Hope falls eternal

The first rains mean work, lots of it. I had to make time in a weekend of college football apocalypse to plant the last bulbs, cut back almost everything (or cut down: I put the final monster pelargonium out of my misery), and, especially, to start seeds. Half of these are the things I started last spring, the other half I ordered mostly from Silverhill before realizing how poorly I did with the first batch. Hopefully nature will do a better job than I did.

Sowing these seeds I ordered six months ago, I had to wonder: what the fuck was I thinking? 5 Romuleas? I have no idea. On the other hand, it made sense to order those from Silverhill, since they are unusual and hard to come by, unlike Ornithogalum. It's a mystery.

Babiana villosa	Silverhill
Erythronium californicum 'White beauty'	paintbrush
Freesia alba x purple stripe	paintbrush
Freesia refracta	Silverhill
Geissorhiza splendidissima	Silverhill
Hesperantha coccinea	Silverhill
Lachenalia orchoides var. orchoides	Silverhill
Ornithogalum maculatum	Silverhill
Lilium bolanderi	Alplains
Romulea amoena	Silverhill
Romulea hirsuta var. hirsuta	Silverhill
Romulea monadelpha	Silverhill
Romulea sabulosa	Silverhill
Romulea unifolia	Silverhill

Report

Despite rain and fog, we've moved from the "second spring" into a kind of second summer. The lapageria has two flowers on it, and shockingly, I found a flower spike in the Hedychium I'd given up on. The neighbors' cannas were also sending up new spikes before being hacked senselessly to the ground.

On the other hand, we know winter's coming because the first Camellia flower appeared a week ago. And many precocious Aloe arborescens spikes are starting to flower around town. Interestingly, the massive, floriferous specimen with a south exposure that I pass every day hasn't done anything yet, while the spikes I've noticed have been on east- and north-facing plants. Hmmm, I wonder if I should put one in the front.

Harvested the pomegranates yesterday. One of them had split open so thoroughly that I decided, probably stupidly, to toss it, but I tried a few arils first. The flavor was good, although the sugar was too low, as feared. But that's a problem that can be corrected. With tequila.

Gardening with the Eagles (and subsequent solo spin-offs)

1. The heat is on

The weather is of course the most proverbially boring topic there is. And yet it is necessarily of surpassing interest to the gardener. I've never noticed summer turn so quickly into "fall" before, but of course I've never paid attention. I do believe that our traditional late-September heat wave was uncharacteristically abbreviated this year. We resorted to central heat for the first time a few days ago.

The days are abbreviating fast too. No use trying to get anything done after 7 now.

But the garden likes to remind me I'm not in Kansas anymore: one of the sweet peas is still blooming.

2. Take it to the limit

It's good to know your limitations. My limit, I just discovered, is six bags of concrete. Which means I'm a pathetic weakling. Nevertheless, I managed to get the slab poured last weekend, notwithstanding the disgusting wound left behind when the concrete float ripped off a callus. It didn't even hurt that much, but the next day it felt like my hands belonged to someone else. That's an inscrutable picture of the slab curing under plastic above, by the way.

I should also note that if you plant to run your own conduit, test it for leaks before you cover it up again.

Now you have Glen Frye in your head too, sucker. Just be thankful I spared you Don Henley.