part-time lover

This always happens. I get really obsessed with flower gardening in the spring. I get all kinds of books, make all kinds of plans, dig up a lot of stuff, plant lots of stuff, etc. Then around the middle of July, it gets really hot. And I get sick of watering and weeding and I grow irritated by their dependence on me to keep them alive. They're so needy - it's such a turn-off. Get off my back! I never really loved you! I like to use Ron Popeil's "set it and forget it" method of gardening. I finally got out there again yesterday, and thankfully many of my perennials are still hanging on, even though they glare at me with hatred for nearly killing them.

Speaking of perennials, I love this book:


It's so good! The author goes through his favorite varieties of perennials, and he dedicates a couple pages to each of them. He writes about specific conditions the plant likes, bloom times, pruning and fertilizing, inside tips, and he even lists other perennials it looks good with. I would seriously read it before bed like a novel. I also kept it waaaaay over the library due date, which contributed to our $70 fine. That's right. SEVENTY DOLLARS. Spent at the library. Not even close to cool.

Here are some of my summer gardening experiments:

The bean tepee. The package of beans said something like, "You are seriously retarded if you can't grow these." They didn't grow. And dangit, because it would have been awesome. I'll have to try again next year.



Sunflowers - another "exclusively for retards" plant. They grew! Hooray.



Tomatoes and pumpkins. You really shouldn't plant 8 tomato plants and two pumpkin seeds in an 8' x 4' area. Sure, they look really small and cute in the beginning, but the instructions aren't lying when they tell you how much room to give them. We have a huge pumpkin growing in the middle of our tomatoes, and the vine has taken over the playground. At least they're growing.