Thursday, May 25, 2006

Hardy Perennial

I hope Agastache "Blue Fortune," is as hardy as the tag says it is. Last night i butchered the poor plant into 3 new plants and destroyed most of its root system. Plants make me do that to them. I see them and I can picture them growing into many more plants.
It was past 1 am and i kept walking past the plant while cleaning the house in preparations for the weekend. Expensive plants are supposed to be worth the money because they haven't been stressed and therefore will adapt better to the garden I remember reading in many gardening books. However I find that most plants (weather cheap or expensive) have been fed and exposed to light untill they are ready to bloom and then shipped to the stores for sale in small containers (veal comes to mind.)
Finally I stopped in front of the pot and took the plant out. It was 100 percent roots, so I took the hacksaw, (which happened to be near me) and a box cutter. First I cut in half, then i noticed one of the halves was still too crowed, so i made a third cut. The result was 3 new plants with flower buds and very small amount or roots.
Then I got stressed out because I only want what is best for the plants, but many times I wonder if I really know what is best.

Wednesday, May 24, 2006

My Kitchen WIndow

Today's I was reading Edge Effect's (http://edgeeffect.blogspot.com/) posting on kitchen windows. Irisis, a birthbath and nicely trimmed grass surrounding a tree trunk. My kitchen view is a mess, there are boston ferns, grape vines, butterfly bushes, clematises, a jasmine, a lady mantle passion vine, roses, veronicas, salvia and mint waiting to be planted in the ground or in pots over the bathroom terrace. There are bags of soil, the ramainings of 4 cement posts we dug out of the garden corners, a parking meter we collected out of dumpster last summer (in hope of incorporating it somehow to the landscape), the frame of an iron chair (also meant to be used somehow in the garden), the old wood holder for the fire place, a BBQ and a marble table with 4 chairs. The task of clearing it all up and making the place usable is totally overwhelming. Memorial day weekend is approaching and I need days of work before the place can look manageble.