the miserable gardener

Feeling slightly under the weather the last few days, which is a good excuse for continued laziness, though I did manage to do one thing.

all tied up and no place to go

I bought this fastigiate blue spruce quite a while ago, without looking at the price tag (lesson learned) and when it was rung up at the desk I didn’t want to feel foolish so I pretended to know how much it was and that it made no difference. Good thing it’s still alive.

The blizzard of March ’03 bent all the branches downward, and even though, genetically, a fastigiate conifer yearns to grow bolt upright, it took years for it to recover its shape, so now I wrap it. Wet, heavy snow just slides down to the ground now.

Noticed this crocus blooming yesterday. For years, I wondered why I spent extra money on rare, or relatively rare, crocuses and nothing happened, until it dawned on me that anything-but-rare rodents liked the bulbs even better than I did. I now plant them four or five inches deep and put a cage around them. Works better than putting a little “No Rodents” sign next to the bulbs.

Crocus longiflorus

The dog, who does even less than I do, noticed a leaf in the grass today. We lead a very busy, full life.