Deirdre's Garden Diary Homepage

:: April-May 2008 ::

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:: 05.07.08 ::

SEX!

Isabella Rossellini + Art + Insects + Sex = Green Porno

This is the most...I can't even...I mean...It's just...how do you describe...it's so...amazingly incredible and wonderful and shocking and hilarious and...perfect!

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:: 05.03.08 ::

Eye Candy

I realized I had not put up any pretty pictures in a while...so here are some things blooming in the garden...

The Crinums are bouncing back quite well after the hail storm and some of the baby bulbs I dug up and planted last year are blooming also. The Iris are finishing up and the yellow and orange Lantana is just starting to bloom. The petals of the Lantana always makes me think of Fruity Pebbles cereal. To bad it doesn't smell like Fruity Pebbles!

I put the Hinkley Columbines I bought at the nursery into the ground late but they adapted fast and put out a good show of blooms; like the Iris their blooms are tapering off a bit. I hope they come back and naturalize more each year.

I have had a batch of Yarrow holding it's own in a weedy, long forgotten flower bed in the back yard. Each year I keep saying I will dig it up and move it to a new spot...mix them in with some other plants; but I just haven't done it yet. I know they can be invasive, but these are in partial shade and haven't really gone beyond the small concrete border put in place so long ago by my grandmother. I fond of these; I even like them when they turn brown.

A new surprise this year came in the form of these magenta roses. They are the original bush rose that my yellow tea rose was grafted onto. The sucker grew out and I got lazy and didn't cut it back so it bloomed. The roses are kind of floppy but it smells really wonderful.I might keep it.

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:: 04.27.08 ::

Mother Nature
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Well the second storm that we had on the 17th, a week after the one that knocked the tree limb down (see post below) really caused some hurt for the Pope family. Mom's house got completely flooded...and I mean completely. It has been extremely stressful to say the least. This clean up isn't going to be completed any time soon. Mom is handling it really well but this kind of thing overwhelms me and I tend to slip into depression easily in the face of a setback like this. It just seems so unfair since she really doesn't need this kind of trouble on top of everything else she has to deal with. I honestly don't know anyone that could handle everything she has been through time and again and come through it all with half her strength and optimistic attitude.

I don't have anything nearly as bad as what mom has to deal with, but I did get major hail damage to a lot of my plants.

A lot of the flowers that were just getting ready to bloom had their stems and buds knocked off. The new leaves that the trees were just putting out are now in the yard along with more sticks to add to the large limb that came down in the storm before this one (see previous post). My beautiful crinums were just getting ready to open up and bloom when the storm hit and their tall elegant stems were knocked over and had to be cut off.

However the worst of it for me was the veggies...they took a direct hit and most of them got knocked around pretty hard. I think some of them will survive but most of the winter veggies, which were just finishing up anyway, are going to get pulled up and put in the compost first chance I get.

Everything looks like it was attacked by some kind of super robo-insect army. The cabbage looks like someone shot it with an AK47 and the Swiss Chard looks like it was hacked with a razor blade. I don't even know where one of the mustard green plants went; all that is left of it is a weary nub. Most of the onion tops are bruised and bent over and some of the tomatoes lost branches. Amazingly the pepper plants seem to be untouched. I think it's because they are still short so they weren't much of a target.

Basically it's just a big mess and it's going to take a lot of work to get it cleaned up.

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:: 04.10.08 ::

Stormy Weather

I got lucky, just one large limb down in the front yard. The neighbors have a much larger problem with a tree down and power box and lines ripped from the side of the house. We still have power though unlike some in the area. I was still awake around 3am when the worst of the storm started. The phone rang at 3:20, it was a recording from the city telling me there was a threatening storm moving into the area. I didn't know they did that for residents. This is the first time I've had them call, it must be a new system. It's a good idea late in the night like that to wake people up so they know to be on alert for tornadoes and high winds. City government gets it right for once...credit when due.

News here and here.

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:: 04.09.08 ::

Hope

I have a tremendous amount of respect for Al Gore and whenever I hear him speak about our global crisis it inspires me to do more and to try to share with others the important urgency of this message. He recently presented an updated version of his slide presentation that was the theme of the film "An Inconvenient Truth" at the TED conference in Monterey. I share it with you here in hopes that you will be as inspired as I have been with his optimistic determination in our challenge to heal this planet.

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:: 4.06.08 ::

NET WORKING

Looks like the garden bloggers got together for a Spring Fling down in Austin. I wish I could have gone to meet some of the bloggers I keep tabs on from time to time, but as usual my tight budget keeps me from playing in all the "reindeer games". Oh well, maybe next year. Check out their garden sites...they should have some fun stories to share and there is always an interesting post with pretty pictures even without a conference.

Digging
The Transplantable Rose
Prairie Point
Zanthan Gardens
May Dreams Gardens
Human Flower Project
Garden Rant

...and a lot of others, but this should get you started.

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