Hi there, it’s me again, Chess the border collie. Here I am standing in one of my favorite places, right in front of the refrigerator. There are biscuits in the cabinet next to the refrigerator, which is why I stand there. I know how to hint.
You can see that both I and the guy I live with have tracked dirt onto the 1970s kitchen floor. I say the floor doesn’t need to be replaced and a little dirt just adds class.
The snow that fell the other day melted later that afternoon, and it got really muddy, so we tracked a lot of stuff into the house, which was fun. The weather has gotten nice and so the guy I live with has already started whining about the amount of work that needs to be done. What he did was move a heavy pot into the front yard, and that was all.
Mostly what he does is things like walk into the shed and then stand there for fifteen minutes trying to remember what it was that he wanted from the shed. Then he goes into the garage and stands there wondering why he’s in the garage. Sometimes he carries a trowel which makes him look really important and busy.
He got a shipment of beautifully grown plants from Beaver Creek Greenhouses and when he unwrapped all the plants the first thing he said was that he should have ordered more. What a whiner.
Some of these plants are Pediocactus simpsonii, which the guy I live with already has, and a bunch of which he’s growing from seed, so I don’t know why he bought these, other than the fact that he’s kind of a nut. He even says they sell plants grown from seed right in the county where we live. What a nut.
I can see it’s going to be a long, long summer.
the miserable gardener 
Hi Chess,
Just letting you know I always enjoy your posts. Keep on looking after that guy you live with.
He says thank you, but he didn’t get to go to the nursery today, or get enough pizza afterwards.
Chess, try to change his plant palette, too…less spiky plants, more tried and true hardyyy plants like potentillas, alberta spruce, and cottonless cottonwoods.
Not! Good stuff, and it looks robust, ready to take spring in winter, winter in spring, and the desert in June. Or all the above in one week.
Tried an Alberta spruce. Tried and fried.
It’s funny, a quarter century ago I was ordering seed from Archibalds in the UK; seed of western native plants. The selection here has increased since then, but I still have to go out of state for quite a few things. Like Symphoricarpos longiflorus.
Wonder if the Yucca (sorry, Hesperoyucca) whipplei will make it here. Variety caespitosa, which some people have claimed is quite hardy. One way to find out, huh.
A long, long summer…Chess, you are an optimist, unlike the guy you live with. I guess that’s good!
Oh, people just say I’m negative because I don’t believe that watering twice as much is a pragmatic approach to drought. I say, let’s have 90-100 degrees every day, with no rain until September …..
Nice haul! Glad to see more spikes.
I jabbed myself on the yucca. There was even a little warning leaflet, which I ignored. I figure if you can’t deal with being jabbed, stabbed, stuck, etc., it’s best to take up some other hobby. And what a metaphor for life.
Got to get these in the garden while it’s almost 80 degrees and feels like summer, before the snow and near-record cold temperatures they’re predicting on Wednesday (low of 22). I seem to be saying that every week now.