I felt a bit yucky yesterday during the early part of the day, but after some medicine and a nap, I felt a bit revived and refreshed and ready to make my last luxurious afternoon somehow productive.
So I went to Home Depot.
From reading this blog, you might think we're just a couple of green thumbs spreading plant-y goodness everywhere we roam. Not true. As a matter of fact, we've had a couple of disasters here lately. I am thinking the flood is to blame for quite a bit of it - many things that were doing well just didn't bounce back once that hit.
1. First off, our peony stopped blooming and some of the leaves turned brown. But my neighbors' (HUGE) peony bush is no longer blooming either, so I am going to take that as a sign that it is just resting for now. Maybe resting until next year. That's ok.
2.Our dogwood looks dead. I definitely blame this on the flood because it was doing great up until then. It started getting red leaves, and then all the leaves withered and died at once. This is what it looks like right now.
However, if you snap the branches, they are still green inside and appear to be healthy. I did some 'research' (read: Googling) and there is a chance that if we do not water or feed it and just leave it be, it will bounce back. So we'll give it until next spring before we dig it up and try something else. It's a very sad sight, though. I think the roots just got over saturated.
3. Sunflowers. Ugh. I hate to even talk about them. We had dozens and dozens of seedlings pop up, then the storm hit and washed most of them away. Then they all started dying. We tried to replant, but they just didn't sprout. We had one... ONE that was over a foot tall, one that was beating the odds. It was our champion. It's leaves kept getting chewed and it just kept on growing.
Then, over the weekend, I opened the back door to go outside and what do I see? Four very suspicious looking squirrels hanging around. Soon after, I found our beautiful sunflower broken in half, and next to it? A deep indent that could only have been made by a fat-bottomed, dream-killin' squirrel.
I think this would be a great time to make lemonade out of lemons and plant some gardenias and hydrangeas where all those sunflowers were going to be, don't you? Someone help me talk the Bip into it. Now, before it's too late!
4. We lost our Gerberas immediately after the flood and slowly, in the weeks after, my shasta daisies and poppies died, too. Oh, I've been trying to nurse them the best way I knew how, but yesterday, I knew it was time to pull the plug. Hence the Home Depot trip.
I seem to have better luck with vegetables and herbs this year than I do flowers, so the poppies and daisies were replaced with sage, parsley (a mix of curly and flat leaf), and these little cherry tomatoes that were already growing....
Arent they so precious? I don't even like tomatoes. In fact, I dislike tomatoes so much that I bought a huuuge heirloom tomato plant. I mean, this sucker is so tall it's about to my belly button. As big as it is, I am afraid to transplant it, for fear it will die. It already has blooms on it, and it's container seems to be plenty big for more expansion. I guess we'll play it by ear. I moved it out by the garden. Hopefully I will be able to make a little salsa this year... since I'm not a huge tomato fan, I am sure I will give the heirlooms away at work if we get an overabundance of them.
Garden at 8 weeks, 1 day.
Big honkin' tomato plant next to it:
Poor thing at least needs a prettier pot, doesn't it? Dagnabbit, I am going to end up replanting the dang thing after all.
Look how tall our dill is! This is the first time I've grown it that it has not died within two days (normally I plant it in a container)... I guess it takes to the ground much better!
This photo tells you all you need to know about me. I am short, awkward, and I garden in my striped pj pants with plaid shoes and don't give a darn!
All in all, it was a relaxing, productive little 'vacation'. I feel really good (aside from this cold/throat thing) - I needed it! I also spent some quality time with the cooking channel (looove), and downloading yet more photo apps for my iphone (plastiq, toy camera, black & white to name a few).We'll be tackling more projects in the coming weeks, and hopefully I will post some (gorgeous!) pics tomorrow from the (stunning!) garden tour we attended on Saturday.
In the meantime, please help me beg the Bip to let me (us!) plant some gardenias and hydrangeas along the Sunflower-less garage wall.
Much love.
xoxox
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