To garden or not to garden...........

......... that is indeed the question when the Texas temperatures go near and over (way over) 100 degrees.   What started out as a happy and worthwhile project back in the Spring--- to make our flowerbeds as pretty as possible--- has turned into a Summer chore. 

I can remember going out to the flowerbeds every morning after walking..... and pulling up a little weed here, a little weed there, and maybe a clump of weeds over in the corner.  The weeds I pulled up fit nicely into a little plastic container that strawberries rested in at the supermarket.... and into the trash can they went. 

Since the Summer's heat began in earnest.... and the winds kicked up, carrying heaven-only-knows how many millions of weed-seeds with it...... there is no way to fit pulled-up weeds into a little plastic strawberry holder.  What is needed now is nothing short of a 50-gallon Hefty bag.  And did I mention that the temperatures have been over 100 degrees?  Who in their right mind wants to be out in that blazing hot sun pulling up weeds?

We went for weeks and weeks without a drop of rain, making it necessary to water the flowerbeds twice a day.  When we finally did get rain, which came down in buckets and thoroughly soaked the flowerbeds more efficiently than the garden hose..... up came zillions of little green weeds.  And where are those weeds now?  In the trash?  Of course not.... it's just too hot.  The little green weeds are pushing themselves up through the garden-fabric (which is supposed to deter weed growth)..... and even the mulch that we put over that fabric didn't help keep the weed population to a minimum.

There is a very old (very vintage) bathtub out in the backyard..... the original owners of this property put it there as a cute little (big) flower-tub for planting.  We planted petunias in that tub early in the Spring..... as the Spring weeks passed, the petunias spread themselves out to every inch of that tub, and it looked glorious (as if I knew what I was doing with petunias).  When the rains came in torrents, and the wind kicked up to a frenzy, that petunia-filled tub started to sprout (you guessed it) little green weeds.  I left those weeds right where they were (you guessed it--- just too hot to pull them out)........ and now those little green weeds have bright blue flowers.  They look adorable, and very delicate and happy, and I don't have the heart to pull them out of the tub. They may be weeds, but they're pretty and they have flowers growing on them.... and who's to say what's a weed and what's a flower anyway.  Gardening is like art--- beauty is in the eye of the beholder.