Since most of the awards shows and all the accompanying parties (so far) have been cancelled this year (plus the whole unemployment thing), I now have nothing to do except dig up the garden.
I don’t mean dig a little hole here and there, I mean really dig – this last round of being busy at work has left me far, far behind in my war against the neighbor’s Bermuda grass, so I’m having to dig down 24 inches in all of the raised beds to pull up the big underground runners (and the big underground runners of the mint plant that I had no idea was going to go so crazy and be so hard to get rid of. Ditto the sweet potato that’s never produced anything edible but just. won’t. die.).
All I’ve been doing for the past two days has been digging. Get up, drink coffee, dig, lather, rinse, repeat.
This, of course, uses an entirely different set of muscles than my normal work does, so now I’m in a surprising amount of pain and am popping aspirin like candy – and I’m not finished yet.
I’ve got at least two more days of really hard work, including at least a full day to pull out the grapevine.
It’s not that I don’t like grapes, it’s just that I’m never able to get any because the birds eat them before they’re ripe, so I’d rather just get rid of the thing and plant something that I’ve got a snowball’s chance in hell of actually getting to eat. Or, failing that, something that looks pretty.
Really, what I need to do is remember to alternate feet when I’m digging, because right now just the left side of my ass is really sore (from pushing down on the shovel). The right side’s fine, which means my gait has taken on a serious tilt at this point. More so than usual.
This does, however, bring me to one of the reasons I really, really love Los Angeles.
Today I was too sore to make lunch, so I gimped on down the road to the salad bar at the local supermarket – without bothering to change my clothing. I was limping around the offerings while wearing rubber boots (not the cute J. Crew rain boots, either – Army surplus store heavy black rubber knee-highs), paint-splattered dirt-crusted red plaid pajama bottoms, a tank top with an obscenity printed across the chest, 80’s era Top Gun style mirrored sunglasses, and a lime green cowboy hat. Plus, a losing battle with a blackberry vine had left me oozing blood out of most of my forearms (If you’re interested in home defense but don’t want to shell out for an alarm, just plant blackberry vines all around your house. If someone does try to break in, you’ll be alerted by the screams of pain).
Not one person even raised an eyebrow. I had an entire conversation with a fellow shopper about how getting older sucks because you have to start eating vegetables again and he didn’t even say “So… you look kind of homeless. Everything all right?”
I do so love you, Los Angeles. I just forget to tell you sometimes.
Check back next time for an exciting episode of “I fought the old rotten trellis and the old rotten trellis won”.
Filed under: life in LA, Non-Work, Bermuda grass, black, boots, cowboy, crazy, digging, garden, grass, Los Angeles, muscles, rubber, weed
Totally Unauthorized 
All this and a gardner too…. I knew there was a reason I loved you so. If the trellis won’t budge, borrow a skill saw and chop it off below ground level. What you can’t see can’t hurt you.
Oh wait…. we so seldom see producers, and yet…..
I haven’t touched a plant since I left Santa Cruz, and speaking how crazy people are here that nothing seems to raise an eyebrow; when I first came to California about 7 1/2 years ago, I went to the grocery store and as I was at the check-out lane, the guy in front of me had a guitar and sang a song about being at the grocery store.
Wha? I’m from the south, we don’t sing at the grocery store, let alone bring an instrument.
Peg – want to know how my day went yesterday? I tried to get to Trader Joe’s and the parking lot there was bulging, just bulging and I told my hubby to forget it. He insisted to stay so we parked across the street at a meter. The store was so thick with people, I could not move so I left. We came back to the car and there on the windshield, a TICKET. Stupid California streets that need to be street-swept!!! This is our second parking ticket in the 7 months I’ve lived in Santa Monica.
$47 it’s gonna cost us to pay the damn ticket. I’m never going to Trader Joe’s again.
I feel your pain from all the digging I did in my back garden last year. It’s very satisfying when you finish though. Keep going!
Thanks for reminding me of one of the great things about this sometimes crazy town: that you can walk into a store looking like that and nobody gives a damn.
It varies for me, but some days, LA can be pretty cool.
It may sound stupid, but…I really love Los Angeles! I even tear up when I hear that Randy Newman song…”I Love L.A!”
Anyway, I totally understand the urge to re-do the garden (potted or otherwise) whilst wearing less than orthodox outdoor clothing. Not to mention shopping whilst wearing the same unorthodox outdoor clothing. Thank all the gods that most people in LA don’t really seem to notice.
Anyway…regarding the various plants/vines/whatever…check out blueberries and blackberries. They seem to do well in pots AND you can eat the fruit! Then there are nasturtiums! You can eat them in salads AND they look pretty!
I’m not too sure about the various beans that might be growable on patios.
OH! Mint!!!! really grows well in pots AND you can make great teas and mohitos!
Lime green? Now that’s just tacky. ;)