Here Comes the Rain

We're having the first real storm in quite a while, and while I'm happy to be relieved of watering duties for the next few days, all I can think about is all the gardening tasks I haven't finished.

In the front yard, I still have quite a bit of weeding left to do, as well as laying down new mulch. The huge camellia at the side of the house still badly needs pruning. I was hoping to wimp out and hire someone to do that, but now I feel the need to be a frugal gardener, so I'll have to tackle that myself.

In the back yard, well ... oh ... my ... god! Where to start? More weeding, more mulch-laying. I need to move a rosa rugosa and a Mexican Limelights salvia, and I still need to get a few other plants I bought a while back in the ground. I've got bulbs to put in as well. Plus pruning the passion flower and jasmine vines, and relocating the clematis.

Unlike in other regions, in my Zone 9/10 garden there is no such thing as putting the garden to bed for the winter. Gardening is a year-round thing here, but I confess that I don't much enjoy it in the cold and wet. So I need to at least get things cleaned up and prepped for a bit of gardener goof-off time so that I don't have to face an even bigger mess in the spring.

From the way I'm grousing about my to-do list, you'd think I had a manor estate to look after instead of just a tiny city lot. But it's feeling a bit daunting right now because I never seem to be able to get my vision of what my garden could be to match what I'm actually able to accomplish. As small as my garden is, it could look terrific if I can ever get the vision to be borne out in leaf and flower. Eventually, I think I will. But the waiting is terrible and humbling and frustrating.

So while I wait out the rain, I make more plans and perfect the vision. The grunt work will have to happen another day.

Photo credit: FreeFoto.com