Friday evening I went down to see my parents and to have some work done on Minnie, Saturday afternoon, I went back home and planted my gift azalea, in the course of digging the hole, dug a hole deeper than any hole I have ever dug that was not on a beach! Sand really gives you an inflated sense of your innate strength ability to dig holes, there should really be warning labels on sand shovels.
Please note sand is not representative of real dirt.
The dirt in front of my house was not nearly as sensitive to my needs as it should have been and lets not even speak of my existing shrubbery, I'm having a sit down with their root systems ASAP and we're going to talk about some changes to their policies and procedures as to moving aside for new additions to the landscaping. This time I took prisionrs, next time around I'm bringing a truck and a tow line and I will be implementing some key personnel changes.
In my mind, the dirt and those plants belong to me and they should have yielded to me without me having to jump up and down on my shovel like a cartoon character, really it was like a stick missing its pogo. But I finally got it in. Please note it is not as close to the patio as it may appear.
The plants root ball is much larger than foliage would suggest.
Friday morning I wore a jacket to work because it was a little brisk, by Saturday night I was horrified to discover that the window unit a/c upstairs was no longer working! We went from jacket weather to Oh, my gawd I am going to die from the heat! in thirty-six hours. It was springy and then it was summer. Like that. I haven't turned on the house a/c yet but I know it will be soon.
The quandary about when to turn on the a/c is a yearly issue. I hate to turn it on before the middle of May because I arbitrarily decided that May was too early to switch the system on when I could just open windows, I should be taking advantage of the fact that I am lucky enough to live in a house built in the precentral air era and was as such designed to take advantage of cross ventilation. I should just open the windows and stay still.
I'm pretty sure in Dallas the a/c went on in the middle of February, but the climate was different and very few homes around were built before the advent on central air and were not built with an eye towards providing ventilation, and I had thin blood. I feel like such a pussy now that I'm here and my blood has gotten thick from the cold, first I had to get used to the cold and now I can't tolerate the heat. Years ago before my pussy-fication I laughed at 85-90 degrees! That was springy and pleasant! No need to turn the a/c on for that! 102-105? Sure, now it's gotten a little warmer, feel free to turn on the a/c. Now? 85-90 degrees and I'm clinging to my a/c unit and bitching about the heat.
While I was down seeing my parents I got a chance to tour a beautiful kitchen garden. it had lovely raised beds and home-made plant braces and even better? It was all grown from seed!. it was so natural and homey, it was a real Mom and Pop garden.
It makes my garden look down right corporate in comparison with my store bought plants and pre-made plant braces and fancy red plastic "mulch". The other garden didn't have to put "mulch" in quotes because it was actual MULCH, it didn't need the asterisks. My Gawd! I'm growing a Wal-Mart in my back yard! It's a good thing I didn't chose to make hating Wal-Mart into a lifestyle choice or I would be having some deep issues now. My garden is very nice and I am not a farmer. I am a gardener. A newbie gardener. A newbie gardener that doesn't have the patience or the intestinal fortitude to grow from seed. A newbie gardener who likes garden bling. Sue me
Speaking of the garden. Last year I thought I was such a garden bad ass that I would buy some raspberries and grow my own and have raspberries whenever I wanted them? Total huberious. Well. Above is an actual raspberry flower growing on one of my plants! Shocked? I was. I saw that the plants had white stuff scattered around but I assumed it was just bird crap! I mean, really, who would have thought that my raspberry plant might actually produce raspberries?
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