Me and HERCULES in My GARDEN

A few weeks ago, I finally got my Hercules, my oldest son, to help me in my garden. What I needed doing was moving two large pittosporum bushes, which grow to the size of large houses, I wanted them transplanted to my front yard.

What idiot( me), planted such cute bushes which kept growing and growing and growing, wait...there she is above posing with Hercules and Maxine, whose nozzola is peeking up at the bottom.

Maxine's main job was getting love every second we were out here. From Mom...

And from Mom's baby who turned into Hercules, my son can lift some heavy weights , so I wanted to harness some of that brawn in my garden. Okay, let me show you my problem...

Two large pittosporum bushes to the far left, that I prune  and prune, and they happily keep getting larger while I sleep.

Look at my large wheelbarrow next to these crazy errant bushes ! It was time for action, and since my muscles/body has decided enough is enough with the heavy duty anything out here, I called in my big guns. I know he bench presses 300-350 lbs., so my shovel is in excellent, super-strong hands.

He looks real thrilled doesn't he ? We had a time trying to take a few pictures of ourselves before we started. Don't worry about him, I was going to throw some casholla his way afterwards. Ok, here we go, or here he goes as I was mainly directing.

Trying to transplant large buses is always an iffy project as you gardeners know. The larger they are, the bigger they fall so to speak. Deeper roots, more to damage. But, it was Fall, Fall is the best time and Winter too, to transplant, I think it was about 50 degrees, and yes, he is wearing shorts. Tough guys wear shorts when they are young. So he has to go all around the bush, go deep, and keep listening while Mom tells him to not dig up the plants around the bush.

Plus Maxine insisted on giving kisses while he was working.

Thank goodness he loves Maxine as she was as annoying as can be while he was working. She's a kisser. Ok, first bush out. My son is about 6 foot tall, so you can see this bush is large.

Here I have him out front, digging up a oleander that decided not to bloom this Summer. Charleston is full of oleanders, so of course I wanted some. This will be relegated to the back garden.

Always watch out for water pipes, shown above, and electrical lines, when you dig deep.One cut with your shovel and the plumber gets to come by and take a few hundred dollars to fix your wet mess. Just be cautious, especially men, as women don't strike the ground as hard when they dig ( to me),and work around the pipe. You can plant the bush here still.

This bush is large and heavy. I would have been a pancake underneath it if I tried to lift it. Which I did not.

I was helping some, and mainly trying to make sure all the roots were in the ground, and patting down the soil around it to eliminate air-pockets.

 Then we stuck the hose in, turned it on low to water this large bush for an hour. I am still very aware that this may not work. But it's worth a shot , to try.

Then  later, I stuck the hose, deeper into the ground, to saturate in further at a lower setting. I know all the experts say add compost or potting soil , to help. But I just stuck these big babies, or my son did, into the ground, and watered them silly.

Big guy digging large hole for second bush to come up front.

Maxine watching, looking for opportunity to kiss him.

Now he's back in my garden, going after the second mammoth bush.

This one he got more irritated with, as so much of my other plants had grown up and into the bush area. He had to dig up plants, and dig very deep around this one. Then he had to get his body on the ground and rock to rip/pull it out.

It was getting warmer, about 60 degrees , and he then got into the hole he was digging. He was starting to sweat,

 which meant something inevitable would happen...

Maxine's kiss-alarm went off in her little brain, and she came in for the attack. Let me tell you, I do not like lots of dog kisses personally, but my son just laughed.

It is best to try not to ' rip' the bushes, of any plant, as it injuries the roots, but it was getting too difficult for him with the shovel. So I just watched him rock back and forth, get mad at the roots, and yank it out of the ground finally. Wait, I do remember coming in a few times to cut some large roots with the shovel tip to help.

He's got it out. Bush weighed 70+ pounds per my expert on weights who was carting it.

Now this one to the side front yard. Again, I am well aware this may not work,but many things in life are worth a shot that may not work. Plus..I got to spend time with my son.

Big plus for me.

This entry is way too long, so I will show you in the next one, about extending my brick center-piece in the garden area that we did the same day. Enjoy your own day, go find someone big to help you in your garden,

Gina

P.S. Two weeks almost since transplanting , and the bushes are doing fine, lots of watering, in the front~keep your fingers crossed !