Well, if it ever rains again….. What’s up with this weather? Every day, just about, the weather guru’s keep saying that there “may be scattered showers, with a chance of thunderstorms”…” isolated rain showers and T-storms”…”possible T-storms with hail or heavy rainfall”. And what have we been getting? Zip. Zero. Nada.
Which is about what I am getting on the blueberry bushes that I planted in the Spring LAST year. It was, apparently, a mean year for the blueberries and the blackberries (Who knew? I’ve always thought that blackberry bushes were so tough that nothing could kill them off.) because they have just barely survived, while the red raspberries are stepping up and actually producing fruit–hidden “down in back up under” (How’s that for a preposition outburst?) the leaves. The surviving blackberry bush (Bush? It’s one stem and a couple of hardy volunteers trying to get a running start for next year) has, so far, produced two–count ‘em,Two–berries. No juicy pies this year, I guess.
Tomatoes are another story. The “Tastiest Tumblers”, designed for hanging baskets, are turning red all right, but they are definitely not tumbling over the edge…or anywhere else, for that matter. We will check out the “tastiest” part later. They are cute, anyway. The Park’s Whopper-Improved has been going great guns, and those tomatoes are right on the edge of beginning to turn red. The Summer Sandwich plants are right behind them–no red yet, though. Carolina Gold is still green.
Basil? I’ve got basil–looking pretty healthy and utterly Italian too. No purple stuff or Thai or chocolate or whatever exotica in the pots out here. Pesto, here we come! Ditto for the parsley. To promote all of this amazing growth, I have been actually watering everything early in the morning; not something that I normally do. Many a plant–vegetable or ornamental– has curled up its little leaves and croaked from neglect and I just got tired of it this year. Speaking of which, I had a pair of willow switches from the Moser house–the variegated kind that come out in green, white and pink–that I had rooted and planted in a promising spot at the edge of the front lawn; they were doing fine, looking like they’d turn into full-fledged ornamental additions to the landscaping design (Plan? I just stick roots and bulbs and seeds wherever there’s an open space and not so many roots that I can’t cut through. And then there’s the shade issue….), Anyway, one day I looked out there to see that the larger of the two stems was looking poorly, starting to brown–not broken, or injured in any obvious way–then a couple of days later, it was clearly on the way out, brown and getting crispy. I’ve tried watering it, clearing out around it, whatever–no luck at all. I’ve even tried talking to it–encouragement, you know–but it looks like it’s a goner. If it were an Easter lily, I could hope for a Resurrection but that doesn’t seem real likely at this point. No idea what brought this about but it makes me sad.
I did get to the SilverCreek Garden Club plant sale the other day during the big yard sale weekend. Those plants were purchased to try to persuade the Porch Kitties not to use the mulch by the side of the garage as the World’s Finest Comfort Station for cats. What we really need to be real emphatic about keeping them out of there is probably some long-spined cactus. As often happens, I returned to make my purchases just after my first choices had been spirited away by some serious gardener. This, of course, will ensure that I will return again next year to get shade-tolerant plants before somebody else does. Of course, I could just pay more attention to the Old Farmer who does the Almanac and keeps sending me emails about wonderful advice I could get If I’d sign up for his gardening advice and or handy-dandy products. So far I’ve had to disappoint the old guy.
And speaking of disappointments (Another amazing segue), I am getting tired of the scammers calling me with notification of the super-duper amazing cash prizes that I have won. One million, $500K (only 2nd prize), $2K per week–no pikers here at handing out cash prizes…different law firms every time, sometimes male voices, sometimes female…the only things that they really have in common is that they are scams. The amount of cash that I would be required to come up with varies somewhat but it’s always substantial. Dang! They always hang up after I say that I’m not going to do any such thing. Once I suggested that they show up here WITH the CHECK,..and the car…then I could have the police escort us to the bank, so I could give them the money in crisp new bills. So far, I haven’t heard anything but a click at the other end. Will let you know if anybody shows up.
On second thought, you’ll hear me yell as far as the next county if any of these dudes takes me up on my offer. Listen carefully now.
