Gardening on the Deck

First day of March, 2020.  I went outside on the deck and decided to do some clean-up that probably should have been done in the fall! Needless to say, I didn't get to it. Finally, a beautiful day! Right now at 1:29 p.m., it's 67°F.
I took leaves out of the 1/2 whiskey barrel planters, cut the dead stuff off the lavender and the mint plant.
The one planter was falling to pieces. That is the only problem with the barrel planters, you do have to empty them and replace.  The metal bands were falling down and wood was rotting.
I came in the house to check if the local Tractor Supply had any of the barrels yet, nope, didn't have them. Thought to check on Orschlen Farm and Home Supply. They had them. Grabbed my purse, went out the back, picked up the refuse bag full, went down the steps. Decided to look and see if I had some pots. Seems like I bought some last fall.  Well, son of a gun, there they were. Four large pots on the roof of the shed. Two were resin in a charcoal color replicas of the whiskey barrel, kind of! If you stretch you imagination just a tad.
Went in the work room to find a drill. Do you think I could find one of the hundreds my hubby has, No, I couldn't.  Luckily he came downstairs and said he would drill the holes in the bottoms.  We figured out the best design for the holes and he drilled the one. In the meantime, I hauled in one of the barrel look a likes and two other large pots.  Ended taking them back outside to drill them out there.
After the two barrels, were drilled, hubby was going to do one of the bigger flower pots.  The sad things is, they weren't as thick, the second sad thing was, he applied a lot of pressure, the third sad thing was, a big chunk came out of the bottom,plus a crack. My son, who just happened to stop by to use some tools with his daughter, said "well, you have a hole!".  Hubby did not apply as much pressure on the second pot. All went well.
Took the one barrel on the deck and was attempting to transfer soil from one to the other. The old barrel was coming apart in pieces. A couple of boards, then four or five more. Pretty soon the three bands holding the thing together gave it all up.  Now I have pieces of wood and soil and bands all over the place. I moved the soil aside and put supports down and set the new pot on the wood supports. I already had a lot of the soil in it, so no easy task.   Then shoveled all the soil off the deck. Hubby and son removed all the wood pieces and the bands. I swept and that's it, new pot filled and waiting.
It's never enough, when I hauled the refuse bag to empty it and finish up, I looked over at the dead stuff at the driveway wall. Looked at my bag and figured I could put a few more things in it. Ended up putting a lot more things in it. Now to haul it down the hill and dump it in the compost pile.
I started back up the hill and had to sit down for a minute. Collapsed the bag and then looked around at all that had to be done. I didn't get sick, but sure felt like it!

As I sit here and write this, I realize, I am exhausted, sore, but also with a smile, as it felt darn good to be outside and garden and be able to do it!!

The replacement barrel.

 This has the mint in it.  The green pole is the wind twirler. I just have to remember to duck.

                   

Think I will put some peas in here.