I NEED MORE DIRT! (Gardening Journal)

Photo: Dad with the gladiolus or "Glad Dad," as I like to call it.

NOW:Date: April 03, 2013
Temp:So Warm it's More Like Summer Than Spring

I NEED MORE DIRT!

Today was gloriously warm and bright. I spent some time on the computer (which should be obvious) but I also spent much of the day outside working in my flower beds and readying my garden for planting.

I fenced my small vegetable garden off with something I hope will deter the ravenous ground hogs that ate everything in my garden last time except a couple handfulls of peppers, some ornamental corn, and four or five pumpkins. They would have eaten the pumpkins too except I harvested them small and early when I saw that the groundhogs had lowered their standards (now that they'd eaten everything else) and had eaten several of the pumpkins already. By that point I'd figured out who won the Groundhog vs. Skitch war of 2011. I cut my losses and carried my tiny pumpkins out of the garden. There was no Groundhog vs. Skitch war of 2012. I didn't put out a garden last year because I was training at a new job and I was very busy... Also, I was still pretty humiliated by the butt whooping the groundhogs had given me the year before. This year I will win more than a couple handful peppers, some ears of corn that I can't eat, and a few baby pumpkins. Get ready groundhogs! The battle of 2013 is on and I have opposable thumbs!

I stuck 50 gladiolus bulbs in the flower bed that goes along the length of my home. They will hopefully give me a long row of bright and beautiful "glads" this summer. Their full name is Latin for "little sword" and it suits them. They grow straight up and bloom in nearly every shade you can imagine, and they make great cut flowers for indoor bouquets. These were a bag of mixed colors. I like the surprise that comes with the mixed colors, but some of the bulbs were pink and some were yellow. An indication of the bloom to come? I tried to mix them up and not put two yellowish or pinkish ones side by side. I want them random. I couldn't plant them quite as deep as the  recommended 8 inches, but I may go back over them with some more potting soil. I found myself telling the spousal unit several times today, "I need more dirt!" He is unamused by my gardening antics. He barely smiles at the plastic bags taped around my knees and doesn't notice the dirt under my nails, or on my nose if it gets itchy. Though he does give the groundhogs a standing ovation now and then... Traitor. We shall see if my glads come up and what color they show. It's a delightful miracle, and I'm so glad that God let's the gardener help! 

Photo: Gardening hands and Glad Bulb
By Skitch

I hung my cloth trellis for my morning glories. Morning glories are my dad's favorite flowers. I can hardly wait for the deep blue faces and pristine white throats of the Heavenly Blue, for the dark purple and pink of Grandpa Ott's, for all the surprises that come with the mixed seed pack. This year I plan to put a couple of rambling roses somewhere on the place, but I haven't decided where yet. Roses are my mom's favorites, but unlike my parents who have been married over 60 years, roses and morning glories don't mix very well; they have to have separate homes.

I also attempted to plant some cattails. I'm not sure if the process will work or not, and calling it "planting" is a little generous. It was more like scattering and running. But I'm giving it a go and I hope they show up. I have an area at the end of my yard that is marshy. It's near a large drainpipe and lets off into what you could call a creek if it were about fifty times bigger than it is. It's more of a trickle, I guess, most of the time. The area is largely useless, unless you're a mosquito, and they love it. They make the yard almost unbearable July through September. I plan to get some sort of screened in something so that I can still sit outside now and then in the evenings. It occurred to me last summer, between swatting mosquitoes, that the marshy are might redeem itself some if it'd just sprout some cattails. I love them! So, last fall I found myself traversing some sucky (in more ways than one) mud after some very pretty cattails. I made my way to the plants, attempted to break a couple off, ended up pulling them up by the roots, and the plant, the roots, and a good portion of mud that was hanging off the bottom and coating my shoes went back to the car with me. By that point I was just grateful I'd made it out of there with my shoes still on. Mud shmud! I brought the cattails home and propped them up in one of my crepe myrtles and waited for the seeds to pop out. Today I took the seeds to they marshy area and spread them around. I discovered that planting cattails is a lot like I imagine wrangling fairies might be. The floaty little seeds come out and dance around your head and you're in some blissful fantasy for about two minutes. Then you realize that the determined little things aren't picky about where they root and they are attempting to grow in your eyeballs and nostrils! Can't you just imagine that wrangling fairies might seem like a fun idea for about two minutes? After I escaped with all my five senses intact (that sixth sense had let me down again) the experience reminded me of something my friend Mary had once said about her cat, Juno. Mary said, "You know how some cats like to climb your clothes?" I nodded, "Well, Juno is like that only she's not as picky. She doesn't need clothing; skin will do just fine." So, in a cattail world I guess nostrils will do just fine.
Photo: Cattails in the Myrtles
By Skitch

And I will close by pointing out that, Margaret Atwood, one of my favorite authors, once said,"In the spring, at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt."

Today I made her proud!