I AM a Gardener

Okay, not really, but somebody thinks I am.
Last week I recieved a catalog from Gardeners.com as they must think I am some sort of out-doorsy person. I glanced through the catalog and realized that there were a number of things that I actually would like to do and have. Maybe I am going to become a gardener....someday.
This weekend I actually attempted to be that gardener/home owner/yard person that the catalog people think I am. I woke up Saturday morning and made a trip to Lowe's to purchase:

• Shovel


• Trowel


• Cultivator (Or as I like to call it Dirt Fork)


• Shears to trip off branches


• Edging


• Knee Bench


• Gloves


• Sun Hat

I then came home and spent the next 3+ hours digging up the beds in the front of the house to get all of the grass and weeds that had inundated my beds over the past two years (yes, last year the yard basically went to hell). I pulled up root systems that I'm pretty certain went all the way to China. And a couple of times I got so into the pulling out of roots that I worried that I might be pulling out my bushes' roots rather than the grass roots, but I guess we'll just have to wait and see if there is any life still in the bushes. I also cut back two pretty dead bushes and completely dug up another bush.
Sunday morning I got up early and tried to install the edging that I purchased so that I would have an actual barrier between the beds and the lawn and hamper the grass from invading again. Sadly, after struggling for 2 hours with trying to pound that bleeping border into the ground and it not coorperating, I got fed up and just decided to put the mulch down...except I only bought one bag and that only covered 1/4 of what needed to be covered (lesson learned).
So, this morning I returned to the Gardener's catalog that fate seemed to think I needed and found a different edging techinique that I'm going to try. Hopefully it'll arrive before Saturday and I'll spend this next weekend finishing up the cleaning out of the beds and putting in the edging. I figure that will make the yard look a little nicer and not be such an embarrassment to the neighbors.
Next year.... I think that is when I'm REALLY going to focus on making the yard a true Better Homes and Gardens vision.