|
|
 |
www.thepublicreader.com | home
STORY NICHE | Neverland | Photographs | The neighborhood eight and A. jones | nightsounds | Saved by Mr. F. Scott Fitzgerald | Downhill Lovers-A fifties cop story | The Loneliness of the Late-Night Donut Shop | bridge from a snowy place | : | A NOVELETTE | An Eternity Together: A Romantic Fantasy | Part I | Part II | Part III | Part IV | Part V | Part VI | : | POETRY | Lost In War | The Soldier | Babe's Ghost, a poem by Jerry Vilhotti | Devious Ways | One Crazy Thing | Holy Winds | Painless Poetry | : | CHILDREN'S TALES | the ring | whiffers | Farmhouse Fables | a special creation | Aesop's Fables | Bedtime-Story | : | INTERACTIVE-HANDS ON CHILDREN'S STORIES | Bones | Sad Samantha, The Sparrow | : | ESSAYS | On The Road Again | Baseball, I Love It | Retirement Plans | Hometown-an essay | a retired man's period of adjustment | : | ART | American art by American artists | : | THE PUBLIC READERS PUBLIC SQUARE | : | AMERICAN CULTURAL HISTORY, THE TWENTIETH CENTURY | DECADE BY DECADE FROM KINGWOOD COLLEGE LIBRARY | The Sixties | The Fifties | The Forties | The Thirties | The Twenties | 1910-1919 | 1900-1909 | : | DIVERSIONS | Best from the pages of | A Book Review | Chess | Crosswords | Daily Computer Tips | Ethics and Morals | Friends of The Public Reader | Game Page | What is Haiku? | Hazel's Corner | Heroes | Humor | Joe Ditzel, comedian | Keith's Page | Lazy Gardening | Let me think about this | Links to sites you'll enjoy | A Little Shakespeare | Nostalgia | Are you good at PUZZLES? | Quotations I like | The Radio Page | Recipes | Singleminded | Sleep and Dreams | Submissions
 LAZY GARDENING
By Marie
 Marie, the master gardening guru of the West Coast has kindly consented to make our gardening chores easier. Since spring comes earlier on the coast, Marie will have us primed and ready to hit the ground running when spring comes to our part of the country. She will be glad to answer questions if she can.
TIPS FOR LAZY GARDENING
After a day of rain and two days of sunshine with 56 degrees, I decided to get to work in the perennial bed.
The first project was pulling weeds. The ground was still wet from the rain
and those little nasties were small enough that their roots hadn't yet grown
half way to China. That job was a piece of cake.
Next I confiscated my husband's brand new pruners and set to work cutting
away all that brown soggy stuff left over from last year's growth. And, lo
and behold, brand new growth was popping through the ground. YES! Spring
truly is just around the corner.
Now, here's the decision of a lazy gardener. Some of the plants will no
longer remain in the bed. They're those big beautiful ones with masses of
blossoms on each stem. They're lovely to look at but, oh, so time consuming
to maintain. As new blossoms appear at the top of each stem, the previous
blossoms at the bottom of the stem are spent and becoming brown and crunchy.
I can't begin to tell you how many hours I spent on my knees or reaching
around the plant to prune off every itty bitty dead blossom at the bottom of
the stem. The plant looked great when I was finished but my sore knees and
aching back made me wonder if I really wanted to do this year after year.
This year the answer is a definite "NO!"
Instead those perennials will be replaced with one blossom per stem plants.
The bed already contains two pincushions, one pink and one purple. That
pretty new yellow one will be added. The white and pink/purple coneflower
will also have a new family member, a gold one. The grasses will stay. They
add color and a variation in height. Just a clip here and there, now and
then, on the flowering plants and the bed will look nice and tidy.
Between the plants I'll place a weed block fabric which will be covered with
river rock. There will be no, or at least fewer weeds to pull, and less
watering in the summer.
This year, and every year hereafter, I'm going to spend more time enjoying
and less time maintaining.
|
|
