Green thumb??? or Brown hands.

First of all I have to say... On Mothers day we went over to Mike's sister's house for a get together. While there Mike notices her Lilac bush, which was in full bloom and smelled wonderful. All through the evening he commented on how nice it looked and how good it smelled.

So Tuesday while at the nursery buying tomato's and such for the garden I decided to get Mike a Lilac bush, just like the one his sister had, for an early Fathers day gift. since it would be too warm to plant it in June I went ahead and bought it now.

I had the perfect place all planned out. Between the antique beet digger we inherited from his grandma and the edge of the house there was a nice opening just right for the (full grown) bush.
But then I decided I didn't want to disturb the bush later by raising the beet digger (which had sunk into the ground too much over the years and needed to be raised a bit) or by putting in the railroad ties we had always planned on putting around the flower bed but hadn't because we ran out of ties. I might as well do this before I plant the bush right?

Okay so I dig out the ties that are already in because they are too low too. Made a phone call and got free ties, all I had to do was go and get them. easier said that done... Those things are HEAVY!!! In order to raise the beet digger I had to dig up all the plants that were around the wheels, I ended up with 3 wheel burrows full of plants that I needed to transplant. then to put in the rail road ties I had gotten I had to dig up some sod first, May as well move it the the part of grass the neighbors sprayed roundup on last spring (what were they thinking we have no money to re-seed).

I got the sod moved (by the way it looks great I hope it takes) then I had to dig the trench for the ties to sit in. Wow we have a lot of roots in out yard. Once the trenches were done I lifted (well kind of rolled) the ties in place. Then went to transplant some of the plants I dug up. which I soon realized I needed to raise the sprinkler valve box before I could plant anything over there. By then Mike and the kids had got home so Mike and I lifted the Beet digger while the kids put cement pavers under the wheels. Then I set the kids on digging out the valve box (which was surrounded by paving bricks, he he he nothing can be easy right) while I planted elsewhere.

Needless to say it has been a long two days but guess what....
We have our first bush! That's right, this is the first bush we have ever planted in our yard. After all that work... I think we should give it a name.

So in short, I moved railroad ties , raised a valve box, dug up and transplanted sod, Lifted an antique beet digger, dug up and transplanted more plants than can count, and did a ton of weeding, just so I could get Mike a Lilac bush for Fathers day. I hope it doesn't die on me.

All that dirt is tough on my hands, I need to just soak them in lotion for a few days.