Worth It In The End...

The ongoing saga of my gardening chores continues, though I will be taking a slight break for the next day or two because I nearly nuked myself today.
 
When the front staircase and deck were rebuilt, I wanted to change the configuration.  The old stairs went straight out the front door barely missing the Birch trees and there was just a small porch.  I moved the staircase to run down the side of the house (away from the trees), and expanded the porch into a deck.  Everything worked perfectly.
 
Except for the area next to the driveway that clearly shows the underside of the stairs, fondly (not) called the mine shaft...

I had a large oak barrel with a climbing hydrangea covering that space, but last week I moved it into the back garden because it's too hot in the front during the blazing heat of Summer.  Now I have to find something else to cover the entrance to the mine shaft and I don't want another barrel this time.
 
While walking the boys this morning, I remembered seeing a really big pot in the garden center of my local grocery store so drove over to see if it was still available.  It was.  It also weighed as much as my Blazer.  I had this guy help me load it into the car--he looked like The Rock, and had the same muscle mass--while in the back of my mind I'm wondering how the hell I'm going to get it back out of the car when I get home.  I also bought a beautiful little tree that looked very zen-like, with graceful, lacy fronds.

 

I haul the tree out of the car, then stare at the mega pot for a minute while options swirl through my mind.  I decide to have lunch to fortify myself for the ordeal ahead. 

 

There's no one around to lend a hand, so it's up to me.  I decide to carefully roll the 2-ton pot out of the car and into my wheelbarrow, then I can easily roll it the 15 feet to the mine shaft.  Yeah, sure.  Easy.

 

Ever tried pushing a wheelbarrow with a huge weight in it?  Nearly impossible to roll, so I'm forced to nudge with my legs while both hands steady the pot, until after several thigh-burning lunges, I finally make it to the edge of the stairs.  At that point I tipped the wheelbarrow and rolled the pot onto its side, then more rolling and the pot was in position so I could hoist it upright.

 

Uh huh.

 

I won't go into the sounds a normal-sized woman makes whilst lifting a unwieldy object that weighs more than said woman, it would be too embarrassing, but there's no doubt whatsoever that I will be paying for those grunting and groaning maneuvers for days to come.  At the moment I'm just hoping the ER won't be involved later tonight when every muscle in my body twists into corkscrews.

 

Once the pot was in place, next I had to fill the blasted thing.  Four monumentally heavy bags of dirt later...

 

I planted two trailing yellow Sanvitalia plants in the pot, too.  By Summer they should fill in around the tree and trail down the pot which will look cool...

 

 

So, I am totally pleased.  The pot is perfect, the same color as the redwood stairs, it covers the mine shaft, and the little tree looks just right and can grow in the huge pot for years.

Though the best part?  I did it.  I might be crippled, I could be crawling by morning, but I'm smiling...