What have we been doing?

I haven't posted in ages, but I have a good excuse.

We were getting ready for a garden walk.

Or two.

And a booyah party.

On the same day.

August 10.

You may have a few questions, such as:

Whose crazy idea was that?

What's booyah?

Well, let me back up a bit.....

When the first of two Master Gardener clubs contacted us last winter about possibly coming for a tour, Carl quickly reminded me of our mutual agreement that we wouldn't have any garden walks this summer.  We had vowed we were going to concentrate on finishing Castle Aaargh.

We have to get a whole lot accomplished this year because our garden is one of five scheduled to be on the Midwest Regional Hosta Convention Tour in June 2014.

The Midwest Regional Hosta Society encompasses the nine Midwestern states of Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wisconsin. Within the Midwest Region are 16 local societies.  Our local hosta society is hosting the June 2014 convention and they would really appreciate it if the tour gardens are presentable when a series of five buses loaded with conventioneers make the rounds.  

And we also agreed to host an art festival tour in the fall of 2014 and we need Aaargh to be our studio of sorts.  (Oh, boy...not too much pressure.)

So Carl and I had promised each other we would concentrate on finishing stuff around here before next year.  Carl even said I should forget about planting any annuals and let the garden fend for itself while we tended to the major projects needing completion.

"If we don't have any tours coming, who cares what the garden looks like?"

The thought was tempting.  An entire gardening season without putting up the greenhouse, planting seeds, without planting out all the flowers, without weeding a blasted thing?  My emotions ranged between mourning and giddiness, to tell you the truth. 

 No weeding, no planting.  No endless hours of digging in the dirt.

Just finish Aaargh.  Good idea.

But I couldn't go through with it, no matter how sensible it sounded. 

A whole year without color? Oh sure, there would be blooms from the bulbs and perennials, but no annuals? 

I couldn't do it.

I think after Carl suggested the unthinkable he realized how much he'd miss the gardening season, too.   It would be almost impossible to walk past beds filled with weeds for both of us and, I'm sure,  depressing.  We both know the day will come when we won't be able to keep up with the demands of gardening on this scale, but since it hasn't arrived yet, I say we sally forth and weed on. 

So, we scrapped the silly no-gardening in 2013 idea.

Then we heard from a blog friend of ours, Beth who writes the wonderful blog, Beyond The Garden Gate  who would be visiting Wisconsin and Michigan in July and wondered if a stop here would be possible.  She and her husband Ron were delightful visitors, and I'm so happy we had the chance to meet again.  I wish the garden had been up to par when they came, but they were gracious and overlooked the imperfections which abound here.  Beth and Ron brought us a beautiful shasta daisy, 'Banana Cream' as a gift and it is thriving.  They were enroute to Mackinac Island and I was happy to hear they had a wonderful trip.  It was great to see them!

Since the two groups of Master Gardeners who called both had August in mind, and August is fairly late in the season and my annuals would probably be at peak, I said yes to both.  My plan was to have one group come in the morning and the second one come in the early afternoon on Saturday, August 10.

Why two groups in one day?  Because all the hoses and weed pails and shovels and trowels and wheel barrows and lawn mowers and what-have-you would be picked up in preparation for the tours.  Nothing like a garden walk to get me motivated to be neat-ish.   

 And I figured it would be the week after the local Hamburger Day Celebration in our little town of Seymour, too.  The summer would be winding down and it would be fun to have something to look forward to.  I told both groups we'd be likely working on Aaargh and they both agreed it wouldn't bother them to see a messy work site. 

Joel was hoping to have a booyah party here again this summer, so when he heard of the plans for the tenth, he asked if we wanted to throw the party then as long as the gardens would/should/must be at their prime then, so why not?  Garden walks early in the day, party with friends and family in the afternoon and evening.  What could go wrong?   (And what is booyah?  Hang on, we'll get there eventually.)

This post is getting WAY too long, so I'll have to do installments.  So here endeth Part One.