That wasn't so bad.

This weekend I received the replacement plants (fruit bushes and lilies mostly) for all the ones I managed to kill after last year's order.  I felt horrible sending the packing slips back to the nurseries, particularly the one where I had to write that all the plants from that order had died.  It wasn't really the nurserys' fault either, although a couple of the berry bushes do appear to have been dead on arrival.  The combination of alternating very wet and very dry weather combined with my own gardening ineptitude was just more than the plants could take.

I finally got up the nerve to plant the bushes this morning, that and I'd been soaking them since yesterday which didn't leave me a lot of choice.  I say I had to get up the nerve to do it because I vividly remember how much work it was last year getting the holes dug, after tearing out a bunch of gloomy insect-infested shrubs that the former owner had planted.  That hard work, much of it done by Son and Eldest Kidlet as well as myself, made the fact that so much died all the more disheartening and the thought of needing to repeat it was quite daunting.  Much to my surprise, and maybe if I had more gardening experience it wouldn't have been, planting was immensely easier this time.  I was very happy to be able to tell the kids that all their work last year meant that digging the holes this year was simple.  Now I have a lot more hope for planting the strawberries and lilies.