the miserable gardener

Got some spam; it said “I always agree and interested about every topics in this blog, really inspiring.”

It must be true, then. Here I am being inspired.

First off, a picture I took accidentally (pressed the wrong button). This is for Loree of Danger Garden ….I’d trade the blue sky for being able to grow grevilleas and stuff like that any day, but that’s how gardeners are, aren’t they? Oh, and trade it for just a little rain, maybe, too. Just a little.

And talk about adorable cacti; this is a seedling of Sclerocactus wetlandicus. The patience required to grow sclerocactus from seed is almost too much for me.

I could have spent some time with fine grit sandpaper and a jeweler’s loupe, scarifying the tiny seeds, or I could just hit myself in the head with a hammer. Either one. Letting nature take its course, breaking open the rock-hard seed coats by leaving the seeds in pots all winter, and getting one or two cactus to germinate every summer, is the easiest way. I brought the little cactus indoors for the winter because I definitely want to keep it alive. I might transplant it a little later, and put the pot back outside.

Opuntia ‘Dark Knight’ out in the rock garden. I couldn’t find any good place to stand here, because someone planted too many plants. I had a large plant of this some years back; I don’t know what happened to it.

Wandering over to my neighbor’s yard, where there really is too much sun, with cactus in the blue grama.

This may look like a mess, but that’s because the standard of maintenance is very low. I planted everything here and ~~do the work~~ constantly talk about the low standard of maintenance.

In truth, I think this is how front lawns should look. The leaves could be removed from the opuntias, maybe, and there could be less sun so the pictures came out better, but otherwise, I think this looks terrific.

To end on a rather sour note, this is the sort of thing I have to deal with on a daily basis. The trash cans hold bird seed. Grabbing hold of the handle and wiggling it back and forth to try to get the top of the trash can* off makes a horrible screeching sound, and is really annoying to hear all day long.

*yes, it’s called a lid, I know

too much sun

I think I was supposed to do something today, but I can’t remember what it was, if it really was anything. This is bad for a person with an eidetic memory, but never mind that; probably just a sign of getting older. I took the opportunity to take some more pictures, even though there was too much sun, again.

Someone once asked Gertrude Stein why she collected paintings by Picasso, Matisse, Cézanne, etc., back when the artists were relatively or completely unknown, and her response was typically Steinian: “I like to look at them”.

I like to look at plants, especially in winter when not much is going on. Here are some; these will look this way until next spring, unless they get eaten, that is.

Daphne jasminea, a form supposedly from the cliffs overlooking the temple of Apollo at Delphi.

Astragalus creticus. Not much too look at, I admit, but I like it anyway. Attempts at removing the leaves in the center of the plant reveal that all those white things are not twigs, but spines.

Erysimum kotschyanum, with nice purple buds waiting for spring.

Geranium macrorrhizum. I love this plant; remains evergreen, tolerates life under the Wasatch maples, and smells great, too (that spicy, musky smell is the essence of gardening). I think this is the regular species, though ‘Ingwersen’s Variety’ and ‘Bevan’s Variety’ are here, too.

Phlomis fruticosa ‘Miss Grace’. I never met a phlomis I didn’t have to have. A pity so many are tender, or at least so their labels claim.

Salvia cyanescens, ex an Archilbald collection from years ago. Sows itself all over the place, which is nice.

Penstemon grinnellii var. scrophularioides. From southern California, but it likes me just fine.

Echinocereus triglochidiatus. I saw some clumps of this at a nursery, through the rear-view mirror, as I was driving out, and had to go back. There were several clumps, each with about 60 stems, selling for $20. They had been dug up from someone’s property (some weird cactus hater) and, not being completely insane, I bought a clump.
The inside of the clump started to rot a few years later, and I thought the whole thing was going, but the rot stopped, and this is one of the clumps that remain.

The diamond cholla, Cylindropuntia ramosissima. Not many plants look this nondescript in winter, which is why I have several forms, all wilty and tangly just like this one.

A miniature form of Opuntia microdasys. New at the zoo this year. The regular sized form will overwinter here in the perfect location, but this little one is so adorable I bought a second pot of it, and keep it upstairs just in case.

Primula marginata ‘Amethyst’. I like the way this looks in winter; I don’t know why. Maybe it’s just the weirdness of it.
Primula marginata and allionii are about the only two primulas that find the conditions in my garden even barely tolerable.

Globularia stygia. Unlike in humans, plants turning purple is a good sign.

the miserable gardener

really inspiring

too much sun

Recent Posts

Archives

Meta