the miserable gardener

there and back again

Greetings and salutations everyone; once again it is I, Chess the purebred border collie, setting the standard in blogging purebred border collie excellence. You may remember me from such outstanding posts as “N.D.Y.” and “Things From Afar”, among so many, many others.

Here I am in a characteristic pose.Well, the guy I live with decided a few days ago that he “needed some more conifers”, and while I really think he meant that he wanted more conifers, the result was that I was left alone for a long time today. I didn’t have anything to do, but he said the drive was long and pretty boring, so I guess it evened out.

He drove all the way to Laporte Avenue Nursery in Fort Collins. And then back again, fortunately for my dinner needs.

Laporte is a mail-order nursery, but they let you visit by appointment, and so he made one, and drove up there, as I said. (It’s north of here, so we say “up”.) They sell superbly-grown rock garden plants and conifers, dwarf and regular sized.

It was a long drive, and the guy I live with was totally freaked out about it. I mean, he started thinking it symbolized some flight away from our cozy home, and the first long trip alone without my mommy Cindy, and he got so worked up about it I wondered if he was going to make it. Or forget something like his checkbook or camera.

He didn’t, but he missed the turn he was supposed to make, and was driving along when all of a sudden he saw a sign for the Wyoming state line. Then he panicked, because he never, ever gets lost, and so he thought he might be having a senior moment, even though he doesn’t qualify for those yet. But he turned around and found the right road to turn off onto. It’s called Mulberry Street, believe it or not. But the sign doesn’t say that, it says Highway 41 or 14 or something that doesn’t have anything to do with mulberries.

Now, I hope you like pictures of conifers, because there are going to be a lot of them, and I won’t bother with names, because the guy I live with gets so excited being around plants, he forgets to make notes of names, so, like, whatever.

First off, though, were the hellebores, Helleborus niger, spectacular clumps of them all over the place. He of course forgot to ask if this was the normal time for them, winter having been so long and all, because here they start in January, sometimes. Then the rock gardens, with conifers aplenty. It was a little too early for anything in the rock gardens to be blooming, but he thought that was okay. The rock gardens are spectacular in bloom, he says. I wouldn’t know, because I was left at home.

a superb group of Juniperus scopulorum “Woodward’. Kirk, the owner, said they can be planted on 3-ft centers to achieve this effect

bristlecones

Pinus monophylla ‘Blue Jazz’

Cedrus libani var. stenocoma

Then into the nursery itself.

The yellow there is Pinus virginiana ‘Wate’s Golden’ (or yellow, or something), a pine with yellow needles in winter. You can see a hole dug in the sand there. Guess who dug that?

some of the conifers he brought home

Kirk holding a seedling Cedrus libani var. stenocoma

Some rock garden plants.

a chicken with a hurt foot. the guy I live with forgot to take pictures of the other chickens.

Well, that’s it. I hope you enjoyed this trip the nursery, even though I didn’t get to go. The guy I live with is too embarrassed to show how many conifers came home with him, though he did say we might be living on crackers and water for the rest of the month. I am mighty glad he is home.

Until next time, then.

springing forward, hopefully

Hello everyone; yes, once again it is I, Chess the amazing purebred border collie, here to bring you the latest news from our garden. You may remember me from such memorable posts as “After The Solstice” and “The Awful Smell”, among so many, many others.

Here I am in a remarkably noble pose.Impressive, no? I thought it was.

This morning, the guy I live with could not figure out why the kitchen clock was an hour behind his cell phone clock, and the laptop clock. (Laptop clock, laptop clock. I like that.) He thought and thought. “What are the chances that the power went off exactly one hour ago?” (That was him thinking.)

It finally dawned on him, the way things do in the morning, and he set the kitchen clock to the right time.

Then he went downstairs to turn on the lights over the cactus seedlings, and saw this. He knew I didn’t do it, because I don’t do things like this.He was steamed, unlike the carpet. (I’m pretty funny this evening, huh?) That carpet, unlike the one you see me on all the time, is the one that was here when my mommy and the guy I live with moved into the house.

Anyway, to back up a bit, yesterday afternoon the guy I live with said that there was “definite chewing” going on in the kitchen. I was asleep so didn’t notice. He pulled out the refrigerator, with a lot of effort, smashing his fingers in the process and waking me up. There were the remains of a cracker behind the refrigerator. (Don’t look at me.) He vacuumed all that up, pushed the refrigerator back into place (he didn’t know until then that it rolled), and put the two fancy “mouseproof” blocker things on either side of the refrigerator.

I should mention that, as this is being typed, a mouse ran into the kitchen from outside. The back door is open, because it was a gorgeous day.

So, he figured that one mouse would be caught in the Tin Cat last night, but actually there were two. “The mystery deepens,” he said. It does.

Okay, now for some gardening stuff. It was a beautiful day today, so much so that the guy I live with didn’t even have to wear a jacket or the grubby old sweatshirt he wears. Just a t-shirt. (And pants of course.) He moved a bunch of agaves, which probably accounts for why they never get very large. He cut down some stuff, and took pictures.

This is Crocus ancyrensis ‘Golden Bunch’ again. Those are cactus and the leaves of Yucca rupicola. The reticulate irises are blooming and he’s very excited. (They’re called that because of the covering they have on their bulbs, or something.) This morning he saw the purple and it made him really happy. I was already happy so that made two of us.

This is Iris reticulata ‘Lovely Liza’. Iris hyrcana. Remember me telling about the land of wolves and all that? Iris kopetdaghensis. So now he’s all “I have irises blooming” and stuff. Which is fine with me.