Water... wiser?

It's flowering tree time! A favorite time in the gardens..

 I hear them out there, talking amongst themselves, and I’m hoping what they’re discussing is how to have this mess of a good idea, all finished up... today.

Because this whole limbo thing? Well, it's making me batty.

I'm doing this for you, trees! I'm putting in a sprinkler system.

 Gardening is a passionate hobby, but it goes further than that. I work from home, in advertising, which requires a lot of creativity. I was never very good at this when they had me cooped up in a cubicle, in a great, big ad agency. Playing in the mud? Well, that seems to stimulate the cranial appendage like nobody's business!

Honeysuckles are celebrating.

 When I get stuck, can't come up with a good idea, I sit in those gardens, pull weeds in those gardens, zone out with the simplicity of happy blooming things... and, bam! The creative idea I've been searching for magically pops into my brain.

Not being able to play with my flowers, for 7 long days, has been killing me. I can't bear to go out there until this project is done.

Cutie Pie English Daisies

This summer, I made the [painful] decision to install an automatic in-ground sprinkler system. In the dryest half of the yard.

I've always been very proud of the fact that I have beautiful gardens, without wasting a drop of water, but my second passionate hobby, horses, is eating up all the free time I used to spend schlepping sprinklers to and fro.

So, I bit that proverbial bullet. Hired a sprinkler installation crew who showed up a week ago, dug massive (heartless) trenches through my garden beds and then..... disappeared.

I twiddled my thumbs for 48 hours. Tried hard to remain calm. Gave up on that idea and began leaving angry telephone messages.

(This is soooo common in Park City, Utah. Landscapers double book themselves to make as much money as they possibly can during our too-short summers. And, clearly, I fell victim to this dilemma.)

That was so yesterday dead Daffodils, orange Geum and purple Pincushion Flowers

Delphinium

 Yesterday I drove over to their building and scared the office manager half out of her wits.

Got the address of the 'prioritized sprinkler project' and paid my guys a visit. Talked to them, through clenched teeth, and, Hey! Whaddyaknow! They showed up, bright and early this morning, with renewed interest in finishing the job.

Oh, yeah. The bitch is back. In all honesty? She never left...

* What do you think about sprinkler systems? Are they worth it? Here, in Utah, we receive nearly all of our annual moisture in the form of snow during winter. But, we didn't get any snow this year. I'm still on the fence as to the bennies of a sprinkler system, though it is set up so I can still be a water miser. I will say I'm pretty excited about having more free time to ride horses.

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