the miserable gardener

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 complain about the weather. You may remember me from such posts as “The New Arrivals”, among so many, many others.

Here I am in a characteristic pose.
We haven’t had a decent rain in about a month, which is very unsettling, but here I am trying to put a brave face on it.
I’ve heard thunder almost every evening but nothing has happened except for a few sprinkles.
It’s been very dark here almost all day, every day, and hot, too, and if this sounds really gross, well, it is. Totally covered with dark clouds most of the day, thundering, almost no rain at all, and hot.

The guy I live with took a bunch of pictures in the last couple of days so I thought I would post them here.
A lot of these were taken in the evening.
You can see how much rain we get in the next picture.I really need to show you a picture of my Private Lawn. This is ‘Cody’ buffalo grass which the guy I live with started from seed. Buffalo grass seed is now super expensive (90 dollars for three pounds) so he hasn’t continued the lawn for the path in the distance.
He admitted he could have done a better job mowing my lawn, but I don’t really care. He  uses a push mower for this.
The grass needs to be watered after it’s been mowed, but not much at all after that.
So that’s it. A bunch of pictures. Not much else to say since it’s been so hot, so dark, and so dry. The guy I live with says if this sounds sort of like a gardener’s nightmare, he wouldn’t argue.

I’ll leave you with a picture of me, a Livingstone in search of a Nile, in the tall smooth brome.
I really am there, if you were wondering.

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 bring you up to date on all our news. You may remember me from such posts as “Baked Again”.

Here I am in a characteristic pose.
Even with the air conditioner running full blast, I’m not having a good time, as you can see.
It’s hot, and people are shooting off fireworks.
No fun at all.

The guy I live with watered most of the garden yesterday to prevent it from being set on fire by fireworks landing in our yard. That has happened once, but it was before my time.
Fortunately nothing happened, because we haven’t had any rain for ten days.

The guy I live with said it did rain here today. Twice. He said he counted fifty-three drops.

Since I haven’t seen a bear in ten days either, I guess I’ll show you some pictures of plants. The guy I live with said this time of year is strangely melancholy for him, but that the plants make things a bit better.
This is Alcea rugosa. It does seed around a bit, and gets chewn by Japanese beetles (chewn is a word), but the guy I live with still likes it.
You can see that it’s not a small plant.
Right next to it is Lavatera thuringiaca (now Malva thuringiaca).
This also seeds around a bit.

One of the guy I live with’s favorite sights at this time of year is Allium pskemense. You have to walk behind part of the garden to get to this place.
This is a really big allium, if you couldn’t tell.

Then there’s Penstemon richardsonii flowering very happily in a glazed pot that’s cracked at the base, but then, it has been outside in Denver since about 1965.
The penstemon sowed itself in this pot several years ago; the plants in the garden died.
And lots of Ratibida columnifera. The guy I live with likes this very cheery plant.
You’ll notice I’m not in this picture.
There will be lots of seed this year. You just grab the seed head and sprinkle the seed wherever you want plants.

And, finally, Yucca reverchonii is in flower for the first time here.
Maybe you can see how fuzzy the stems are.

I did spend a very pleasant hour napping this afternoon, with the portable swamp cooler blowing nice cool air on me. Aside from breakfast and dinner, and my walks, this was the highlight of my day.

Until next time, then.