Grab and Shove

My title is not the name of a previously un-published Beatles song, nor is it the original concept for the move made famous in that hysterically funny scene in Legally Blonde—way funnier than any scene starring a UPS guy has any right to be.


Grab and shove is my new style of gardening. Grab because I have lost (for this year at any rate) the desire to spend hours in the nursery picking out exactly the right shades of purple and the shades of pink which complement and contrast with them. Normally I would then look for variety in the shapes and sizes of blooms, and a contrast of short and wide and long and narrow leaves. Not to mention leaf color from dark green to chartreuse. No, this year I resolutely marched from rack to racked snatching pots with the eagerness of the chefs on Chopped helping themselves to additional ingredients. I was aided in my last foray by a lad holding a cardboard box for my choices. He followed me around, made me nervous and therefore helped me hone my grabbing technique.


As for shove, it speaks for itself. No measuring distances between plants this year, no trying out color combinations, no little holes with compost in the bottom. Just a swirl with the trowel and in she pops.


I have no photos of the shovees, because they still look—well, like plants shoved into the ground. But I am willing to bet that in a day or two they will start growing and no-one will know the difference. Except me. And you.