Greetings and salutations, everyone; yes, once again it is I, your popular host, Mani the purebred border collie, here today to talk about “the pump”, as well as some other stuff. You may remember me from such posts as “Hens And Chicks”, among so many, many others.
Here I am in a characteristic pose.
See all the conifers? Those all came from the late Jerry Morris. I’ll talk more about that in a bit.
The guy I live with is kind of irked with the puschkinias. This year, they’re all over the garden, despite him pulling a lot, last year. Here are some of them:
It rained here a bit, a couple of nights ago. There was even a little snow.
Yesterday there was water in the creek again.
And the field is pretty green now.
So the guy I live with was talking in the last post about the conifer he planted in a pot, and how he would water it with a very weak solution of Miracle-Gro.
As I’ve said before, the first time he met Jerry Morris he was dumbfounded at Jerry’s intimate and extensive knowledge of trees, especially conifers.
He showed the guy I live with and his wife a bonsai which had been “rescued” from its owner. The tree didn’t have many needles, and the tray was full of roots.
“Do you know about the pump?” The guy I live with just stood there, the way he often does.
Jerry explained that with so few needles, he would have to cut a bunch of roots in the tray, because the tree didn’t have enough above-ground resources to pull water from all those roots. Likewise, if there were a lot of needles but not enough roots, the above-ground parts couldn’t be sufficiently hydrated with so few roots.
In order for “the pump” to work properly, there has to be roughly equal below-ground and above-ground masses.
Since conifers absorb water through their needles, as well as roots, watering the needles would help a conifer with not enough roots.
So that’s that story.
Something else has happened here, and it’s about time.
In this last picture, you can see that the “ditch-rider” has been through here; last year this part of the road was totally overgrown.
I think that’s part of an old sluice on the other side of the canal.
That’s all I have for today.
I’ll leave you with a picture of me, looking at the guy I live with, who was telling me just how many bags of biscuits there were in the pantry, and that they were all for me (just not all at once). It was a pretty interesting story. I like biscuits.
Until next time, then.
the miserable gardener 
Don’t you share your biscuits with the guy you live with?
I don’t.
Perhaps you should, . . . but do not tell him who suggested doing so.
Not going to, though.
That (story of the pump) is fascinating. Thank you for sharing, Mani, and enjoy your biscuits!
You’re welcome. Apparently I have a very large stock of Newman’s Own dog biscuits, all for me.
That was a very interesting factoid about the ‘pump.’ Thabnk you for sharing it. If it’s any consolation, the Puschkinias have enjoyed a banner year in NW Denver too. They are shooting up all over the place, thick as thieves.
You’re welcome. The guy I live with is going to have to dig up a bunch of puschkinias, later this year, before they set seed.
I had the same problem with the lupines in my garden-they naturalized faster than rabbits. Took forever to cull the little devils. For about 10 days in spring the garden was beautiful though. Good luck.
The guy I live with said he’s either going to dig up a bunch, or just ignore them.
We purebred border collies don’t gamble, but I’d bet on the latter, if I did.
HURRAH!!! THE Ditch Rider was there!!!! Canal lookss bettur! Wee gettin a bit of snow two Mani. Winter has no idea where too bee does it??
An yore Pushy flowerss are so purrty……all wee have are supurr droopy snowdropss…. ***sighss*** MMMM Biskitss are so guud! Wee new Guy wuud have lotss fore you! Hee’ss a guud Guy, mew mew mew…..
***nose bopss*** BellaDharma an (((hugss)) BellaSita Mum
Thanks; yes, biscuits are good.
They say it might rain here in a couple of days, but tomorrow is supposed to be super windy.
What iss with our weather Mani??? Wee had a rain storm with high windss Wednesday an had snow yesterday an now iss rainy an windy today! At leest wee not have THE Earthyquake rite?
That is an astounding number of pushy puschkinias. There does seem to be a threshold between a plant charmingly making its way about the garden versus an assertive takeover. I am starting to be concerned about our Iris foetidissima, which has a propensity to reseed. I forgot to remove the seed heads last winter and now I will be pulling seedlings for the next few years.
That picture only showed some of them. They’re everywhere. The guy I live with said they just went out of control in the last two years.
He said he might set up a puschkinia stand on the sidewalk. 1000 bulbs for ten cents.
If he sold all of them, he’d be a millionaire.