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![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/perrennial-bed-8917-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"perrennial-bed-8917-ron-dudley\\"")
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Then my neighbor Shane generously spent many hours cleaning up my perennial flower bed beneath just south of where the elm tree had been (the stump of the tree can be seen in the background). The bed hadn’t been cleaned up in two years and it was a titanic mess. Shane clipped my perennial grasses just in time to save them as can be seen by the greenery beginning to return. Before he cleaned it up very little green could be seen in the entire flower bed. There’s still some work to do but Shane’s efforts were a 95% improvement. He also mowed my front and side lawns and pruned some neglected bushes near our property line that can’t be seen in this photo.<\/p>\n
Having the tree gone and the debris cleaned up on the east side of my house allowed me to begin seeing the light of day, both literally and figuratively. But there was still that monumental mess in my very large vegetable garden (1050 sq. ft.) that I knew I wouldn’t be able to tackle. But one day recently Shane’s mother Heidi (she used to be my neighbor when Shane was much younger) asked me if she could clean up my garden for me. Of course I was reluctant to have someone else do it for me but she was insistent and she did it! Believe me, it was a huge job and at that point there’s no way I could have done it myself. All the debris from beneath the tree and in my garden was hauled away in a dumpster. There was a lot of it!<\/p>\n
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Then I had some very fortunate timing. Several days ago, approximately 9 weeks after my surgery, I began to slowly realize that my newest back and leg symptoms had been improving significantly. I began to wonder if I might actually be able to till my garden (my tiller is a big one and very heavy) and plant it this spring – something I had no realistic hopes of doing prior to the efforts of Shane and Heidi. I can’t even imagine going without garden tomatoes and other vegetables for another year and that was one of my primary motivations, above and beyond the potential aesthetic improvement in my back yard.<\/p>\n
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So two days ago I tackled it and was able to till the entire garden. Then yesterday I cleaned up the edges with my “baby” Mantis tiller as best I could and tilled the entire garden a second time with my big tiller.<\/p>\n
All that dark earth waiting to be planted stirs the juices of this Montana farm boy.<\/p>\n
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![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/garden-8928b-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"garden-8928b-ron-dudley\\"")
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There’s still a lot of work to do but at this point I’m thinking I can do it.<\/p>\n
Looking at all the dandelions in my lawn is driving me crazy, a fence post needs to be replaced and the fence repaired and this year I’m planning on installing a drip irrigation system. With that system I can plant everything in straight rows and get my big tiller between them which should minimize hand weeding and save lots of water. My good friend and ex-wife Diane Olson has always thought I was too linear-minded when planting my garden in previous years (she plants hers much more artistically). Wait till she sees this one – she’ll give me a bucket-load of crap! \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n
After two days of tiller-wrestling I’m one sore puppy this morning! Almost every muscle hurts but it’s the “good hurt” resulting from not exercising muscles for two years and then using them suddenly and excessively, rather than the nerve pain I’m used to. I threw javelin when I was in high school and college so I recognize that pain from early spring track practice.<\/p>\n
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Ok, that was a lot of reading and there were no photos of birds so I imagine this post didn’t have much appeal for some, if you got through it at all. But this series of events was hugely fortuitous for me and I wanted to share.<\/p>\n
Thank you, Shane and Heidi. Your kindness made a big positive difference for me.<\/p>\n
Ron<\/p>\n
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Note: I’ve been reading about the “dandelion movement” – leaving them be for a variety of environmental reasons. But most of my neighbors wouldn’t appreciate my dandelion seeds blowing all over the neighborhood so I’m not yet sure what I’m going to do about them.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Some events are life changers and I’m not talking about my back surgery.<\/p>\n