adventures in gardening.

I tried my hand at gardening for the first time this past weekend. This is a big deal, mainly because I have the deaths of two aloe plants on my track record so far - and aloe plants are supposedly indestructible. Anyway, I was the lucky recipient of a gorgeous azalea, and I decided that it was a good weekend to give it a permanent spot in my front yard.

The first problem that I ran into was that I forgot to buy a shovel when I made my Home Depot run. But hey, I thought I could improvise, and grabbed one of those mini spade things (that's right, people, I don't even know the correct terminology). Five minutes into it, I realized how long it was going to take to dig the right sized hole, and so I sat back to rethink my course of action. Then I thought how great it would be if Claire could dig on command and it for me. She's a champ at the dog park when it comes to digging sprain-your-ankle-if-you-trip-and-fall-into-it sized holes (which my friends Amy and Jake hate because she has taught their dogs how to dig as well). Of course, I figured I would give it a try. I went inside, leashed her up, brought her over to the spot that I wanted to plant the azalea, and told her to dig.

Helping me out with the gardening!

I was so excited that her instinct as a dog aligned with my need for help at the perfect time! If the therapy training doesn't work out, I think I'll rent her out to greenhouses and farms all across the country so that others can reap the benefits of her digging skills!

The end result!

**Excuse the crappy cell phone pictures. As I have said before, my cell phone is often within reach on a minute to minute basis, where the DSLR is not.