neurotwitch

in my garden yesterday

Finally, I took the time to work in my garden on Sunday. And wander around the yard to just look at what’s been happening in my absence.

I planted bleeding hearts a couple of years ago, but they never grew. I think because the spot I chose, underneath a big evergreen (I’m not sure what kind of tree it is), is just too dry. So I planted two, one on each side of the steps going down from the patio. All the other shade loving plants I put in there do quite well, so I thought the bleeding hearts would be pretty next to the astilbe. I put in some coneflowers and black-eyed susans in the garden under the kitchen window, and some flame grass down by the bird bath. The quaking oat grass I planted there three or four years ago is stunning this year, along with the zebra grass and another grass I planted in the sunny garden. And I put in a dozen sweet red tulips. I have a couple dozen more tulips to get in, along with a rosebush.

Stanley is planting the rosebush—Rosa Hot Cocoa from Wayside Gardens. We decided to plant it in the middle of the sun garden and get rid of a big container we had there. The container was nice for a couple of years, but it just started bugging me last year. He got rid of it today and tomorrow, the rose goes in. Stanley was stung by a bee or hornet when he emptied the container—I felt bad about it, but am glad I wasn’t there trying to help because I don’t want to end up in the emergency room. I think my epi-pens are years out of date ... I guess I should get new ones. The garden is amazingly lush this year. The false indigo shrub is finally absolutely full and so beautiful. The roses on the rose arbor have gone nuts—one rose will be fairly easy to tame, but the rosa rugosa is terrifying to even look at, let alone try to tie it back without gloves that have at least a bulletproof rating. The morning glories, refugees from last year (I didn’t get a chance to plant any seeds this year, before Stanley got sick), are just amazing. The andromedas and arborvitae and the lilac bush have doubled in size. The wisteria just went nuts (oh how I hope it finally blooms next spring ... ) The bittersweet, which we battle every year, has taken over half the 100-foot pine tree and has a bumper crop of berries—too bad birds don’t eat them. If I remember, I’ll harvest a few vines and make a wreath for the door. Maybe. I do love the color of the berries. The weather is so gorgeous. Today is the last of it, unless we get an Indian Summer (which, according to Geoff Fox on WTNH, doesn’t occur unless we get a warm snap after a hard frost—and we haven’t even had a soft frost yet.) It’s been nice sitting by my open window and feeling the breeze while I work—a summer breeze in mid-October. Turned out to be a decent day despite an appalling start to the morning. I came downstairs to find the plants and other stuff from on top of the barrister bookcase scattered around the room. Stanley moved things off so he can clean up the mess—Slink managed to get up there and dug out the peace lilies from a big pot and made a horrific mess. I hadn’t put gravel in the pots up there—who knew that damned cat would be able to perch up there and dig—there isn’t that much room to do it? We think he did it to get even with us for putting bitter orange on the ends of a plant we brought in and put in the bathroom—we did it to keep him from chewing the ends off of each leaf, which is his hobby. I guess we showed him ... something to work on while CSI is on. Yuck. We’ve been watching the fires in California on the news—it’s so sad to see the homes go up in flames. I started feeling guilty for just enjoying the weather here while a quarter of a million people are fleeing for their lives. On top of reading about the water problems in the Southwest in the NYT Magazine—I told Stanley that as much as I love the desert and Arizona, I don’t think I’d move back there. The pictures of Lake Mead shocked me—When I was there in ‘89, it was full and came all the way up the towers of the Hoover Dam to not too far below the roadway. I told Stanley that what I remember from living in Arizona is how water is viewed so much differently there than it is in the Midwest and New England—that the water boards had more clout than the mayor. It’s probably more so now. I’m going to hold off writing about events in the Middle East for now. I’m too angry about the crap going on now. And the book I’ve been waiting to read has been delayed by Amazon.com yet again—I pre-ordered Krugman’s Conscience of a Liberal but I guess not far enough in advance. Amazon claims I’ll have it by October 27 (I was supposed to get it last week). Ah well.

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