its a habit at

ITS A HABIT AT

these yards on these houses are a blank slate
for which i get to paint a picture from scratch
my limiting canvas is
lack of money
lack of supplies
lack of knowledge of the new home owner for yard care
lack of desire of new home owners to be left with a lot
of yard work

all these added together is used to decide on a plan
but
one thing i can guarantee
is that whatever is done is done right
is done organically
is done xerically
is done using native plants
otherwise i wont do it

now see that bed in front of the house
i put that in
i approached the rock person that did the rock work
can i have what rock is left over so i can do
the bed in the front
this one said yes
one thing ive noticed is that folks like to give
these contractors dont mind giving back to habitat for humanity

so he left us these limestone bricks ill call them
using what ive learned from stacking rock fences
i did the rockwork for the bed
without mortar
they are tightly fitted together
not movable


into those beds will go plants the homeowner was given
from a family member
called
purple hearts
ive posted a picture of them above
a pretty tough plant


its in the grow green booklet
generally if a plant aint in that book i wont plant it

then this weekend we had a large group
one of my favorite high school groups to work with
to help lay the sod plant the tree and clean off the lot

now there was storms scheduled lots of rain scheduled
so
the habitat for humanity had to make a decision 48 hours
before as to whether to proceed this weekend
since it affected several groups
some doing travel and some providing large meals etc
the decision was made to cancel the landscaping for
the weekend

its like canceling any event
damned if you do and damned if you dont

safety expense liability all went into play

now for myself
ive done a lot of landscaping in pouring rain
even cold rain
you know i just pretend im a football player in
the blowing rain in green bay in the winter
for
when im finished
a nice warm hot tub feels so good
however
not everyone feels that way

so
on sat when we were scheduled but later canceled
i decided to go ahead and plant the live oak tree
in the front yard
to plant the homeowners purple hearts
maybe put out a little bit of the landscape dirt
sod just a little
all until the rains came

so i stopped by the homeowners place to pick up the plants
hey she said
shes anxious to get into her new home
ill come help you
hey
my husband will too
hey
my two kids can at least shovel dirt
so
i said ok

then as she and i are working in a fine mist
up drives the last habitat for humanity homeowner
hey
i want to help
she didnt see the email it was canceled
now she doesnt need any more sweat hours for her house
she was doing this because of the goodness in her heart
and
because she had developed a bond with the newest
homeowner
so
i said ok

then i looking
hey we have 4 adults now
what if i called someone
who is good in a pinch when more help is needed
yes
you got it

my wife she

so she said
ok
ill do it

so now we have 5 adults and 2 kids
i said folks
i know we can do this
rake the front yard
lay out an inch of landscape dirt
lay out these 3 pallets of grass

yes
they said
like the little train that could
we know we can

so off we went
all of us together
as a new team
working hard in the misty rain
wind
well we did all look like we had been in one of
those mud races you see on facebook
where everyone was covered with mud
soaking wet we all were

but
at the end
we all hugged with a smile
all feeling good for what we had accomplished
in
this spontaneous few moments earlier in the morning
and
for myself
i felt real good inside

somehow theres a story and a lesson in all this


then
my wife she and i spent several minutes later that morning
actually later afternoon
soaking
in that warm toasty hot tub

as i was soaking
i was thinking

we had scored a touchdown

the organicgreen doctor