest of the week.

[Elizabeth]

I feel like it's a major mile stone that you are aware that this Saturday morning thing exists. Mr. E and I still just fight endlessly about Saturday mornings - I see his desire to lie around doing nothing and watching TV as total laziness and march around saying "We are not watching TV all day on this beautiful Saturday!" and he sees my desire to tackle every household task on record as totally annoying over the top obsessiveness re:the house.
We try to trade off weekends, but now with the yard and the garden, there's too much too do for that to work.
Compromise: I am bad at it.
Also, yeah for your garden box!

[Jen]

I could never get anything to grow from seeds. (Mind you, this was twenty years ago, when I was seven.) (Yes, it has been THAT long since I had a garden.) The little pre-started plants are the way to go, in my easy-way-out, cheating opinion.

[Tara]

Wow, now I feel SO MUCH PRESSURE for your seedlings to grow in the little mini-greenhouse thingamabobber. I'm stressed. (Are you keeping them indoors for now?)

Maybe I should have said "the little mini-grenhouse-tray-thingamabobber works great for us in ARIZONA. Hopefully it works in WA too. :-) We need updated garden pics sometime!

[Jess]

Everyone is writing about gardening! I want to join in but I think our garden will have to wait until next year at least. This year we're all about the trees!