This morning my sister was doing everything with her kids that I used to do for mine to get them out of bed, dressed for school, teeth brushed, hair combed and backpacks ready with paperwork, forms and lunch. Memories that I don’t particularly miss because where we live, we had the school bus to contend with, you never want to miss that. The ride to school is 25 minutes, so 50 minutes round trip and if you have things to do, it can throw your schedule off. My niece and nephew’s school is a ten minute walk through a lovely neighborhood, so it is a little less stressful but you still want to get them to school on time.

So while the kids were off at school, my sister and I tackled the remnants of an ugly shrub that was an invasive that I know as the burning bush. Its root system runs long, wide and deep, so between shoveling, raking with the claw, cutting all the principal roots, we eventually pulled it out. As we kept clearing the ground of all the errant tendrils of roots, we had a hole ready for planting, deep enough for a brand new shrub.

So off to the Home Depot Garden center for plant shopping, one of my favorite things to do, the one near my sister’s house was chockfull of chrysanthemums of every color, they had these stunning deep purple mums that I was so tempted to pick up but there was no way that I was going to haul that chrysthamum home on the train.

As we were steering the cart down the aisle, we stopped every few steps looking at tags to see if the plant was suitable for the location that we had prepared for it. My sister saw the containers of Heather and fell in love, I was surprised that she had the same exact reaction to Heather that I did. I bought my two a few years ago and they are still my pride and joy. We bought three of those and then my sister spied what she really wanted to put in the hole that was waiting to be filled, a Holly shrub, the blue princess variety. We also got one container of shade loving, spreading ground cover to try out in the back rock garden.

We got what we came for and went home, we still had time to plant the Holly shrub before going to pick up my nephew from kindergarten. My sister chose well, the Holly shrub went in without any trouble and we refilled the hole with old and new topsoil.

It looks really pretty in its new location. At this point it was time for a break for lunch and picking up a little man from school. The little man was all gung ho to help us with the rest of the plantings after we were done with lunch. While he was tackling the weeds in the pots outside, my sister and I planted the three Heather shrubs and put cedar mulch all around the new plantings. It is amazing how much difference something as simple like a thick layer of mulch can do to the appearance of your garden.

This was just in time to drop our tools and pick up the princess from school, she’s in fourth grade so we had homework to do which went very quickly because my niece is quite adept with her multiplication tables. The three of us continued to play our game of Monopoly which is still ongoing as of this writing.

I am having a wonderful time with my sister and the little ones, I can’t forget to mention my brother-in-law, he is funny and he has always been great with kids. I saw it first hand with my two when they were little, even younger than my niece and nephew are right now. My sister chose wisely.

The kids are ready for bed and so will I be soon, my sister and I worked hard and we are pooped. Tomorrow we have one more Heather shrub to get and the good part is that the hole is already prepped. Gardening is never done.