Where did all those weeds come from???

I'm minding my own business working really hard on my real estate business (it is spring!), and all of a sudden I have so many weeds that I am surprised my neighbors have not complained to me about it.  Actually it was because of my neighbors I noticed that my red coral bells were peeking above long blades of grass.  My next door neighbor, Al, and his brother, Jeff, were looking at my hedge I planted last year and talking.  I happened to walk out doors at the time, and saw them staring at my small purple sand plum hedge.  I could only see a couple purple spikes above the weeds.  So I yelled to them "Don't you guys be laughing at my weeds!!!"  Al yelled back "You are lucky your plum hedge plants are so healthy!!"  I waved with a smiling acknowledgement.  It was then I heard a very quiet moan, and looked down at my beautiful coral bells.   And then, I eyeballed the rest of my yard....which, sadly for my flowers as well as my neighbors, is a huge flower garden, because I love gardening. 

 Boy, I better get my act together this week, purchase a ton of wood chips, and that fertilizer you use after you weed your flower bed that makes it so the weeds don't grow, and spend some serious time working in my garden.

Just because I love to garden, it does not mean I am good at it.  I figure I have a 50% death ratio on plants.   I purchase several plants in the spring, and then again in the fall.   Some of the plants are so happy to live here, like the Colubine Flower, tiger lilly type of flowers, corkscrew willows, and cotton wood trees.  But, I have to beg the hollyhocks to grow.  I buy them, steal them from friends and plant them, and take seeds from friends and plant them in the fall.  I have been putting them by a storage barn I have.   But in the spring, they will start to grow, and then disappear, not to be seen again.   But last fall I planted a bunch of them in another location in my yard.  Amazing! They seem happy, they are like a foot tall and really bushy.  I actually anticipate hollyhocks this year. 

The real estate business reminds me a lot like gardening.  You have to work really, really hard,  You sow and till.  You have to keep on top of it.   If you turn your back the weeds will come (the competitors).  You have to keep in contact with your clients.  And the ones that are hot, will find help else where.  I like it best when clients come to full bloom in my garden!