Dahlias
I’ve been frenziedly getting my autumn plant orders done in the last few days. For once in my life I’d got my bulb orders almost done back in July*, and then made the fatal error of waiting for a final catalogue to arrive, and by the time it did, only about a fortnight ago**, I had lost all momentum–as well as having overshot the autumn-flowering bulb deadline again. Grrrr. This happens, from one cause or another, every year. The only reason I have any autumn crocuses is because my predecessor, a far more organised gardener*** than I am, put some in.† And–sigh–most years, and this back at the old house too where lack of garden space was no excuse, I will find a box of unplanted bulbs in like . . . March. This year that is not going to happen.
But I digress.††
Dahlias. I tend to leave ordering them till last because in some ways they are the most difficult. Every plant category is the most difficult, one way or another, especially roses, of course, because I want about half of everything in any given rose-nursery catalogue†††, whether it contains two hundred roses or two thousand to choose from. However I buy my dahlias as cuttings from the National Collection of Dahlias and you can get your order in pretty much any time to the end of the year–and maybe after that, although I am trying not to find this out–which is a good excuse for putting off sitting down and making up your dahlia list(s) till you’ve at least ordered your tulips if perhaps not absolutely planted them.
But the real crunch about dahlias is the plants are so blasted whimsical. Dedicated dahlia growers have ways round most of this, but these all require organization and prior planning. For the ordinary slob poking and dithering in her garden, dahlias are the hellhounds in a group of Crufts-winning obedience champions. Okay, they can’t help being tender‡ but what about this tuber thing? When I was first growing dahlias‡‡ I bought them as tubers and, silly me, assumed that tuber = tuber and when you dig them up in the autumn–because when I was first growing dahlias I was trying to do it right, which includes digging them up in the autumn–there would be a tuber. Wrong. Sometimes there is a tuber. Sometimes there isn’t. And you never blinking know. You can have two dahlias planted slap next to each other, both have done well over the season, big fat stems, lots of flowers, same patch of earth, same fertilizer, same rainfall and supplementary snarling with watering can. And when you dig them up one will have a tuber and one won’t.
And then there’s whether to dig them up, which is a big stupid nuisance, because having dug them up you have to do something with them, ie clean them off, hang them upside down to drain, and then pack them (gently) in sand, all of which is way too organised for me. At the moment I’m digging up half a dozen of my favourites, wrapping them loosely in newspaper, and stuffing each in a plastic flower pot which I then put in the attic. This works as well as anything does, at least so long as my attic remains rodent-free (please the gods). But they can develop weird diseases, be eaten by mice, and/or refuse to grow next spring even if you do dig them up and if you’re going to lose them anyway you might as well leave them in the ground and save yourself some trouble. But I grow most of mine in pots any more, so leaving them in situ is risky and I’m not sure whether bubble wrap actually does anything besides making you look silly/like you’re trying.
But I really like dahlias. There’s a huge variety of colours and flower shapes‡‡‡ and they really do go on in full in-your-face flower well into autumn when almost everything else is turning brown and falling asleep. Until the first frost, which you are praying won’t be till November. My best dahlias usually outlast even my best autumn-flowering roses.§ And this year I’ve been uprooting and composting more things I’ve decided are boring§§ and thinking, More dahlias.§§§
Which brings me back to the list. Because there are other little manifestations of whimsy with dahlias, to wit, the perfectly healthy cutting which never does anything but sit there in its three- or four- inch pot looking green and contented and not growing. I have at least one or two of these every year: I’m afraid I tend to pot things on as they start banging on the kitchen door and following me around and yelling to be let out, and occasionally one just doesn’t. You tip it out of its pot to check root growth and . . . it doesn’t need potting on. Everything else is three and a half foot high¤ and putting out flower buds and this one is eight inches high and trying to pass for an alpine pink.
So. The list. Are you going to risk bringing your favourites through another winter, or are you going to order back-ups? (You wouldn’t mind having a second this one or that one . . . except for this little space issue. . . . ) And if you’re counting on yellow dahlias to go with that fabulous salmon and gold day lily, you’d better order more than one yellow in case one of them turns out to be an alpine pink. And as the choice of genuine dwarf dahlias gets better and better that’s more ways to use ‘em so the list gets longer . . . and then there was that one you ordered by mistake and potted grimly on because you don’t like killing things but what were you going to do with it because it was going to be hideous, and then it amused you so much you’re thinking about trying some of its sisters and cousins and aunts.
At the moment my list is twenty-four dahlias long. Okay, eight of them are dwarf. The other sixteen aren’t, and dahlias are large. Suffolk Punch, this year, bless her, would see off any triffid that put its nose in around here. Sigh. I guess I’d better not send it in yet. That’s the other problem with saving dahlias till last: I lose my grip increasingly as the ordering process goes on, and by the dahlia stage. . . . ¤¤
* * *
* No, really
** Are these people trying to go out of business? Good grief
*** a far more organised anything
† I can’t remember if I’ve already told you this: my predecessor at the cottage worked for the RHS, the Royal Horticultural Society: I think she was a specialist in historical daffodils or something. Yeep. The practical result of this is that I’ve spent the last three and half years hoicking out all her handsome, structural, admirable, demure horticulturalist’s plants, and cramming in more roses. And dahlias. Loud. Lurid. You know.
†† Digress??
††† It would be boring to want everything
‡ And how I hate early season frost, cutting down my beautiful dahlias to black slime overnight.
‡‡ With the sound of spousal weeping and gnashing of teeth in the background. Peter was braced for roses, but dahlias–? Peter has–or had, anyway–Boundaries of Good Taste Issues^, and while there’s at least one big article in the gardening news every year about the Return of the Dahlia, the fact that they keep flogging this semi-living horse proves that dahlias are still perceived in some quarters as wearing fishnet stockings and orange lipstick to the Tory party fund raiser.
^ He should have thought of this before he married an American.
‡‡‡ Some of which don’t recall either fishnet stockings or orange lipstick (or the Tory party) at all
§ Although roses will blink a little at a degree or two of frost and keep going, if perhaps in a subdued and chastened manner, and dahlias are gone
§§ I’ve now been here long enough that I can start pulling up stuff I put in that I’ve decided is boring.
§§§ This little garden is in danger of becoming A Collection of Plants That I Like rather than a garden.
¤ And then there’s staking. I think I’ll save the joys of staking for some other entry.
¤¤ Roses are usually second to the end. But you go into making rose lists assuming your new roses will last more than one year, which provides a little buttressing of the weak moral Must. Buy. More. fibre. You go into dahlias saying, uhhhhhh. . . . .
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****** dahlias are still perceived in some quarters as wearing fishnet stockings and orange lipstick to the Tory party fund raiser.
considering the amount of political sleaze I’d imagine most of the Tory party have gardens* extremely well stocked with dahlias lol
Tho’ it might be secret and back gardens ;p
OOoooh! Dahlias for Positive Change! :)
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“A Collection of Plants That I Like rather than a garden.”
That is the very definition of a garden–who wants a bunch of crap that *everyone* says you are *supposed* to have? I want what I want! My personal favorite (other than roses) is snapdragons–I like them because they are velvety and smell wonderful, not because they have the Horticultural seal of approval.
Sorry, that wound up sounding snappy (no pun intended, but now that I’ve recognized it, I’m too tired to change it!), but it has been a d****d long day. :)
He should have thought of this before he married an American.
*SNRF*
Yes, well… I’m not sure if the country that gave us Benny Hill can COMPLETELY set the Violating the Boundaries of Good Taste Issues squarely on American shoulders…
OH GODS HOW I LOATHE BENNY HILL. LOATHE, LOATHE, LOATHE, LOATHE. I entirely agree. With a dishonourable mention of the Carry On films.
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****** I’m not sure if the country that gave us Benny Hill
Sorry! Trade you 2 Monty Pythons and 1 Hitchikers Guide as apologies?
(But if you didn’t have BH already (we did unfortunately) why on earth import him???????
And Flanders and Swann. And Beyond the Fringe. And . . .
why on earth import him???????
******* It wasn’t my hand on the buzzer certainly. But nobody has ever accused Americans in aggregate of being OVER REFINED.
Sorry! Trade you 2 Monty Pythons and 1 Hitchikers Guide as apologies?
I also despise Mr. Bean, although I quite like Rowan Atikinson in other contexts–Black Adder II is one of my Favorite Things Ever. Y’all do make up for it, you gave us Good Neighbors (which over there was called The Good Life, I believe) and Rumpole of the Bailey. No hard feelings on the Benny Hill thing, everyone has their off days.
****** I also despise Mr. Bean, although I quite like Rowan Atikinson in other contexts–Black Adder II is one of my Favorite Things Ever
I love all the Blackadders from series 2 on. Have you seen any Rowan Atkinson sketches? Genius in just calling a school rota…
And have you got AbFab and the Vicar of Dibley too?
I’m not sure if the country that gave us Benny Hill can COMPLETELY set the Violating the Boundaries of Good Taste Issues squarely on American shoulders…
I always thought Benny Hill’s show was silly. BUT I find it fascinating now with all the prudish censorship that goes on as well as the “tv is getting smuttier and more porno” (blah blah blah) that these people don’t wake up to the fact that shows like Benny Hill were much blatently worse in terms of what is (now) considered unacceptable. How can we be getting worse?!
People are so pathetic sometimes in their attitudes human bodies. LOL
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Soon we will have pictures of dahlias, yes? *grin*
and while there’s at least one big article in the gardening news every year about the Return of the Dahlia, the fact that they keep flogging this semi-living horse proves that dahlias are still perceived in some quarters as wearing fishnet stockings and orange lipstick to the Tory party fund raiser.
*snork!* Poor flowers. They just want to be pretty. (I just did a google image search for them, and they ARE pretty. Kind of fluffy looking. There’s a photo of a large white one I especially like. This one. )
Yes. That looks like a decorative. The cactus ones are all . . . spiky. :) Yes they are very pretty and cheerful–*I* think.
PHotos . . . hmmmmm. . . . :)
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Quick request for candles/prayer for my zoo co-workers and me. We just learned officially today that one of our former co-workers just died (we had heard that someone by her name had died, but were holding out hope that maybe it was some great-aunt that she was named for or something; however, the obituary was published today, so…). It wasn’t exactly a surprise; she worked for part of the summer last year and then had to stop because she needed surgery to remove a brain tumor, so we knew she had been sick. However, as far as I knew, anyway, she had been doing better. She was very well-loved, and will be missed. Not that I had seen her for awhile anyway, but… It’s one thing to know that someone you know has gone a different direction and you don’t see them, but they’re still out there somewhere going about their life, and another thing entirely to know that they’re… not.
Thanks.
(danceswithpahis)
Oh, absolutely. However clicheed this is, this is one of the worst things about getting older–more people dying. Way too many people I’m never going to see again.
Candle lit.
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Thank you. Although I sort of wish I could say that it’s one of those things about getting older… One of the harder bits is that she was only 22. Which I guess is still better than dying from cancer at 7, but…
Thank you so much for writing the blog and The Books! I love Chalice (and all of your books – FYI the reissue of Sunshine has not yet reached us), your blog, and dahlias. (And Roses). I myself always plant lavender regardless of room.
Thanks, Bridget
Thank you!
(I have lavender too! I was just eyeing it in a cutting-back-in-autumn manner this afternoon!)
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You are not entirely disorganized if you actually make autumn plant lists. There’s none of that around here. What there is instead is a need to begin leaf-raking and do the final weeding in the reclaimed daylily bed and strew grass seed in the hopes that we will get some rain more often than once every two weeks. Planting? No way (grass seed doesn’t count). It would be nice to have something that flowers in the fall, but we can have frost anytime after the middle of September, so the options are limited.
Last week we had July temps and this week I’ve had to turn on the furnace in the morning to take the chill off the house. I’d better get that grass seed down *tomorrow*–snork!–or at least put it on the list. . .
B&N delivered CHALICE today. Still boxed, because I had a meeting tonight (ggrrr). Hopefully I can at least make a start before falling asleep!
List! You said LIST! :)
There’s always the ‘bringing it indoors at night’ option. I wouldn’t want to do that with a standard dahlia but the little ones in a pot would come in. I tend to bring in busy lizzies and begonias for a while, to keep them going a little longer.
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****List! You said LIST! :)****
I did, but not a PLANT list, just a run-of-the-mill TO DO list–the kind that always has way more stuff on it than you actually can do in the allotted time. This weekend I have to do my blasted newsletter, so the To Do list should really be labeled “I wish”.
Newsletter? The Great Danes of MN?
****Newsletter? The Great Danes of MN?****
No, I’ve managed to avoid the Dane Club newsletter over the years. I’m secretary for the working breed club and do its newsletter too, because I haven’t managed to find some other fool to take it over. :)
Working breed? Sorry, what were Danes for originally? Some kind of guarding presumably?
“For once in my life I’d got my bulb orders almost done back in July*, and then made the fatal error of waiting for a final catalogue to arrive, and by the time it did, only about a fortnight ago**, I had lost all momentum”
I read the first part of the sentence and thought wow, well done, Robin, how did you manage it? I was reading your blog in July and it didn’t sound as if you had the time to do that. They I read the rest of the sentence and thought, no, character-altering changes of that nature do not happen. My belief in nature was not brought up short.
I love dahlias, loud and bright, colourful or white. They don’t do well here, but I enjoy them in England whenever I make it there. We have a new hibiscus, which is being doddery about settling in, although the old hibiscus that we thought had died in the snow has made a startling comeback. Our new bougainvillea has lost all the flowers it came with and is looking a bit listless. But bougainvilleas are notoriously hard to get going and need to be in precisely the right location with the correct amount of support to flourish. We patiently await the moment when it feels at home enough to come out in flower again. In general the garden is happily breathing the cooler autumn air and humidity after a long hot summer. Well at least September was somewhat rainy and we have our balcony awnings half way up again.
I love bougainvillea. I lived for some time in southern California and bougainvillea is generally a happy camper there, so it’s used a lot–that dark magenta variety is a real showstopper. Do you grow it over your balcony railing?
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“that dark magenta variety is a real showstopper. Do you grow it over your balcony railing?”
Yes:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/susan_from_athens/2449930561/in/set-72157604862192392/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/susan_from_athens/2462654722/in/set-72157604862192392/
This one died in the frost. The new one hasn’t flowered yet :( but patience is a virtue, if I ever manage to find any :)
“And then there’s whether to dig them up”
Yes, quite agree. I’ve been chancing leaving mine in the ground for the last three or four years. So far so good in respect of them surviving the winter but then of course one has to fend off the army of slugs eating the new shoots to the ground around May/June. Slimy little b*******!! I went through about a gallon of beer, in traps, this last Spring. How did your wildlife-friendly pellets cope with the hordes this year?
Mind you, apropos of autumn tidy-ups, I’m glad there’s not many of these around in the UK:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/lancashire/7647378.stm
Well, as a completely English person (does my American grandfather count?) I like dahlias. As an ex goth, I like the darker ones… but even the perky cheerful ones make me smile. THere’s a house opposite my daughter’s nursery which has a front garden full of them and, well, my daughter always wants me to pick her up so she can smell the pretty flowers. In October. That I think is my definition of “a successful flower” – a three year old wants to smell it when it is still having pretty flowers in October, and the flowers are still making me smile.
(have I defended them enough?)
They don’t need defending from *me*. :)
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I love Daliahs. my mother and I used to pour over catalogues each year and order pinks and purples….and wait with bated breath for them to emerge….and each time a flower opened we were disappointed.
Every Daliah we ever planted flowered ORANGE.
??? Why didn’t you complain to the nursery? I’m planning on complaining about the dark red cactus that opened single white this year.
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I’m very fond of the Bishop of Llandaff, but have never yet managed to persuade one to survive the winter, either by taking out of the ground or leaving in. That’s actually not entirely true – I did see a few little shoots poking up this spring, but as they seem to have vanished without trace I conclude that they were Eaten By Slugs. According to the BBC website the Bishop requires an “experienced” gardener (sigh!). Evidently I need more experience.
Hmm. We grew the Bishop at the old house (and he’s usually on my long list although he hasn’t yet made the final cut any year here) and I wouldn’t have said he was any harder than any other dahlia. But you do have to put out copious slug bait–or a copper ring. The copper rings **really do work.** I use them more and more and so use less slug bait (although since it’s supposed to be organic I shouldn’t be ruining the local ecology anyway).
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OK. Copper rings it is. Do they give you a commission?
I was disappointed to read the other day that dahlias shouldn’t be planted near roses. Oooops. Last year I planted miniature dahlias around the roses…. no ill effects? Maybe it is too dry for the nasty bugs. LOL
I really need to finished my weeding ….. it’s on the list …..
Fortunately I’ve missed that piece of advice. I plant ‘em next to each other . . . because I don’t have much CHOICE.
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I plant ‘em next to each other . . . because I don’t have much CHOICE.
Oh good! I don’t feel so bad now :)
I’m not sure if I’ve killed my Quatre Saisons blanc though. ::frets:: It is in a pot and I hadn’t noticed it wilting.
Cut it back, water and feed like mad? I’d've said the old Quatre Saisons(es) are pretty tough?
Cut it back, water and feed like mad?
Yeah, I’ve cut it back and watered and watered. I won’t feed it until it gets some leaves back ….. Although I might give it some weak seaweed solution to stimulate the roots.
And the *&(&*! rabbit nearly killed my new ‘Sunshine’ rose too. grrrrr.
Yes, you have to be careful about feeding things that are already failing, but I’d feed it SOMETHING. I don’t agree with the ‘don’t feed till it’s recovered’. *Don’t* feed that invalid! Let her lie in bed till she feels better! –What’s wrong with this picture???
I don’t agree with the ‘don’t feed till it’s recovered’.
LOL I guess they say that more so because more people would be inclined to feed it to *death* than the other way around. (Let’s give the invalid a huge 3 course meal of the richest food possible, incl dessert of chocolate mousse!)
But a small tender morsel might be appreciated. :)
LOL! Yes, I almost said last night, you want the soft boiled egg rather than the foie gras . . .
You, Robin, are organized enough to have lists of things to order that you ACTUALLY plant??? Color me duly impressed.While you are busy ordering and planting and getting things ready for winter, I’m still thinking vaguely about the orchid repotting I have to do and procrastinating. It has to be finished by mid October before the – ahem – cold (or as cold as it gets in So. Fla.) weather sets in. I know mid October doesn’t sound so bad in terms of procrastination but – guess what- this is the repotting I was supposed to do LAST October. Sigh. The big problem for me is I really don’t want think about repotting what will probably turn out to be 80 to 120 orchids and about 3 days worth of repotting. It’s the kind of job that once you start it you just want to finish it so you can put away all the repotting supplies (and there are a LOT) and flush the fungicide. But, finding three days to string together is almost impossible. And it’s not really a exciting job (it involves lots of pot scrubbing among other things). Hence, the procrastination….
To make a long story short, I think you are definitely SUPERWOMAN to accomplish all the gardening you do!
But I do love looking at plant catalogs and dreaming (Here it’s Logee’s Greenhouse for fun and weird stuff and Jackson and Perkins for roses). Besides the orchids, I like to collect roses and jasmines and gardenias and frangipanis and interesting looking succulents. I just got a ground orchid that is actually taller than I am- it’s the coolest looking thing. And I just got a night blooming cereus; hopefully I won’t kill it before it blooms.
As for Dahlias, I do like Dahlias, the wilder looking the better. I found a gorgeous orange and yellow one with flowers the size of salad plates last year that I was dying to plant in my yard but sadly they just don’t do well in So. Fla.
I say buy whatever turns you on! Who cares what you’re “supposed” to buy or not to buy. I buy whatever strikes my fancy (within the limits of my purse).
But I really HAVE to stop buying plants. Because I keep them in pots inside my pool enclosure and they all have to be brought indoors in case of hurricane. There’s nothing like moving more than two hundred and fifty potted plants several times a year to make you swear off gardening forever. It’s so hard though because temptation is everywhere. MUST… RESIST…NEW… PHALENOPSIS! Sigh.
Hey, if you need an idea for a new blog entry, you should publish your plant list once it’s final! I’d love to see it and I bet other people would too! It would be fun to to discuss the plant selections…
LOL! Yes, I’ll probably post a few plant lists. But I’ve been meaning to find a few photos to go with some of them, for the readers who are not themselves gardeners (ahem :)). I so sympathise with the hauling pots around–but TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY??? The gods wept. And if it’s any comfort my amaryllises/hippeastrums??, what have they renamed them?? have needed repotting since LAST year also.
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Not only is bringing in 250 plus potted plants inside “special”, there’s nothing like sharing a small house with them!!! As well as the ants and the lizards that were cleverly concealed in the pots. We usually put a plastic tarp down and shove the plants all together and then draw the “Ring of Death” around them with some Raid. It doesn’t do much for hte lizards but it keeps the ants out of the rest of the house.
As for the orchid repotting- once they start climbing out of the pots, it’s hard to shove them back inside another pot because they start growing every which way instead of politely straightupwards. There’s probably a metaphor for life in there somewhere. But what iall this means is that there is a critical mass for orchid repotting which I have COMPLETELY missed. So now it’ll be three times as hard to repot them. I’m not sure if you have the same problem with your amaryllises?
ALso, I’m not sure what you mean by copper rings; i have’t seen any (maybe because I haven’t been looking properly). However, there is a catalog that sells three inch wide copper tape with sticky backings so you can stick it to anything you like. I wrapped the posts of my hanging orchid enclosure for example which seems to discourage visitors to my orchids. I’ve stuck the tape directly to pots which also works. It’s nice because you can stick it anywhere and to any shape. It really works well for me.
For something big like you have, I wonder if buying copper pipe, like for plumbing, and ringing the garden with it would work? You could bury it a bit in the dirt so people didn’t trip and also use flat copper tape for the entryways. You’d have to get rid of all the critters within the garden afterwards but once you did maybe it would STAY critter free? Just a thought. I’m sure it couldn’t possibly be that easy or people would have done it already…
Anyway, I repotted some cactus, some cannas, some amaryllis, and some citrus today. I’m happy to cross that off my list even though I have still more citrus and succulent repotting to do tomorrow. I also spent more money on pots today! This little plant addiction we have might just be a curse… But on the bright side, at least it keeps us off the streets and out of trouble! LOL.
Copper rings are just that–they open to fit round your plant and then slot together again. They’re in lots of catalogues over here. I HATE the tape, I’m afraid, the sticky backing is USELESS no matter how clean your pot!!
Yes, the wildlife that comes IN with the plants . . . arrrgh . . . the ones I really hate are earwigs. UGGGGGGH.
Amaryllises actually like being a BIT pot bound but when they start producing children and bulging out . . . I’ve also been bad about feeding them this year, sigh, so I doubly need to repot them and give them something to eat. I’ve also got two bulging orchids myself.
To Robin’s comments about dahlias, I would add–digging them up and putting them away safely is the easy part. The hard part is finding them all in Spring, so that in August when you are cleaning things out you don’t find a couple more bags of tubers, all sad and neglected.
Not to forget the LABELLING problem. You have this bag full of tubers, AND WHAT ARE THEY????
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Wow. Reading this very strongly reinforces the fact that I REALLY want a garden, particularly a flower garden. You know, I actually have you to thank for why I want a garden: ever since I read both Rose Daughter and Spindle’s End in the eighth grade I’ve been planning to have an epic rose garden (which may perhaps be more harm to me than good, but oh well, I’m still going to do it). :)
No, no, no, gardening is TERRIFIC. It’s WORTH all the blood, pain, frustration, dirt tracked all over the house . . . um . . .
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“No, no, no, gardening is TERRIFIC. It’s WORTH all the blood, pain, frustration, dirt tracked all over the house . . . um . . .”
***You forgot the money spent on plants, pots, gloves, dirt, fertilizer, secateurs, trowels, tetanus shots, etc. LOL!
. . . which is the OTHER reason we never had any money at the old house. After the roof, it ALL went into the garden.
I studiously AVOID garden catalogues at the moment because until I get the pea problem undercontrol I cant FIND anything.
The PEA problem??
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I am stoned (legally) and am home from surgery. Everything went well, the docs say. Now I just have to stay off the foot for at least a week. Thanks everyone for thinking of me.
I’d talk flowers now, but so far the brain is stuck (like Buffy at the 3rd season.) “Fire bad, tree pretty.”
Hope you all have a great day. Write more when I am not incooherent.
So glad to hear that things went well. Congrats on getting back home–that’s got to make you feel so much better.
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