Change of plan

My Wife volunteers at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo. She's been there all afternoon today so I said that I'd do some work in the garden and plant a few things to cover the spot in the fence where a certain white dog has been attempting to dig through to the neighbours. I was thinking maybe 2 or 3 plants and some soil and mulch to make it look nice.

That was my first mistake, I was thinking. How come whenever I suggest doing a small job around the house to make it look nice my Wife always takes my idea and runs with it? She never wants to settle for the small improvement I suggested and it always turns into a much bigger, and more expensive job.

We were walking around Houston Garden Center and had 3 or 4 plants on the trolley so I hinted we had enough and that we should go. My Wife's response should have warned me what was to come. "Not yet, we have a lot more shopping to do."

Anyway, after loading up two trolleys, 35 bags of soil & mulch and spending over $300 the Expedition got us all home safely, albeit rather slowly.

I unloaded the car while my Wife toasted some bagels and made some tea, so I ventured inside for breakfast. Then a stroke of luck..

Our gardener turned up to cut the grass so we seized the opportunity to let him quote for the work. Now, this included digging a trench along one fence, then digging another in the corner of the garden joining two existing flower beds, and filling with the soil and mulch. This was probably more than I thought I would get done today so when he said he'd do it for $100 we snapped his hand off.

We gave him another $100 to actually plant the things we'd bought and it took two of them 4 hours. Money well spent in my opinion, especially as it meant my day was a lot more relaxing than it had seemed right around the time they showed up.

I did run out to buy another spade so they could both dig and a wheel barrow so they wouldn't have to break their back carrying all the soil and mulch round the back. Each bag weighs 40 pounds and the day was already getting hot so we kept them supplied with bottles of cold water.

Too bad my Wife was still home when the gardener arrived, otherwise I could have been cashing in those brownie points for a long time to come!