Channeling Morticia Adams

Do you remember how Morticia Addams always cut off the buds and petals of her flowers, leaving only the stems?

That's how I felt today.

As many of you know, I did not inherit my Dad's love for gardening. It's never been something that I've enjoyed. We had a gardener up until last July when our gardener and I mutually fired each other.

We have these crazy plants called impatients in our front yard. And I when I say in our front yard, what I really mean is the 8 inch deep strip that separates the front of our house from the sidewalk.

These plants absolutely flourish here in SF. They take very little maintenance (if any) and just keep growing and growing. Because they grow so fast, I've learned that they need to be cut back at least 2-3 times a year.

...and when I say cut back what I really mean to say is that they need a serious whacking down to the stubs. They were last whacked down in mid-January, by my Dad. As expected, the plants grew back to their full glory within a couple of months.

Since we are still without a gardener, I borrowed my Dad's hedge trimmers and set out to whack down the plants this afternoon. I did quite the hacking job on them. Since I don't really know what I'm doing, I can only hope and assume that I haven't killed them for good!

It's kind of funny, because to the passer-by, they probably looked really pretty and healthy. To me, they were on the verge of being overgrown, and I just knew that within a couple more weeks, they'd be creeping into the sidewalk, desperately needing to be cut back. Now that I'm whacked them back, they are these short little stubs of a plant - not too pretty, but somehow, it makes me happy. (hence, the Morticia Addams reference.)