Going outside with my camera is a more frequent occurrence than going out to weed or water either one. Bottom line, taking and even editing photographs is simply a lot more enjoyable than hauling watering cans or yanking weeds. Both watering and weeding are important precursors to having anything worth taking photographs of, naturally. With a sketchy memory like mine, having photographs on hand as reminders of the potential rewards sure comes in handy as motivation.
If one day I am scratching my head and wondering, hmmmm....how long did it take to get from hauling water to baby along the plants shown here...
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| Bluebonnets! March 10, 2014 |
past here...
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| I cut these mature seed pods prior to predicted heavy rain (3 inches!). May 3, 2014 |
to here?
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| Harvested bluebonnet seed futures May 18, 2014 |
I simply pull up the photos I've taken for the blog and check the dates. Then when doing that triggers a desire to go back,
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| March 18, 2014 |
back,
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| February 24, 2014 |
all the way back
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| February 18, 2014 |
to see how long it took to get from here...
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| February 14, 2014 |
to here? Rinse, lather, repeat.
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| April 2, 2014 |
Occasionally, a before and after set helps remind me of lessons re-learned. Guess what happens when I stubbornly put a cheater pot out front filled with proven delicious-to-deer bloomers?
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| So pleased with myself for planning ahead, tra la! April 14, 2014 |
Sigh...Yup. It might not occur the first night, it might not occur until after two or three nights, but the key takeaway is that The Munching always happens eventually and things ends badly. For the plants, at least. I'm supposing the deer was delighted.
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| I moved the pot out front May 1, 2014. The morning of May 3rd it looked like this. Bambi wins again! |
Finally, when it comes to jobs that won't, simply can't, last as long as I'd like, such as weeding? Oh
such a thankless job, weeding. Because I never get ahead, I can never stay ahead. The seed bank accounts in my garden beds unfortunately represent multiple seasonal deposits. One withdrawal barely makes a dent.
Rather than reaching for a flamethrower, I find looking at before and after shots encouraging. A "You've done it once, you can do it again!" approach. A reminder that these spaces look pretty good, given the chance to shine they way they were originally intended. Because while this is everything I could hope for in a garden tableau...
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| April 19, 2014 |
unfortunately then it morphs into this....
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| Weedy weedy gone to seedy. May 18, 2014 |
and takes hours of stoop labor to get it back to this, again.
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| The reappearance of the ceramic shard mosaic mulch is fussy work but worth it. The colors underneath the bench function as a reverse shadow all summer long. May 19, 2014 |
Are all the weeds in this bed one hundred percent gone? Ha! Not even close. I'll allow myself a generous accounting of ninety-nine percent gone, and know that if I can get back to this space every week or so for just a few minutes of work, I'll have the summer's worth of joy as my reward. That's a pretty fair trade. And not if, but
when I forget? The photos will be right here to remind me.
