2 bags, 2 hours

Hi,
I have decided that 2 bags, or 2 hours, is my gardening limit per day for the months of March and April.

I did the math.
If I do 2 hours a day of clipping, digging, weeding, pruning, cleaning, seeding, planting and puttering per day, for the next 7 months (210 days, but I'll round it down to 200), times 2 hours per day, equals 400 hours, at $10/hour (which is about ½ of what I get paid to give swimming lessons), works out to $4000.00 worth of gardening.
Ouch!

The season has started so early here it looks like I may need to re-think my gardening strategy this year. I don't know that I'll have the power and strength to last 7 or 8 months of garden work. In Toronto the season is June through September. Four months. I grew up knowing that nothing went in the ground before the May 24th weekend and it all dies the day after Labor Day in the first week of September. Over, done, finished. Pennsylvania does not play by the same rule book. We have 70° weather today on March 8th. The snowdrops are finished, the crocuses are almost over with, the tulips are 6" out of the ground, along with the daffodils that are about to bloom. Every tree in the yard is budding and my allergies have kicked in.... and it's only March!
Ouch, again!

It's now a battle of the blooms. Who will win out? The omnipotent Mother Earth and her green berets or Mistress Marilyn and her jug of Round-Up? Be warned. I do have chemical warfare and I am not afraid to use it. Take ten paces and draw your weapons... may the best gardener win.

xox
m