the miserable gardener

Greetings and salutations, everyone; yes, once again it is I, Mani the purebred border collie, here today for just a short post on sternbergias, with a side note about our trashcan.
You may remember me from such posts as “A Trick Of The Light”, among so many, many others.

Here I am in a characteristic pose.
I’m on the patio, if you couldn’t tell.

Before I talk about the sternbergias, I want to say that this “brilliant plan” didn’t work.
The trash can was knocked over at night, but it remained closed. We got lucky.
But I shudder to think that those are claw marks on the left side.

So anyway, a few days ago, while he was walking around the garden, the guy I live with noticed that Sternbergia lutea was in flower. This was a complete surprise, to say the least. We’ve had about half an inch of rain in the last month, and the guy I live with hasn’t watered the garden (except for the new plants) since the vernal equinox.
The bulbs flowered at this time last year, after we had some rain, but obviously rain doesn’t cause flowering; it must be some sort of internal clock.
He said it was always nice to learn something new.

And that’s all for today. Sternbergia lutea doesn’t need rain to flower.

Until next time, then.

Greetings and salutations, everyone; yes, once again it is I, Mani the purebred border collie, filling in for the guy I live with, and here today to talk about the flagstone paths.
You may remember me from such posts as “Clearing The Path”, among at least a few others.

Here I am in a characteristic pose.
It’s become obvious by now that the ramp is falling apart, and needs to be replaced. The guy I live with says plywood is expensive but maybe he’ll find what he needs at not too exhorbitant a price.

They say that southern Colorado is supposed to get a massive amount of rain tomorrow, and that we might get some, but the guy I live with is dubious. In any case, he said it’s time to unhook the hoses, which were used to water new plants in the “way back” garden and the enclosure.

So today, without any talk about any creatures beginning with the letter B, the guy I live with suddenly decided to uncover all the flagstone in the path on the north side of the garden. He said that it was important for people to have something to do, and so he did something.
The layout of the flagstone was done by his wife, and they laid the flagstone together. I hear it was a lot of work.
The piece in the foreground needs to be repositioned; pine roots have caused it to heave.
That one piece in the lower right came from in back, somewhere, and needs to be set into the ground.
He still isn’t sure what to do with that area where the flagstone is; maybe just plant some native grasses.
The dwarf conifer in the blue pot dried out too much and was badly damaged, which made the guy I live with unhappy. He can be pretty self-critical.
There’s an issue here: that little pine in the green pot, Pinus flexilis ‘Blackfoot’, has rooted into the ground, and it needs to be planted in the garden. That will be quite a bit of work.So that’s it for today. The path is now twice as wide. I know I’ll appreciate it; I do a lot of running on this path.

Until next time, then.