CLAY AND WATTLES

Garden Fever

When I got home from work yesterday Paul had gone to the Endowment Foundation meeting and was going to eat something there. So Oscar and I went to Sonic, his favorite place, because he knows he will get a few "Tots" for treats. And he did! I never feed him in the car, though, and he's always good, patiently waiting until we get back home. Then he can hardly wait!! And plants his little bottom on the kitchen rug and looks expectantly to me for his bites! He's so good!

Then the gardening bug bit me and I went to Hays Grocery's nursery just to look around and wound up spending $42 on one fern, two tomato plants, two bell pepper plants (red and yellow, I think; "good for stir fry"), three sun-tolerant impatiens, two begonias and a geranium. There weren't many azaleas so I didn't even try to sort out the colors they had. I need a dozen, pink and white. All told, their selection was very good, just not what I was looking for.

I took my plants home and decided it was time to clean off the patio from the winter's accumulation of dirt, so I found my beach shoes and an old broom and went to work on that, scrubbing and hosing off. The chairs needed a scrubbing, too, and I rubbed off as much as I could with the broom. They'll need some Cloroxing later, especially the chaise with the white arms. It looks diseased. Afterward everything was shiny and as clean as I could get it, chairs, tables and plants arranged and waiting for a quiet, cool day to sit, read, sip tea and look at the green of the back yard and watch birds bathe. I will need to be alert and enjoy that day, because more than likely, after all the rain, it will turn off hot as an oven, all at once. Plus mosquitoes. (They are spraying again this year, aren't they, Mayor/Teacher?)

There are two areas of the yard "I" want to work on: under the ash tree and the back corner of the fence. Actually, I do the choosing and Paul does the digging. And I appreciate it so much!Tomorrow we plan to go to Memphis to Stringer's or some nursery - where they will actually tell you what plants are, talk to you about where you plan to place them, and load them in your vehicle for you - to buy azaleas, a dogwood, some flat rocks to border the azaleas by the fence, clay pots and potting soil. Let's see, that should come to about $1,239.26. Just kidding. But more than $42. I don't "garden" on a large scale very often and these are things we can put out there and let them be, let them settle into the landscape of the yard, with very little pruning or fussing. That's the sort of gardening I can do.