JUST A YEAR AFTER HE PROMISED TO LOVE AND HONOR Mrs. Andre forevermore, now Andre the doodler is making another marital contract of sorts, and apparently for good reason:
“This year I took charge of the gardening: the planting, the pruning, the growing of tomatoes,” Andre Jordan wrote to me in the email that contained this jpg. “Unfortunately, I didn’t do a very good job–the side of our garden was overtaken by weeds and all but a few of the plants died and the tomatoes did not work out. We spent last weekend undoing my ‘catastrophe’ and have decide to just start again next year–hence the ‘Gardening Agreement’ doodle. Ha.”
All I can say is, at least he’s still laughing (and I have it on good authority that she is, too).
Oh, and this: Happy anniversary, Mr. and Mrs. Andre, and a lifetime more. It’s today (and here’s the wedding photo to prove it).
We A Way to Garden-ers love you both, and appreciate all the smiles you let us have with all-in-good-fun tales that pretend to be your own (or sometimes are–despite the two blank spaces where the names belong in the doodle above). Doodles on marital topics like these:
May continued blessings and every happiness–and maybe a garden that survives, including a ripe tomato?–come your way.
doodle by andre: the balance of power 
doodle by andre: a postcard for the garden 
doodle by andre: her other love, the mower 
Happy Anniversary, Mr. & Mrs. Andre! I am so happy to celebrate with you! Your kindness in showing a little love to a rescued pitbull on your happy day is most touching — sharing the love in one place where it is very much needed.
And just remember, Andre, you’re not truly a gardener until you have a big failure. No risk, no reward!
We love you too Margaret. x
This morning I sat with Pickle (our pit bull) in our ‘catastrophic garden’ and smiled as she ran in circles and joyously rolled in the parts where the weeds once were.
Happy 1st year. Wishing you, Mrs. & Pickle lots of happiness. It was a great year for weed with me as well. Not to worry, just try again.
Great wedding photo. Pink pumps and red cons. A match made in heaven.
Happpy Anniversary Mr. & Mrs. Andre!! Love the photo! I just wish I could get my husband to sign a contract that would only allow him to Look but not Touch the garden. There have been incidents. ex. Pulling up the bluebonnets he thought were weeds. :)
ANDRE, by coming up with your Gardening Agreement, I think you have joined the ranks of the ALL American Men! After you are done mowing the lawn, YOU can POP a BREWski, take your shoes off, put your feet up, and watch a game, movie, take a nap, or think about the next cartoon for AWTG. WHILE doing that, the Misses can dig, weed, plant, prune, and all the OTHER chores that go with gardening, to keep the land around YOUR CASTLE looking good. WAY to GO GUY!!! Women, when you think an agreement like this is romantic, THINK TWICE. He probably did a poor job, so YOU would not look for him to continue. As with ALL contracts, CHECK the FINE PRINT!!!!!!!!
Lol…you are so right this is the basic marital contract for gardening with your spouse don’t forget to add under mowing the lifting of all heavy objects and the maintaining of said gardening equipment such as sharpening the pruners.
In my DH’s case a clause had to be added for the mowing part… that he shall not mow over anything that is not lawn related. He mowed over my Elephant Ears not just once but twice claims he didn’t see them “how could you not see them I asked? Look at the size of the leaves!” Apparently mowing can cause blindness in some men.
Happy Anniversary.
Are you bonkers, Andre?
Surely the real satisfaction of gardening is in the
plants & planting, ceaseless design pondering & revising,
fertility/moisture/light-shade adjustments, etc
Mowing is the grunt work necessary to sustain the rest–all the rest is gravy.
Welcome, Steve. Andre and I both pride ourselves on a bit of craziness, yes. It’s our most endearing quality, actually. :) I do think he got the short end of the stick, but marriage can be about compromise. See you soon!
She must not ever leave town. I’d have to add an clause at the end about exceptions in the case of absence during hot, end of summer weather. They say you should stress tomatoes (they call it topping and cutting back on water, I call it stress) to encourage them to hurry up and ripen. I guess my absence was well timed, ’cause they’re dying!!