Nov 11, 2009 By Herald Standard Staff 3 min read

I may have to hide the shovel. I don’t think I have done anything recently to offend my lovely wife. We haven’t argued. I haven’t said anything untoward to her. There is no hint that something may be wrong in our happy little home.

Then why is she digging a bunch of small holes in our backyard?

I’ve heard her, using a shovel and a garden fork (like a miniature pitch fork with thicker tines) to open up round cavities in the earth. She dug a couple a week or so ago and then did nothing with them. She didn’t fill them in or plant anything.

Worried, I asked what she was doing, especially since the holes were in areas of the yard some distance away from her flower garden.

She looked a little cagey and then smiled.

“You know,” she replied, “our neighbors see me out in the yard but they don’t often see you. They may get suspicious when they see me digging those holes, like I’m getting rid of you a little piece at a time.”

I knew better. Just a little dark humor on her part.

After all, she is our home’s gardening guru, the planter of petunias and posies of all sorts, the builder of blossoms, the + I think you get my meaning.

I am the opposite. If it’s green and grass I know what it is. If it’s green and not grass, I haven’t got a clue. So, to be safe, I leave anything that isn’t grass in place until she tells me to cut it down or out. (She usually uses phrases like “Why are you letting that dandelion grow” or “It might have a flower on it but it’s a weed: cut it down.”)

I know she’d like me to take a more active interest in our yard. But it just isn’t part of my personality.

Thanks to the sunny days and warm temperatures lately, my wife has been catching up on some of her postponed yard work. She planted a couple of flowering shrubs last year and decided they weren’t getting enough light where they were, so, she moved them.

I’m not quite sure why she moved them where she did (about five feet from the house in an area where I cut grass) but later learned she plans to install another flower garden, similar to one she dug this spring. It also doubled as a tomato bed, producing dozens of tasty nice red-orange orbs.

Of course, she continues to dig holes. And, when I ask her what she’s going to plant in them, she smiles and says, “You’ll see.”

I think her hole-digging is a ploy to get me to be more interested in gardening. Or to motivate me to do more work in the yard.

I guess I’m OK as long as she continues putting azalea, rhododendron and tulip bulbs in those holes.

I’ll worry when I see her sharpening the saw.

Have a good day.

James Pletcher Jr. is Herald-Standard business editor. He can be reached at 724-439-7571 or by e-mail at jpletcher@heraldstandard.com

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