Happy belated Mother's Day to all of you who are either fellow Master Gardeners or subscribers to our blog! Hope the day was lovely and festive for all. This little story is how my day went . . . 

Late on Saturday afternoon, Bruce and I went to the local home center to finally purchase the wood for my wooden boxes in which my hydrangeas were to be planted under the shady pergola in the side yard. The operative word was “finally” since the things had been put in place over 5 years ago with the assumption that the boxes were coming soon (my assumption that is). On our property which is less than 6 feet above sea level, things have a tendency to drown IF there the normal rainfall in winter. I've already lost 3 hydrangeas to drowning in the past 15 years so I want to be prepared for rain someday again. Digging “perk” holes in my yard is a joke as the last one took 1 week to empty even with the French drain around the house. I've babied these plants for so long, I WANT THEM TO LIVE!

Got the 2 foot-square boxes built during the morning through afternoon on Sunday. Bruce did his usual great job with them; he left them in a line where he was working and announced, “I quit! Happy Mother's Day. Good-bye” and walked into the house. After all, he only promised to build the boxes, not plant anything for me. Ok, time for me to get cracking! After all, how hard could the digging of the hole, placement of the box, placing of plant in the hole, and filling it back up be for a trained Master Gardener? Easy, right? Oh Lord, no!

After wrestling the box in place, I found that the hole I dug was nowhere wide nor long enough for the box. A little more shoveling wasn't going to be that much more work, and it wasn't. The work really began as I realized the in-ground irrigation pipe wasn't where I thought it was. Yeah team!! Not only did cut into the pipe, BUT I managed to crack it for another 3 inches! Oh glory, what was to have been a 5 minute job turned into a 1 hour nightmare. Did I have parts; where were they; did I have run over 10 miles to the local home center or would the local Ace Store have them? The answers were yes; in my roll-away tool box; and thankfully no. Time to get to work.

Folks who know me well are aware I can't kneel on both knees – it's either work from a 1 knee kneeling position or on my stomach. In the last years of my career with California State Parks, I spent a lot of time on my stomach fixing lawn sprinklers and piping – Sunday turned out to be a repeat performance but without strangers asking what was I looking for. Finally, the pipe was repaired and I could continue on with my “oh so easy” self-assigned task.

Three hours after I started, I had 1! hydrangea in the ground; the other one would need to wait until Monday morning. By 11 am yesterday, both plants are in the ground and now freed from their pots of many years. I am pooped! Very pooped!!

However, tomorrow the same planting scheme will continue as I put a Japanese Maple (Acer palmatum ‘Sango Kaku” or Coral Bark Maple) into a box to raise it up from the ground level. It too has been in a pot far too long and needs a permanent place in the landscape. Wish me luck with it!

The take-away on all this is we don't quite work as strongly and quickly as we did when younger. The other thing is don't let your children move too far away when THEY grow up!