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Gardening Woes and Wins
Apr. 30th, 2021 03:37 pmThis morning I was feeling really down about the garden. I don't quite know what happened last fall (stress over the election results, perhaps?) but there was an unusually large amount of work that needed doing this spring. Plus, spring started with the squirrels pulling up a bunch of bulbs that I had meticulously planted last fall, and not even eating them--they just dug them up and left them to rot.
I've been soldiering on, however. I had what I think is a brilliant plan about this area of hard that doesn't seem capable of growing much. I planted oregano, because I can not seem to kill it in my herb garden. It still might not have the best sun? So, it might not thrive, but the idea of having an oregano lawn appealed to me. I went out to water it this morning and... someone's dog left a giant POOP right in the middle of my new plantings.
And, my neighborhood is so like this, that I was thinking about what I could do about it, when I noticed that a plastic bag had gotten blown into the neighbor's boulevard garden so I used that to pick up the poop.
This is kind of just what gardening is like in my neighborhood? Just when you feel kind of good about it, garbage rolls in and dogs poop on your new plants.
That being said, I was really kind of digging my backyard garden this afternoon. I wanted to plant the basil I bought at Menard's (a local hardware store) and so I finally uncovered the herb garden. I just kind of slowly kept working around the backyard and now.... I don't hate it.
In fact, there are some bits that are starting to look lovely. I was really pleased, in fact, to see that the spot where I moved the Virginia bluebell last year has finally made it happy. It's starting to bloom!
Not a great shot, but you can see the blue tips of the flower starting to form.
And, there were a couple of other lovely tableaux to be seen, most notably the section with the new daffodils.
Image: Daffodils in the sunlight, growing among the rocks.
I am hoping that this spring I will have as much time and patience to work on the garden as I did last year. But, I swear that I have this pattern where one year I love gardening and everything grows great. The next year (like this one) where everything seems ten times harder for half as good results.
Let's hope my good afternoon has broken that spell, however.
I've been soldiering on, however. I had what I think is a brilliant plan about this area of hard that doesn't seem capable of growing much. I planted oregano, because I can not seem to kill it in my herb garden. It still might not have the best sun? So, it might not thrive, but the idea of having an oregano lawn appealed to me. I went out to water it this morning and... someone's dog left a giant POOP right in the middle of my new plantings.
And, my neighborhood is so like this, that I was thinking about what I could do about it, when I noticed that a plastic bag had gotten blown into the neighbor's boulevard garden so I used that to pick up the poop.
This is kind of just what gardening is like in my neighborhood? Just when you feel kind of good about it, garbage rolls in and dogs poop on your new plants.
That being said, I was really kind of digging my backyard garden this afternoon. I wanted to plant the basil I bought at Menard's (a local hardware store) and so I finally uncovered the herb garden. I just kind of slowly kept working around the backyard and now.... I don't hate it.
In fact, there are some bits that are starting to look lovely. I was really pleased, in fact, to see that the spot where I moved the Virginia bluebell last year has finally made it happy. It's starting to bloom!
Not a great shot, but you can see the blue tips of the flower starting to form.
And, there were a couple of other lovely tableaux to be seen, most notably the section with the new daffodils.
Image: Daffodils in the sunlight, growing among the rocks.
I am hoping that this spring I will have as much time and patience to work on the garden as I did last year. But, I swear that I have this pattern where one year I love gardening and everything grows great. The next year (like this one) where everything seems ten times harder for half as good results.
Let's hope my good afternoon has broken that spell, however.