Click, Clack, and the Head Cluck - 2008
It was 64° on our south porch yesterday afternoon! Imagine that! Certainly I, the self-proclaimed Fair Weather Gardener, had no excuse to ignore those tatty looking flower beds. So, I bundled up in stocking cap and layers of sweatshirts (well, it was cold around the edges – that ocean breeze, you know) and pulled on my rubber boots (maybe it was sunny, but it was still wet) and out I went.
No matter what that thermometer said, gardening in winter is gardening in winter. The sky was blue and the sun shone but any similarity to another season ended there. Our fruit trees, bare of leaves, offered no shade. There were no hopeful green shoots popping up here and there. Yellowed flower stalks and crisp brown ferns begged me to put them out of their misery and our fence, bare of climbing roses now, revealed a new crop of furry lichen.
On the plus side, the ground was fluffy and moist. It was easy to get rid of the ever-encroaching buttercups and crabgrass. And, I didn’t see a single slug or other slimy or creepy crawly pest. I had determined that I would do enough slashing and yanking to fill the garden cart with debris and that happened very quickly.
Nevertheless, I stopped at one cart-full. Maybe if we still had the chickens to cheer me on I’d have stayed out and worked a little longer. Despite the fact that there were lots of visitors in town who stopped to chat over the fence, I was not tempted to continue my outdoor chores. Did I mention that no matter what the weather, I’m also a Reluctant Gardener? And I had left my writing project at mid-paragraph. I could hear it calling me.
Today we’re back to rain. It will probably be awhile before weather conditions entice me to work outside again. Oh well…
Hi Sydney…When you referred to slugs I just had to respond. I think you know we have a puppy….Jon took her out before bed last night and when she came in a tiny slug was attached to her low hanging fur-!! I couldn’t believe it. I thought slugs didn’t start birthing until at least March-!!
Sydney. Wish I could have had a visit over the fence with you. Missing Oysterville. Finding Jim is feeling better and today read some of the Observers from December that he missed.
Well, yesterday in Panama City, Florida, it registered 78 on our bedroom deck and Lana Jane and I went out into the yard to do a little touch up work. Thankfully we now have a new yard man who does a great job of trimming and weeding which lets us do only what we wish in the yard. However, I saw what I thought were palm sprouts from palm seeds that we treat as weeds but when I pulled one it was attached to a crocosmia bulb that I had transported from Oregon and planted last year. Well, I thought as I tucked it back in the ground, this baby must be totally confused. We are looking forward to our transplantation to the West Coast already. Thanks for the Christmas postcard of the Oysterville church!