Greetings and salutations, everyone; yes, once again it is I, Mani the tiny, well, semi-tiny, purebred border collie, filling in for the guy I live with, and here to bring you up to date on the latest news from our garden, since we’ve been gone for a while, and also to talk about some other interesting things. You may remember me from such up-to-date and interesting posts as “Damp And Delighted” and “The Oven Dog”, among so many, many others.
Here I am in a characteristically horticultural pose. 
You may notice that rather large patch of bare dirt in the lower left, there. That was supposed to be grass, but, according to the guy I live with, “it just isn’t”. He says it might be, next year. Or not.
That’s an oriole feeder with half an orange hanging in the tree.
You can also see that I have a new hedgehog, which the guy I live with bought for me at Whole Foods, because he went to the nursery today and bought some lavenders
and felt fairly guilty about leaving me home alone. I now have something like three hedgehogs. Two of them were waiting for me when I showed up here. Hedgehogs are really excellent as stuffed toys, let me tell you.
He says the lavenders are going here, but I kind of doubt it, because this is where I like to romp. You can also see that pile of gravel and sandy loam in the first picture. He says I can romp and there can be lavenders, too. That I really doubt. 
Anyway, a couple of, like, super major things happened since we last talked. The guy I live with had a birthday, and now he’s 64, like The Beatles’ song, but since his companion is no longer here to feed him and stuff, he kind of moped all day, even though he has me. I forget what we did that day. Oh, I was at Day Care, and didn’t get as good a report card as the time before because the people there claimed I spend “too much time in the pool”. You would have too.
The most major thing was that the last plastic ice cube tray broke and the guy I live with went out and bought two new trays and they weren’t the same as the last ones and the ice cubes were of a different shape and he didn’t know if he could deal with it and I had to hear about it for a few days but now I think he’s calmed down a little. I got an ice cube yesterday and it was good.
Not much else has been happening.
I guess I should show a flower picture, because this blog is supposedly about gardening, and not totally about me, so here’s one. This is Acanthus balcanicus.
I don’t know what else there is. Probably something, but no one wrote anything down, so I guess that’s it. 
Until next time, then.
the miserable gardener 
Good to see you guys. I’ll be back…
Thanks; the guy I live with said I was neglecting the blog, but I was distracted by a couple of thing, the most important being my jingling, which drove me crazy for a couple of days. The guy I live with said it was something called a “dog license” and that now I’m licensed to be a dog in at least one county.
What are you in the other counties?
An unlicensed purebred border collie, or so I hear. Since it’s the county in which I reside that requires the license, he says it wouldn’t do me any good in Scotland.
I’m back. I only jingle when I have my check chain on for a walk because it taps on my name tag. My mum is weird because my name tag does not have a name on it just a phone number. Because I would go with anyone she does not want to make it easier by someone knowing my name. I don’t have to wear a registration tag as I am microchipped, I also have a tattoo inside my floppy earbob because I was a rescue puppy. A bit rich of daycare saying you spend too much time honing your swimming skills, you may want to be a lifeguard when you grow up.
Anyway back to the garden. My mum really loves lavender, and there are quite a few there to plant, should look really good. How are your guys irises going now, he doesn’t tell us much about his seedlings and seeds lately. And the squillions of cactus?
Very cute last photo…
Thanks. Um, the cactus, well, they mostly died, because the guy I live with was daydreaming or something, but he says no matter, he buys plants from someone in Colorado, and there isn’t much room for more cactus, since they all now have to go in the front yard. The irises are doing very well and maybe I’ll post some pictures next time. He got advice on how to grow them from seed from gardeners in England and Australia. He says gardeners are nice everywhere. There are a couple of lavender nurseries on the West Coast to buy from too, in case someone gets lavandulophilia. He bought a bunch a couple of years ago and then changed his mind and gave them to a friend. He changes his mind a lot. I have a microchip too, but the license is required by law, so I have one. The guy I live with says that a lot of people ignore a lot of laws around here, which doesn’t matter to him, unless it involves us in some way. Which it sometimes does. My tags don’t have my name on them either, but it isn’t like I come when I’m called.
That last picture – the same Artemisia, but so much bigger in just a couple of weeks! Even more fetching with a shy (?) dog behind it. Perhaps the dog was ashamed of hogging the pool? What varieties of lavender? I like Hidcote and Grosso. Were the ice cubes round? Or the “gin and titonic” sinking ship shaped ones? My sympathies either way. We all wish we could see you just a little more often you know….
No, I’m not really shy, I was just discovering my new hedgehog; you know, by chomping on it, the way you do. The guy I live with says the absence was my fault because I wouldn’t stand still for a characteristic pose, which is, as you know, very important, but I rarely stand still these days. There are things to do. The ice cubes are narrower and deeper and weirder. They’re really normal ice cube shape, just slightly different. The lavenders are Provence and Dutch Mill, but Hidcote and Grosso are excellent too, or so I hear. There is one with a Czech name that does really well here too.
Our place is crazy with lavenders, all kinds. They come from a wonderful herb provider, Pearson’s, which is in our north county – I wonder, could you be a dog there? – and offers many varieties. Like, many. Who can remember the names? The guy you live with is doing very well to remember the names he does. (Quick, ask him what his name is.) I approve of a lavish display of lavenders, and even the veil of artemisia you pose coyly behind. Or watchfully. Or something. (Ask me if I remember my name. It’s Saturday Martini Night and we’re celebrating rain. At last, enough rain. Plus, we have Colorado and Texas to thank for our filled water sources. Your rain was worth it. Maybe not the darkness.) I know we used to have ancanthus around, I wonder if we still do. I shall go and look. Happy birthday to your guy. Tell him to celebrate by seeing the movie “Minions,” and possibly smuggle you in. One of dogs – Shred, the Maltese – is definitely a minion. Who needs a Whole Foods hedgehog.
The guy I live with, whose name I don’t know, which is okay, since he has “Names are weird”, possibly because he grew up in the sixties, can remember lavender names, and says he might get a bunch from Mountain Valley Growers or Goodwin Creek later this year, or from both. They sell Bowles’ Wooly Mint, which he had, or has, but it isn’t in the right place now, so possibly more should be acquired. It gets almost two feet tall, and is wooly. Almost like me. (My rear end hair, before my tail starts, is super wooly and curly.) He also wonders why it’s raining in California in July. The average precipitation in Long Beach, where he grew up, is .03 inches in July, and that’s as close to zero as makes no difference. Same with San Diego. So that would mean that if it’s raining now, that there would have to be years where there was negative rainfall in July to make that average so low, or else things are changing. He also says that even though it rained here a little today, enough to make petrichor, which we could smell on our walk, that generally it starts to dry out here, and then dries out more, and more.
Goodwin Creek! They’re nice people. They planted a whole lavender garden at our extension service. I’ve been to their nursery in the wilds of S. Oregon. We all need more lavender, except maybe those in the wet areas like San Diego.
Lavender is really excellent. There’s such a lack of focus in the garden here that lavender is the plante du jour, but only until I wipe them out by romping through them.
Good to hear from you again. I love lavender and am looking forward to seeing photos. I also love the charmingly profuse greenery of your yard.
I cannot imagine why the doggy day care people are so difficult about the swimming since that is probably one of the things that keeps a pure-bred border collie destined to spend summers in the US, sane in the heat and humidity. Do you have a doggie wading pool at home? They are standard in NYC public dog parks.
Looking forward to more photos.
I don’t have a pool here because I have the creek behind the house, which has water in it. And I get to go wading in it. Leaping and splashing, really. The guy I live with says most of the greenery is from bindweed.
I have several lavender too! Being a neophyte, mine are the plan old French type…which I love. ❤
I think they’re mostly all French types, but check out Goodwin Creek’s website. They have a lot. (Understatement.)
Well, Mani, you do have so many things to take care of. Your person will always miss his friend but as time goes along he will have more things to fill in his heart. In the mean time, I think you should ask him to add ice cream to cooling off program. My border collie mix just loves a bowl. Not too much but just a little, well, maybe half a cup or so. vanilla is soooooo good. And when your person is feeling down, take him for a walk or out to visit neighbors. A sit down over a couple of bowls of ice cream and a good chat works too. You will figure it out. Border collie’s are smart that way.
Thanks; I do like the idea of ice cream, though the guy I live with says it might be Frosty Paws. We do go visit neighbors, sometimes. I hear that a Ruff Rider Roadie (yes, this is a plug) was ordered for me and so maybe we’ll get to go places together, in the car.