By Mary Drier (Contact / Staff Bio)
October 28, 2009 - 10:51 a.m. EST

I finally truly understand the expression “a little knowledge is a dangerous thing.”

It’s because I’ve been attempting to try to garden that I understand that saying now.

I’ve been trying to do some landscaping. It all started with a memory garden outside of the picture window when my son died in 2005. People generously gave me beautiful plants, trees and flowers.

Then a friend of mine passed away, so an item was added to the garden in memory of him.

Then another friend asked to bury his beloved dog in the garden. Besides being a faithful companion for 12 years, the dog saved his life. He was pinned under a car while working on it. The dog seldom ever barked, but she raised such a ruckus barking and yelping a neighbor came over to see what was going on. He saw what had happened and called for help.

Even though she was a really great dog, I had to think about that one for awhile. Finally, I said it was okay to do so because the person was only renting a house and didn’t have a permanent home.

The land my house is on has been in the same family for over 100 years, and it will pass on to my son when I’m gone. So the dog lover was given a special place for his dog to rest, and can came come to visit her any time. A flowering tree was planted for her.

Now that the memory garden is flourishing, I’ve turned my attention to landscaping around the house.

It has been slow going. I can only be out in the direct sun for about 15 minutes at a time, but I gradually got most of what I wanted done this summer.

A few weeks ago, some people at the ISD were talking about what they had done with their day off. One said she did gardening. She talked about how she planted more bulbs so they would be ready for next year.

Her talk about planting bulbs turned on a “light bulb” over my head. I had some bulbs left that I never got around to planting. One nice afternoon, I rushed home to do so.

I was so pleased with myself. Me and my special little gardening gloves out there just planting away. In about an hour, I had planted over 100 bulbs.

THEN!

Someone else said something about digging up the bulbs in her garden. WHAT?

She explained that some bulbs get planted in the fall, while others have to be dug up at that time.

Naturally, the ones I planted were the wrong kind. They all have to be dug up and planted again in the early spring.

That fiasco amputated my green thumb.

I’ve never professed to be a gardener. I have generally tried hard to avoid trying to do anything involving growing any living green thing because I normally just kill them. I kill them with either too much water, not enough water, too much sun, not enough sun, etc. And, there is the ol’ death by dust torture of just ignoring the plant until it can no longer breath through the layers of dust on the leaves.

I hate thinking about having to dig up all those bulbs I planted on the last glorious fall afternoon. It was one time that I actually kind of enjoyed gardening. I’m debating whether or not do it. I should just let them fend for themselves to see if they have determination to come back on their own.

I suppose I will have to find time to dig them all back up or Right-to-Lifers may show up protesting my attempt at gardening.