I'm Hurtin'!

I am to be part of a garden tour this coming Saturday. This would normally be a good thing, because at this time of year my garden is at peak. However, a number of things have thrown a monkey wrench into the works. To begin with, I returned from my trip to the Netherlands with a bronchial infection that caused me to miss the first 10 days of this month; no gardening of any kind was done during that time. Then, just as I was pretty much back to full strength, our best friends arrived for their annual vacation. Sally is my dearest friend of nearly 30 years, so you bet your assets that I wasn't about to do anything but have an inordinate amount of fun for a week. Although I did at least acquire some plants. The four of us went on a winery tour of one of the Finger Lakes - eight wineries participated, and offered tastings, specialty foods, and two plants to each participant (one flower, one herb). Sally and Carl are wine experts, so they had all the wine they wanted and I scored a boatload of plants - a win-win for all concerned! Still, there were several big flower beds that haven't been touched since the beginning of April, and more than one resembles a jungle at this point. So in order to impress the tourists, I have no choice but to kill myself edging and weeding - forget planting any of this stuff. And forget having everything look perfect; I'll have to settle for good enough. Perfect is right off the table. Even at that, the hard physical labor and crawling around on hands and knees is taking a serious toll on my poor fibromyalgia/arthritis afflicted body. I've been at it hard for two straight days, eight hours a day - and when I come in I can hardly move. Normally, I'd work like that for one day, then off the next. Unfortunately, I don't have the luxury of time at this point. This is pushing me hard, and all I'm doing is cosmetics. Of course, I have to keep reminding myself that the general public will only see the incredible plant diversity and think it's awesome. And anyone (like a fellow Master Gardener) who has more horticultural knowledge than the general public will have the good taste to ignore what didn't get done. Still, I can't wait for Sunday - I intend to sit around and do no physical labor whatsoever. And take copious quantities of Tylenol Arthritis.........