By Gretchen Leigh

My friend flew out from Florida this week to help me in my garden. This is a friend who visits me every summer because she used to live around here and she loves the Northwest.

My mother scoffed at me when I told her my friend was not bringing her daughter, whom my mother feels is really another granddaughter, but that it was purely a working visit. We wouldn’t be running around having fun this week.

But when the drip system in my garden flailed last year during our especially hot summer we knew it was time to redesign the fifteen-year old configuration. When we planted all those years ago, everything was new. Now many of the plants are well-established, native foliage and don’t need copious amounts of water. We had so many small lines branching off the main line, by the time the water got to the end of the garden it didn’t have enough pressure to water the plants that did still need it.

She’s a good friend to come out just to help me. She initially designed my garden and put in the drip system. Although I’m able to maintain the bushes and shrubs I have and can even pick out and plant new florae, I’m pretty helpless when it comes to major garden projects. I easily maintain what I have, but one of my evil nemeses is firing up the drip system in the late spring. I dread it, because I don’t fully understand it. So I always kick up my heels a bit when I’ve successfully fixed an issue.

Now after watching her rework the whole thing, I think I have a better understanding. Plus it’s not snaked throughout the whole yard anymore and is a whole lot simpler with its one main spine.

We also tackled another big project. I have an old, rusty car body in my garden as a planter. Twelve years ago my husband built me a big wooden box for my birthday to put in the body of the car. I have a small Japanese maple in the center of it. Well, it’s been sinking for the past few months. It’s obvious I couldn’t make that box last another season without losing the tree under the car.

As I dug the tree out, it was obvious my angle wasn’t going to safely maintain the whole root ball. My friend precariously climbed up on top of the planter, with me holding her for balance, and stepped at a downward angle all the way around the tree. I have neither the balance nor agility for such tasks.

Once we got the tree out, we saw that the bottom had literally dropped out from under the tree and it was only propped up by a small section of metal that was attached to the car. It really wouldn’t have made it another whole season.

I really didn’t want to deal with a wooden box after another twelve years. Although I hope at sixty three I’ll still be able to dig in the dirt, I’m sure by then the area will be even more grown up and it would be even more awkward than it was. We found a horse watering trough that fit perfectly as a replacement. My Japanese maple is propped back up along with a few bulbs and seedlings that may or may not be actual flowers.

It really was a working vacation for my friend and me. I’m exhausted, but so grateful for her. Only a good and true friend would work that hard in a friend’s garden.

Gretchen Leigh is a stay-at-home mom who lives in Covington. You can read more of her writing and her daily blog on her website livingwithgleigh.com or on Facebook at “Living with Gleigh,” or twitter @livewithgleigh. Her column is available every week at maplevalleyreporter.com under the Lifestyles section.