Forty Pounds of Lime

"Toss that forty pound bag of lime into the cart."

"What do you need lime for?" I asked Mark.

"It helps the color of the hydrangeas... in fact, grab that fifty pound bag."

"I don't know who you think you are talking to, but I am not picking up fifty pounds, nor am I picking up that forty pound bag."

"Waaaa... I need the lime.... waaaa..."

"Okay, okay, but the forty pound bag... You big baby."

Mark and I went to Lowes the other day. He apparently needed a bag of lime and a few hundred flower bulbs. I just don't know where he thinks I am going to plant all those bulbs. Our yard is barely fifteen feet by fifteen feet and I need to have open space for the dogs to poop. Anyway, Sunday dawned clear and warm and I was going to tackle those bulbs. Mark had bought day lilies in two different colors, gladiolus, and some other thing that I can't remember the name of. So I got the shovel out and started digging along the fence. Four inches deep, just like the instructions told me to do. I was going to mix them all together so that we would get a variety of colors and blooms. While bent over the shovel I heard that voice behind me.

"Oh good, you're planting them."

"Yes I am. In fact you can help me. Just hand me one bulb at a time as I go along the fence. Make sure you mix them up so we don't have all the same..... "

"NO! That's not how it's done. Go along and plant all the same, then go back and put in the next type, and continue back and forth like that."

"That's ridiculous. Just hand them to me like I told you."

"No, not like that. Do it the way I told you to do it"

"Fine, you do it. I'm going in the house."

Mark has a way of sucking the enthusiasm out of everything I do. It always has to be done his way. So I stormed off into the house. A few minutes later Mark came huffing and puffing in.

"I can't do it. I'm out of breath. You go out and do it your way."

So I did. However, Mark had cut all the labels off the bags of bulbs. I had no idea what was what. So I now call it my mystery garden. I just jammed those bulbs in the ground, covered them up, and now we wait. And if Mark has any opinions on how it turns out, I have a shovel and I know where the forty pound bag of lime is.