Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Gardening, my way!

The yard looks so nice, with all the trees in new bright green leaves, and the roses all busted out in bright pink blooms.  And I mowed it a couple of days ago, so that really helps, too.  My huge white azaleas were loaded, but they are in the back, next to the house and I would have to go outside and walk over there to enjoy them.  I did it once, but didn't get enough of a thrill to do it again. 

I decided I need to have more flowering areas in the yard, so I called Jeff, who had planned my landscaping for me last year and he came over yesterday to hear what I had in mind.  I told him I wanted irrigation to any area that we landscaped.  I cannot be depended upon to water anything.  And I would like lots of color, so when I look out my kitchen windows, I see several beautiful, colorful areas.  Can't wait to have that happen!

On a different note, but the same theme...Brent & Carolyn & the kids gave me a big, heavy hanging basket of begonias last year...Mother's Day, I think.  He hung it for me, but the tree he put it on was about 6 feet short of the hose I wanted to use.  I didn't want to have to carry a 100 ft. hose out there (and then have to coil it back up every time), so I used the shorter one and sprayed toward the plant when I needed to water it.  Well, I didn't always water it when it needed to be watered.  I did it when I remembered.  Not very often, in other words.  It did okay for awhile, but eventually it was dead.  Quite a while after it died we must have gotten some rain, and the next thing I knew, the begonia had sprung back to life.  When it was going to freeze, I put it in the garage with a box over it and left it there for quite a while...no water.  A month or so later, I took off the box and it was okay.  I might have given it a little water then, I'm not sure.  Anyhoo, I left it in the garage, a)because it was heavy, and 2) I hadn't decided where I was going to put it...not in the tree that was too far away, for sure.

Finally, I decided to hang it in a tree close to the driveway.  It was too heavy for me to hang high unless I got a ladder, so I hung it where I could.  I knew it was too low and I would have to duck when I mowed around that tree.  When I got on the mower a few days later and made the turn near the tree, I was watching the base of the tree because I was going to make a circle around it very close to the trunk.  And then suddenly, WHAM!  Of course I knew immediately what I had banged into, but I turned my head and looked at that basket which was swinging from the impact.  All I can say is I'm glad it was high enough that I hit it with the top of my head and not with my face.  I can easily imagine a broken nose.  That sucker was heavy!

When the basket was in the garage, just before I took it out and hung it up, it looked great.  After I hung it, I gave it some water and it now looks dead.  I need to go check on it sometime.  I think it was probably the sudden change from the garage to the outside...and the tree I put it on hadn't totally leafed out.  My bad.

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