Catching up

Hi, Posse!  Catching up with you!!! I’ve been MIA for far too long but it’s been a long slog through the Summer.   It’s been like Jamaica down here, with 90F days and torrential rains – things have gone sky-high!  Check out my Hill Border – y’all remember the 9 tons of dirt and compost from a year ago (wait.  was it 2 years?  What.Ev.Er.  – awhile ago, right?) – well, most of that got moved to other beds but there came that point where neither I nor my hired man could shovel another scoop of dirt – the thought of it made us want to smash our own heads with the shovels – so I decided to leave it as Yet Another Border.  50% mushroom compost.  90F . Torrential rains.  Check. It. Out.  (and that’s just 1/3 of it).  I have 7′ Sunflowers (Chocolate Cherry)  and the aptly named ‘Sunzillas’ are almost 9′ tall and ready to pop!Rains really freaked out the tomato and pepper crop – I haz ’em – but they are kinda blah.  Too much rain.  Still…they taste wayWAY better than supermarket tomatoes. And they smell divine!!!  Another great smell?  Cabbages!  I’m not a fan of cooked cabbage but I love the smell of all greens and brassicae as they are cut from their stems.  I hadn’t planned on growing more than one cabbage – not sure how all these ended up here – I think aliens dropped them off while I was asleep.  They are pretty, though.  And I now have enough sauerkraut fermenting for the entire winter!  

Best smells evah, though?  Lilies.  I have no idea why I haven’t grown more of them, especially the Orientals. So….I was walking through the garden and This SMELL!!!!!  one of those permeating-but-elusive scents that blow out your sniffer if you get too close …but it’s like a lure, wafting on the wind.  I’ve never found a lily perfume that works for me – even the top-flight, gorgeous ones have a musk drydown that kills it for me.  And liles in the house are too narcotic – I can’t think of anything other than the smell.  But fragrant lilies in the garden….oh, baby!  I dunno which one this is (I don’t even remember planting it) but it blew me away.  And now I’m hooked.  I have at least 10 coming in late September.  By next July I’ll be zonked out in the chaise lounge, like an opium eater, gorging on the gorgeous scent.   There is much more Garden to tell but to tell you the truth, this was an exercise in Being Brave.  This is the first time I’ve even wanted to talk about my garden in quite awhile and I didn’t know how to tell you guys this but (plunging in) – you remember those  little puppies and their dam?  Well…canine parvovirus ripped through the litter, right as they were turning 5 weeks old.  It’s possible that the virus was in my soil (like tetanus, it can live for a long time in the soil) or their mom might’ve been a latent carrier.  We’ll never really know but it was awful – despite 24hr care (my bfffe and I turned my living room into an ICU) – we lost 6 of the 8.  But we managed to save two!!! Their survival and growth pulled me out of a deeeeep depression and I no longer see my garden as a murderous space.  Since parvo can be a recurring virus and Chloe a constant menace, I had to get them out of here as soon as they were well enough to travel.  Here’s a photo of them with my bfffe, the day before transport.  Millie (the little one in bfffe’s left) has been adopted by a wonderful family.  And here is Miss Ella with her foster Aunt, who is a Corso/Great Dane mix!  Miss Ella is only 10 weeks old.  I think it’s safe to say she is going to be HUGE!   No more picking up with one hand, baby!!!  And I am feeling way better about everything – especially the garden.  Which is nice, because it really is a lovely place.  And it smells lovely, too!

baby girls