Plant problems...

If any of you have seen the tragedy that IS the landscaping out front of my house recently, thank you for keeping your thoughts to yourself. When we moved in last September, this brown thumb girl inherited an overstocked plethora of annuals and perennials that would make a horticulturalist's head spin. As fall turned to winter, all I had out front of the house were piles of brown stick structures and dead leaves. I seriously had to call a landscaper to come over and pull out all the disposable junk (annuals) and leave behind the dormant (I thought, dead) perennials that I hoped would make a reappearance in Spring. Well, some of it reappeared. Some of it really was dead....and subsequently yanked when the weather warmed up. That left me with lots of bare spots this spring which I promptly filled in with nice little onesy-twosey annuals of varying color. That worked well until about mid Summer until it was evident marigolds (one orange, one yellow) were on a mission to overtake the entire yard. They truly were the biggest things that have ever grown under my care (well, other than my first and second born.....the plants ARE bigger than Richie). Meanwhile, all the nice little flowers died in the heat and weeds sprouted up everywhere. I couldn't keep them out. At one point I had weeds as big as the gangly marigolds. Grr.

So, at the inspiration of a landscapingly-gifted friend, I've decided to start afresh. Today, it began. I ripped out every single plant and weed save two that actually look decent. I got all of them out except for one. One particularly stubborn one at the end of the driveway. I first went after it with my shovel. But, it was attacking my legs with its thorny, overgrown limbs. So, I took the clippers (or whatever those giant scissor things are called) after it. After I had whittled back the tenticles I went after it again with the shovel. That crazy plant would NOT for love or money come out of the ground. I literally did not have the power to extract it. I hope my neighbors didn't see me because I was in all sorts of positions with that shovel that a girl really should never be. I tried standing on the shovel to get it to go deeper into the ground. When that didn't work, I jumped on it and nearly fell and broke my neck. I tried the backward push--leaning full force on the shovel in the opposite direction. I tried the see-saw, an incredibly unflattering pose in which the shovel was under the plant and my entire body was suspended in the air on the other end--all of my weight didn't make it budge. Now, I know I'm not a big person, but I would think that a full grown woman ought to have the power to uproot one medium-sized plant. I couldn't do it. It stands waiting for my super-strong husband to come home and flick it out of the ground with his pinky finger.

After that, I'll plant anew.