the miserable gardener

Greetings and salutations, everyone; yes, once again it is, I, your popular, roasting host, Mani the purebred border collie, here today to explain why I haven’t posted in a while. You may remember me from such roasting-hot posts as “Super Roasting”, “Beyond Super Roasting”, among so many, many others.

Here I am in a characteristically roasting-hot pose.  I guess I don’t need to say how hot it’s been, but I will anyway. It’s been really, really, really, really, really hot. I mean like extra super totally hot.
So we haven’t done very much of anything.

The guy I live with did some watering. It doesn’t seem to have all that much effect.

And, of course, since it’s been so hot, the guy I live with was in his usual let’s-not-do-anything mode, forgot about the amsonia seedlings upstairs, and so now they’re gone.
He has more seeds but he was pretty irked with himself.

There are some desert willow seedlings. They got a little too elongated but will probably do fine. The guy I live with went picnicking with his friend on his birthday last week (it was hers on Friday), and she brought along some manzanita seedlings (Arctostaphylos pungens) which she rooted from cuttings while she was in Arizona earlier this year. Manzanitas aren’t always easy to get going in the garden, but maybe these will make it. The big manzanita here (Arctostaphylos patula) was dug up by the backhoe.

That’s all the gardening that’s been done here, except for the other day when it was just a little cooler and the guy I live with removed a bunch of branches, sawing and lopping, from the north end of the front yard. He cut himself again and you should have seen how much he bled. His skin has become a lot thinner, which is okay except for that, and I guess it stopped him from getting a bunch of tattoos last summer during the cancer therapy business because he thought it might be cool. (That, and his friend. She didn’t really completely like the idea.) I mean he does have tattoos but not that kind.

Anyway, it was so hot yesterday that late at night, like around eleven, the guy I live with said maybe we should go for a walk, and so we did. It was a lovely night; cool, breezy, and dry.
I had an excellent time. I heard a raccoon fight along the creek north of the canal road, and then after a little walking, there was a Striped Kitty in the middle of the road. The guy I live with said “Whoa”, which even though I’m not a horse I knew what he meant, and so we watched the Striped Kitty saunter away.
We walked down the canal road for a bit. That’s my tail in the lower right hand corner.On the way back I wanted to look for the Striped Kitty but the guy I live with said not to. I wasn’t sure why. 

Until next time, then.

Greetings and salutations, everyone; yes, once again it is I, your popular host, Mani the purebred border collie, here to bring you up to date on all the news from our garden. You may remember me from such posts as “Dry Grass”, among so many, many others.

Here I am in a characteristic pose. I got my pants brushed, as you can see.
Not much has been happening here, gardening-wise, though there have been some things.
It’s mostly been so hot that I’ve preferred to stay inside, with a fan blowing in my direction.

Last night was horribly frightening; I spent most of the evening and night in my Upstairs Fort. Huge explosions and shrieking noises. (From fireworks, which are illegal here.) It lasted until two in the morning.
And then we had to try to sleep without pulling cool air into the bedroom, with the fan, because there was this strong acrid burning smell outside that lasted until about four in the morning.
The guy I live with explained that some people really are that inconsiderate.

He also left me at home last week for a couple of hours to go see the urologist. He is, right now anyway, cancer free. He doesn’t have to go back for six months, now.

And there’s oak news.  The ones that had to be dug up to make way for the backhoe in the front yard. The oak that was in a pot buried in the ground (or “plunged”, as they say) on the south side of the house was moved next to the other one in the side yard, watered pretty heavily, and now it’s leafing out, too. (It’s on the right, and there are a couple of tiny leaves barely visible at the extreme right center.)
That’s pretty much it, except for the flannel bush (Fremontodendron californicum). Two of them, actually.

I’m not sure why this picture is so small, but anyway, the guy I live with heard from two people that the flannel bush was hardy here, in dry gardens, and so he had to have one. Or two.
I found it kind of surprising since he isn’t into that sort of thing–having to have things that others have–but this was an exception, I guess.
He said they might survive here.

Other than that, there hasn’t been much. My walks have mostly been okay, except when there are loud explosions.  It’s been too scary at night to have popcorn.
The guy I live with said he saw a Striped Kitty out in the field late at night, but I haven’t seen one, which of course is just as well.

Until next time, then.