Staycation: Day 2

I am definitely not the man I used to be...

Each year about this time, I plant my garden. Today was a "wakeup call," so to speak. It definitely hit me how much the knee has impacted my life.

Before I start writing, I'll say this: Today kicked my butt. BIG TIME! Of the 3 things I wanted to accomplish, I finished two.

The day began after breakfast. I hit the road to get everything I needed to plant my garden.

I learned my "garden skills" from my Aunt Loretta, who is a product of my grandpa. You don't just dig a hole... you have to "season" your garden. To do that, you need to get things from various places.

My first stop was a feed store in downtown Garland. I bought 20 lbs. of bone meal and 15 lbs. of cotton seed meal. I also looked to buy "hot banana peppers." No dice.

The next stop was Home Depot. I needed to replace a sprinkler head. I also ventured into the garden center to look for manure and hot banana peppers. They didn't have either of those, but they had onions... I bought a bunch (60).

I then went to Walmart... surely they would have the manure and the peppers. Well, no dice on the peppers but I bought the manure. Unfortunately, I bought before I drove out to the area to pick it up: No manure. So I had to wait in a nice line to get my $1.49 back. Awesome.

OK... so maybe Lowes would have what I needed. I first went straight to the peppers... and found the hot bananas! I then got the manure, and bought a few other plants.

Back at the house, I had to take a little break. That was a lot of walking around. I wasn't looking forward to what I needed to do - it was going to be a lot of work on a leg that is about half as strong as what it was. After a big glass of water, I figured, "OK... here we go."

For the next few hours: I cleared out the dead plants, dug up the weeds, tilled the garden, added the bone meal and cotton seed, tilled that in, layed out the plants, dug the holes, mixed the "seasoning" that needed to go into each hole, planted, mulched, and watered.

After it was all said and done, I have 6 tomato plants, 8 pepper plants (jalepeno, hot banana, mild banana, and anaheim), and 60 onions. I also ran out of room so I had to put 2 of the hot bananas into pots. Oh, and I also planted 18 grass plugs on the north part of my house (it was looking like I was starting a dirt farm!).

While it was a productive day, I still have so much more to do. I never took down the green house... guess that will be another day. I'm worn out, sunburned (not like Galveston!!!), and very tired.

Planting a garden makes one bend a lot... and I gotta tell you: It hurts! I have put a lot of stress on the knee in the past 2 days. It's killing me... but, I'm hanging in there. Aleve is my best friend!

So, why the focus on the hot bananas? When I was at my parent's house on Sunday, I found out that they aren't doing a garden this year. Knowing that they like tomatoes, I always have that covered. But Joel really likes the hot banana pepper... so I am growing 3 in my garden for him, and I'm giving him a pot of his very own.

What a day... and having a great vacay!