Gardening Archives - Page 73 of 82

Bzzzz June 3rd, 2007

We are finally getting some much-needed rain. It’s supposed to rain through tomorrow too. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

garden june 3 2007.jpg

All I’ve had time to do aside from a bit of dead heading is watering, watering, watering. There’s not even much need to mow the grass because even the weeds are dying.

As you can see, though, the watering is working. The garden is starting to kick in, including all the little flowers. I pull out spinach this week and have ordered some summer lettuce seeds from Cook’s Garden. I’ve never grown lettuce in the summer, so it’ll be an interesting experiment to see if they actually grow worth a hoot.

Ben’s trash can potatoes are also growing like gangbusters. There’s not a lot more room for soil, so I suppose we’ll just have to let them be after we put in a couple more inches.

garbage can potatoes june 3 2007.jpg

Yesterday we traded in our garden gloves for opera gloves and headed on into town to see the Washington National Opera’s production of MacBeth. It was hard to drag ourselves away because the weather was so balmy and we enjoy tremendously dining al fresco on these types of evenings until almost bedtime. It’s a happy state of affairs when you have to trade one pleasure for another, don’t you think?

It was a great production. The set designer for this opera made extravagant use of scrims on which he projected various images—castles growing from gnarly woods, red blood smears, wicked visions and such. It created a fabulous cinematic effect.

Now, I LOVE the opera and even fantasized for a while about being an opera singer when I was in high school and college. (Yes, it was a long fantasy). But if you’ve never seen Verdi’s MacBeth, you should be prepared for some lulls during which people wring their hands and pace about a lot. The set design and those scrims helped, I think, give you something to look at for the nearly three hours of the opera.

I did struggle in parts though. For example, throughout a good part of the last act, when MacBeth and Lady Macbeth go on a killing spree to ensure his throne, it looked like they were stuck inside a broken wire basket. Afterward, Harry said he thought it was a crown designed to look like a cage, which, if true, I think is very clever, but a bit of a stretch for an image to project onto a scrim.

And then, at the point near the end when MacDuff returns to fight MacBeth for the throne, the designer staged the battle in huge circus-style fake horses on wheels pushed by little anonymous men. The audience actually laughed when they were rolled onstage, which I don’t think was the designed intention.

The designer also dressed everyone in pretty much the same costumes with a kind of Spider Man pattern. He said his reason for dressing everyone alike was to encourage us to view ourselves as MacBeth and his lady—that anyone could do what they did.

Well, I beg to differ, but I believe these two represent an extreme element that doesn’t much describe me and my family or most of the folks that I know.

I’ve been slow at posting this week because my clients actually expect me to WORK for all the money they send me. Well, that’s it for now. More report writing to do…

–Bumblebee (Robin)

Posted In: Gardening

Tags: potager

I recall years ago hearing Stephen Covey for the first time.

He had just come out with his hit book First Things First and was doing the corporate circuit, where I was invited to hear him at one of my big-name corporate client’s offices. I remember so vividly his big line “You can’t rush on a farm!” His point being that some things just have to be planned for and take time. It’s true. It’s not often in the gardening and farming world that you can rush or get instant gratification. But when it comes to container plants and window boxes, you can really cheat!

I ordered a sky pencil holly from Wayside Gardens a few weeks ago expecting to get the instant gratification I longed for in recreating a potted arrangement I recently saw on my travels. What I received were two little, itty, bitty, tiny plants that would not do the trick.

I mean, really. The photo in the catalog showed the tree at 8′ tall! What I received wasn’t even 8 INCHES tall.

Happily, I spied one hiding in the back of a bunch of shrubs at my local garden center. I sent Ben, my son/yard boy back to fetch it. I was able to drag it home and THAT VERY DAY start the arrangement I longed for.

Sky%20Pencil%20Arrangement%20May%2030%202007.jpg

To illustrate the point, here are the two sky pencil hollies. The one on the left is the sad little specimen that I ordered and will have to wait YEARS to reach a respectable size. The one on the right is the example I fetched home from the garden center.

By the way, these really are supposed to reach 8 FEET tall. I have no idea where they will eventually go, but I figure I have time to plan for that.

In other news…

–I clean out the bluebird houses tomorrow. After waiting for two weeks, we have concluded that the five eggs are no longer viable and have been abandoned. I feel very sad. I also am embarrassed that my first official report to Cornell will be of a failure. –Squirrels have discovered my bird feeders. I bring them in at night, but the fuzzy fellow have the temerity to belly up to the birdfeeder buffet during the daytime. Sarah (dog) and Miss P (cat) are on the job of providing a dis-incentive for that undesirable behavior. –My orchids are doing beautifully. Fingers are crossed. –Spinach has pretty much played out. Lettuce is still going gangbusters, so Harry has something to eat. –We desperately need rain.

Posted In: Gardening, Lifestyle

Garden Update and a Short Break from the Garden

Instant Gratification: Sky Pencil Holly

I recall years ago hearing Stephen Covey for the first time.