10 Things I Enjoy

I just found the Garden Musings blog of James Roush in Kansas and have started following him. His reflections on his gardening, Kansas, and life in general are nice stuff, and he has some lovely lovely roses, of which I am now jealous.

In September, James proposed a garden game in which he invited ten of his favorite bloggers to share ten things they enjoy doing (he in turn received this request from the blogger at Onenezz, who was invited by someone else in what appears to be, as James called it, a blogger Ponzi scheme). Well, I've not been personally invited and they were doing this a month ago, but it sounds like fun and I'm gonna give it a whirl anyway.

Ten Things I Enjoy Doing (Garden Edition)

1. Renew the garden. Come Fall, my yard has usually become a weedy mess due to neglect during the hot summer months here in the DC area. When the temperatures finally become bearable, I'm rarin' to dig out all those weeds, move/divide/replant the overgrown perennials, and plunk in some new pretties. The work is hard, but so so gratifying..
2. Taking a shower after renewing the garden. You're exhausted, you're coated with soil, and you're speckled with mosquito bites. The shower you take now will be more satisfying than any other. Then you can put on your pajamas and sack out on the sofa with your puppy dogs and your husband.
3. Sacking out on the sofa with my puppy dogs and my husband. Especially when worn out from gardening. There's nothing snugglier than the entire family pack smooshing together.
4. Watching seeds sprout. I've only been growing vegetables from seed for two years, so there's still a large part of me that thinks "this will never work." Thus I'm astounded and thrilled when it does.
5. Picking food from my very own garden. Much as I'm amazed that seeds I planted actually sprouted into plants, I'm equally excited when I can go out and actually fill a colander full of vegetables from our own little garden patch. There's dinner!
6. Composting. My good friend and I went to a free composting class given by Falls Church City, where the wonderful instructors assured us that compost is not rocket science, and if you're in no hurry, you can just make a nice pile of leaves and wait a year and voila!  Compost!. So I went home and started a little compost pile. Soon, Mulch Boy got into the game and created a second, double-wide compost heap behind our shed. And it really does work, and now we don't have to rake all those leave to the street. 
7. Collecting rocks. I have a rock fetish. I'm not sure when or why it started, but I love rocks in the garden. Some I've collected from the side of the road on the interstate (those Falling Rocks the signs tell you to be cautious of), some I've collected from friends' and family's homes (and which moved with me from my old townhouse to the little blue house), and some I've bought from the quarry down the road. Yes, although I am in the DC metropolitan area, there is literally a quarry up the street from me that sells all kinds of rocks, including beautiful boulders!  My first birthday after getting married, I told Mulch Boy I wanted rocks for my birthday, and he knew I didn't mean from the jewelry store.
8. Collecting plants. I also have plants that have come from friends and family, mostly from my dad. I am very sentimental, so they are extra special to me. When I moved to the little blue house, it was February and the ground snow-covered, and so many such plants got left behind. I still fantasize about going back to my old townhouse under cover of darkness to recover some of my old buddies.
9. Digging. There is nothing like digging to work out your frustrations. Especially with a hand trowel. Using a stabbing motion. Stab stab stab. Also, that business about digging deep in your vegetable garden? They are not lying: it makes all the difference.
10. Enjoying the fruits of my labor. After I finish a project in the garden (like, for instance, the Fall renewal), I find myself darting outside over and over again (sometimes in my jammies) to glory in the results. Then I take pictures and send them to my daddy.

If you're willing, I hope you'll share ten things you like to do in the comments or by linking to your blog in the comments.