Now that the port-a-potty and the bulldozers, along with all the peripheral equipment and the workmen are gone, it is suddenly quiet on the street.  I hesitated to pose the question to her, since it is rather a delicate one, so I desisted.  Instead, my husband was effusive in his praise of the work that had been done on her front lawn.  And the new driveway; never had he seen such a deep excavation and such exquisite care taken to ensure that all the gravel was pounded down properly. 

I had, in fact, seen such care and workmanship done previously; when my husband had undertaken on his own, single-handedly, to do our own front, taking his time, and using elemental, traditional stonecutter tools, not the electric stone-cutting machinery now used.  Unlike our neighbour's earlier inlaid brickwork which had shifted and cracked, become dangerously uneven and unsightly, requiring replacement - ours, since the dozen years when my husband had done his own work, has never shifted, and looks as precise as the day he finally completed the three months of hard labour he had set for himself. 

With all their equipment and the teams of workmen applying their professional efforts to our neighbour's job, it took them a full month to complete the entire project.

We wondered at the scope of the work our neighbour had done, since her brickwork now encompassed a good portion of their front lawn, and the workmen had left a large expanse of soil meant for a garden, to be completed by their firm at some time in the spring.  When the planting of the garden would be undertaken.  Who would do the garden maintenance, we wondered?  And it was that question that lingered on my tongue, unspoken.

It would not be our neighbour's husband for he is not given to such householder-driven tasks.  Nor could it be our neighbour herself for she is incapable, due to her immense girth, of even walking the short distance up the street to the group post box to retrieve their mail.  She glowed in the compliments that my husband indulged in, at the quality of the workmanship, the choice of materials, the obvious planning blueprint that had turned out so successfully.  I really appreciated that he indulged her in that manner, but he really was genuinely enthused over the quality of the professionalism he had witnessed.

Now that our gardens have been so long established, I don't myself find the tasks of looking after them, various as they are, too difficult, and our neighbours are sixteen years younger than us, at 60.  Still, she is incapable of much physical endeavour and he is unwilling.  Perhaps they mean to employ someone to do occasional gardening and yardwork as they did in previous years.  Even though he has found paying contracts for his own line of professional work few and far between these last several years.

Aside from the rush of spring planting of annuals, and the fall clean-up of perennials, the amount of work required to maintain gardens is not overwhelming for the willing and for those for whom working in a garden is a source of pleasure.  It's possible they haven't thought that far ahead; to conclude that someone will have to dedicate some time to looking after their new gardens, yet to be conceived and planted, but awaiting that event. 

Perhaps they'll manage to collaborate; they do now, in a sense.  He brings to her the garden pots she likes to have surrounding their porch, along with bags of soil, and pots of new-bought annuals, and she, seated on a garden seat, and stretching her huge arms, manages the task of tamping in the soil and popping in the plants to create small portable gardens for her enjoyment, sitting out on her porch with her three beloved cats.