madgardener here, just thought I'd holler back and throw out a ramble, some prickly thoughts and chat about sticky pots and Springn madness raging through me at the moment. Yesterday I went to Gloria's and retrieved some houseplants that she was sitting for me during my impending house and homeless situation. luckily for me we found a place to live, now all we need is to do a job dance or hit a small lump on the lottery! lol...........but I went to my first Sadre on Passover at her home Saturday and took a pot of succulents back home with the promise of returning Sunday and getting as many pots of cacti and succulents I could cram into James "bucket" (aka Buick station wagon). It's purely amazing how many pots one can get into the back and front floorboard of a little squatty station wagon when one is motivated. I took four of my Lucerne milk crates I've kept over the last 29 years that I scrounged from the back of King Soopers in Aurora, Colorado that are PERFECT for transporting plants and mostly now the prickley cacti and Euphorbia's I now have collected. It was great to gather them from her Iguana room and spare bedroom and the few in the foyer and let James maneuver them into place.
Because he is now aware that I don't regard soil on the car's carpet as a problem, he stopped at Lowes knows how to irritate and aggitate and with some of the funds on the gift card I'd loaded up with returned wall covering, bought a good reversible tarp. I'd taken heavy construction garbabe bags for slipping over larger pots, but left them for the last load. My 150 pound Cerius cactus, "Brenda" will be transported with her pot in a garbage bag and lying on her back, the two large pots of schiffeleria will be done the same. And probably the monstrosa cactus, although it might sit quietly on the floor board in behind me. it was great to get the Clivia home though, they are making BUDS!!!!!!!!!!!!! Pen should be pleased that Gloria knows how to tease MY clivia's into budding. LOL The yellow one made a new leaf as well. wonder when she'll offer up a bud?? patience is my other name, I can wait.............
At Lowes, I was distracted by the perennials........wound up purchasing the teeny little lambs ear and tucked it into a container that I actually HAVE at the moment. Yesterday it was three pots of cobweb sempervivums (hen's and chicks) and the last three pots of lemon thyme which I tucked into lava pots and sat outside. Today..............MORE sticky pots with the dwindling funds on the Lowes merchandise card........two pots of heirloom tomato's, German queen which had TWO plants in each pot (I tend to look for those, more for the money) and picked up succulent pieces on the concete underneath the cacti and succulent racks as I looked through for pieces. resisted the plea's and beggings and stickiness of new perennials and old favorites as I looked and drooled and longed. Wondered about my own Japanese painted ferns that are over at Karols.....are they fronding? are they dead? wanted two or three pots of not less than eight kinds of perennials, including a new wormwood that caught my eye. ack!!!! I need to either get a job at this Lowes or a job period or go mad! Everywhere I see Spring bursting and I angst over all the things I could be tipping out of containers and pots and planting around this rental we're living at. I know I should be unpacking all those boxes, but the madness is upon me and just having patience for things to calm down and see if I will be able to retrieve my perennials and shrubs and assorted things is making me a bit nutzoid.
No comforting sounds at night of peepers, I live in the center of this little town. Granted, I'm grateful that it IS quiet. Just a few car sounds and the occasional sound of the ambulance or such because one of two hospitals is a few blocks away. But nothing like a busy city. I have resolved to dig up Star of Bethlehem that is growing in an abandoned yard a few hundred feet away before they dissolve into the soil. I say abandoned because the house could fall over any moment given a strong gusting wind were to rip through. I also have bulbs to plant out front that I did bring, so there's that. and I have a most impressive herb garden running along the west side of the house along an abandoned part of "driveway". Oregano is lush, the Rosemary is blooming and three foot wide and four feet tall, Spearmint, Lemon Verbena, and soon, in the middle of the oregano, my tomato plants. If I can find them, I have seed to cucumber and squash. I think I also have runner beans.
Sugar dawg has settled into the life of yard dawg, but I know her heart is longing for a good run with the cows.......Smeagol is happy as usual as a house dawg, but now that they have actual grass to play on he plays more with his "mama". We lost the little evil other canine awhile back, no more OoDee (other dawg) as he ran off months ago and saved me the trouble of taking him to the pound despite that I paid for his neutering he had been out on his own too long and I was catching him doing evil things that I wouldn't tolerate a dog of mine to do. Never mind, it's enough that I describe things he did as evil....he was a cute little bugger, but that and that he was causing Sugar to get bad habits as well as teaching Smeagol some wrong things was enough for me to not search for him when he ran away.
The two cats that I brought with me are happy as house felines, although now Maggie wants to go out and terrorize the birds. Good luck, these are city birds adn well aware of lurking mini lions waiting for them. and there is no shrub cover for her, she's blatently obvious as she sits underneath the thistle socks and suet that are dangling in the back yard that I'm relocating to the eastern side of the yard. no one is interested in the thistle socks, no titmice or finches or even wrens to enjoy the seeds, but the suet brings the cardinals and blasted starlings.........and robins are snobs and only search for worms adn bugs on the ground. I miss all the variety of flying dinosaurs. I at least have mockingbirds to amuse me and hear.
Now I have to repot tropicals and cacti adn succulents and make do with what I have, but it's more than enough for now. Maybe I'll have reports of perennials coming back home to me bursting out all over soon. Lets hope so. Holler at me and let me know how things are going for you and your gardens. If I can't do what I have done, I can rejoice with you all in what you're doing. Thanks for listening. If anyone has seeds or divisions of things that they're overrun with, send 'em my way. I'm welcoming anything from anyone right now. Those who need an address can holler at me at my yahoo account..........I have some addresses right now but not all. things are still packed and in whichever box it's in.............
maddie, up in the green bowl, surrounded by Cherokee National Forests lit up with white dogwoods, pink redbuds and a wide assortment of greens, gardening in zone 6b - 7a