Though I'm also the executor of most of these plans, my favorite part is figuring out how to make a schedule work among many movable parts (people), or puzzling together a challenge, or creatively solving a problem.
Kind of like the queen bee.
But some days, I don't want to be the planner. I want someone else to figure it all out and just tell me what to do.
Kind of like the worker bee.
Case in point: After we moved into our house this past summer, we looked at our outdoor surroundings (aka dirt) and realized we needed to define our outdoor living space (aka needed to not be surrounded by dirt). We hired a landscaper to create beds, put up some retaining walls, and install some stepping stones. Things looked better: we now had an "outline" of our outdoor space. But the lines needed to be filled in.
I got all cheap about it, though, and said "no thanks" to the landscaper doing much more than the basics. Now that the dirt moving and rock placing had been done, I said I could plant shrubs all by myself, thank you very much.
But I'd forgotten that I know nothing about plants. You can't just plop in any shrub in any place and expect it to thrive or look good. We have deer, so I needed plants that wouldn't provide a veritable buffet for them at our expense. We have a pool, so I needed plants with minimal leaf shedding. In the front, we have morning light and afternoon shade; in the back, we have some morning shade but mostly full sun all afternoon. I know a little about cluster planting, but I have no idea when different plants bloom, and how tall they'll get down the road. Then you throw in leaf shape, size, and color; and flower shape, size, and color. And, oh yeah, this is important: It All Must Be Easy for Me to Maintain!!!!
It didn't take long after I sat down with my pictures and my books and my websites to realize I was completely in over my head. Even though I had all these resources at my disposal, my mind was a blank. This wasn't going to work.
 |
| Lots of blankness: in the dirt, in my mind |
Like Virginia, I don't really want to be the queen!
So I called a local nursery. They sent a landscape designer out to do a free landscape plan for my two big beds and two small ones. In exchange for the free plan, I verbally agreed to purchase the plants from them. One week later, I had labeled drawings in my hands! The designer took into consideration all the important factors for me (deer, pool, sun/shade, maintenance), so all I had to do was drive the pick-up truck to the nursery and fill 'er up.
Like a good worker bee, I got busy.
78 plants and 1-1/2 weeks later, I now have fully implemented landscape beds around my house. I was happy to put lots of sweat and muscle into the project, without the stress of planning it on my own.
 |
| Most of these pictures were taken on an overcast day. And, since it's fall, the plants don't have much color right now. But just wait till next spring! |
Sometimes the queen's greatest luxury is to remove her tiara and get a little dirty.
Posts
