Oh my aching back!

I am currently reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver. I love it. I truly, utterly love it. Something about it makes me feel inspired and connected. A few days ago, I enjoyed a section that perfectly describes my day today:

"Every gardener I know is a junkie for the experience of being out there in the mud and fresh green growth... we love our gardens so much it hurts. For their sake we will bend over till our backs ache, yanking out fistfuls of quackgrass by the roots as if we are tearing out the hair of the world. We lead our favorite hoe like a dance partner down one long row and up the next, in a dance marathon that leaves us exhausted... we spend hours bent to our crops as if enslaved, only now and then straightening our backs and wiping a hand across our sweaty brow, leaving it striped with mud like some child's idea of war paint. What is it about gardening that is so addicting?" (Chapter 12: Zucchini Larceny)

Today Michael and I planted all of the ground cover and flowers in the mailbox/thorn apple bed. It was a messy bed still suffering from it's past life of weed infested river rock. We dug and dug and dug (until the dog ran into the street and we had to haul him to the back yard) and then started sinking these tender little plants. They are such pretty little treasures that, hopefully, if fed enough fish tank water will grow and stretch and cover the patch of ground in which they rest. It was nearly two hours in the fresh Spring air and it left us feeling motivated to move to the much bigger and more daunting grass beds. As we planted, Michael named many of the anchors "this one is Pickle!" and "that one is Grandma". All counted, we had named a "Grandma" (alyssum), 2 "Grandpa's" (a dianthus and a sweet woodruff), a "pickle" (sweet woodruff), a "Little Guy" and "Baby Girl" (astible red sentry) and "Greta Girl" (aquilegia biedermeie). We planted more than that, but naming them started to loose it's appeal.

After Greta woke up, we came back outside to plant a series of gladiolas, more dianthus and 2 clematis that will be beautiful if we planted them correctly. All of those found homes in the grass beds. During their afternoon naps, I finished the digging and planting.

It was a back breaking but addicting day. Heavy rain is forecasted for the next 4 days. Looks like my leeks, carrots, radishes, spinach and salad greens are going to wait until May to get into the ground.