A Week of New Beginnings

I've been a little behind in posts these past couple of weeks because I'm doing something radical...gardening!  Between changing out some major containers in the penthouse garden, tearing out and replanting some huge beds at the Big House, and getting a bunch of big projects done in the Stepchild Garden for the Tour, it seems there is little time for anything else!

Between Friday and yesterday Chuck and I managed to tear out about 50 substantial shrubs in front of the Big House (which had been in place for ten years....with roots to match), and got about that same number  of different things planted.  Making great progress, but this old body hurts this morning!

Mom won't be happy that I'm not in church, but today's the morning to put up the new fence in the Stepchild Garden, finally finish the painting on the "not shed," and keep plugging away at the weeding, mulching, and general stuff.  Even Frank is breaking his personal rule about not going outside...he's the tallest, so he gets to paint the peaks of the not shed.  Let's just hope he doesn't see a bug, or the painting will never get done!

Three of the renovated containers outside the penthouse breakfast room

A Little Pain the Morning After.....

These containers look innocent enough, so when Mr. and Mrs. Penthouse asked about doing some rearranging of the sculpture collection on the terrace, I thought, "What could be so hard?"  After all, my only responsibility is getting these containers out of here so that the sculpture can be moved back a little.....FAMOUS LAST WORDS.......

First mistake:  Thinking the containers were fiberglass rather than concrete.  Every step of the prodding, poking and knocking seemed to indicate they were fiberglass.  They are not.

Second mistake:  Thinking the trees would be somewhat flexible.  After all, they're deodor cedars in these "small" containers.  In fact, they are incredibly stiff branches from handling ten years of brutal wind on the 42nd floor.

Third mistake:  Perspective.  These trees look fairly small outside, in that context.  In fact, they are each between  ten and twelve feet tall.  This mostly is an issue since the doors going into the condominium are eight feet tall, as are most of the interior openings.

So Chuck, Patti and I decided to spend yesterday morning moving the containers out of the apartment, thinking it would take "a couple of hours".  Needless to say, we are all in major pain this morning. 

A few highlights:
When the pots are this size, they "max out" the length of the straps we have for moving pots.  As a result, each time the pot is lifted, it draws blood on one's knuckles.

The pots must be tipped to clear the doors, but when tipped, they spill dirt onto the white silk carpeting, which we fortunately covered with plastic dropcloths first.

Rolling these pots down the halls of the apartment to the service elevator, the choice was let the branches cut my face or scratch paintings that are each worth more than my house.  My face isn't pretty this morning.....

Just to give you an idea of the weight of these things, FIVE containers threatened to break the axle of the rented U-Haul truck.  Fourth mistake:  Having SIX containers.......


Oh, and did I mention that not one, but two, service elevators went out of service during our adventure?  I'm spending the day watching Spartacus on television.......

A Glorious Day to be in the Garden

It's been much colder than normal here lately (as it has been in lots of areas of the country, it seems), and definitely much wetter. We had what has now been categorized as a "500 year flood" about four weeks ago, and it seems as though it's been raining or drizzling ever since. Since I moved South from New England largely because of the dreary weather, this has not been a happy month for me.....I've been grumbling daily that "I just want to be dry......" It happened today!

It is still pretty cold (about ten degrees cooler than average, and the nights almost twenty degrees colder than average), but the sun was out in all its glory today! I spent the morning at the penthouse garden, which I really think was designed for days like this. Everything operates by remote control there, so when I pushed the button to open the drapes, it was nothing short of a stage production! Most of the apartment is floor-to-ceiling glass, and it's one of the highest residences in Atlanta. It was just amazing to see the buildings on the skyline glistening and shining again! It feels as though it has been years! Everyone's mood was noticeably improved over the past few weeks.

I got to spend the afternoon working in the stepchild garden at home with Cricket, starting the end of summer cleanup. In a few hours we managed to fill the back of the truck to overflowing with the remains of the cannas, angelonia, lantana, and other things that are finsihed for this season. We had to wear sweatshirts while working, but there was no fog, there were no clouds, there was no rain, there was no bitter wind......just fabulous sunshine!

It's supposed to warm up again starting tomorrow, and then probably we'll have rain for the weekend, but I'm trying not to think about that....for now, I am a happy camper working on my farmer's tan in a parka!!

(You might have noticed I changed the photo.....that smiley face was scaring me early in the morning!)