Almost May

It’s April 29. I haven’t blogged since March 19. There hasn’t been much to write about. There have been things I could have written about, but all of it was too deep, too weighty. A blog post can’t be a chapter in a book. So I waited for something suitable to come along to write about. And nothing came along.

Athalia the Azalea in front of my house bloomed … as did the pink phlox beside my house and around the back steps, despite my mowing it to the ground several times every summer. The phlox, that is … not the azalea. I don’t think the azalea would stand being mowed to the ground even once.

George the Bush sprouted white blossoms. George stands at the far end of my back yard next to an alley that runs the length of my city block. I cut George to the ground a couple years ago, but the root refused to die and it sprouts stems and flowers in the spring. George is a shadow of his old self, though. He’s much easier to mow around now, and I don’t have to take the hedge trimmer to him any longer.  He’s George the Bush, Jr.

 

Dandelions are hard at work destroying my grass … what little remains. My lawn is mostly weeds now: a lot of clover, but henbit and chickweed, too. I put down grass seed in spots where the weeds had died and left bare dirt. I don’t have good luck with planting grass, so I’m not expecting much in the way of results.

 

I planted a tomato plant in a 5 gallon bucket. I call it Tom (the tomato plant … not the bucket). It’s an experiment. I’ve grown tomatoes before but never in a container. Here’s a picture of Tom at home in his tomato bucket. Formerly it was a paint bucket but it’s been re-purposed. I drilled holes in the bottom so excess water will run out.

Tom already has a yellow flower on his little stem!

If you look closely you can see a couple more buds ready to open.

Today was 68° (F) and sunny so I went outside and performed some maintenance on a rosebush, cutting away the grass growing up inside it. In the process I accidentally cut off a rose stem, so I put it into a little blue vase. Now it sits cheerfully on my living room fireplace mantle.

In other news: I cut down two trees growing beside my garage. Had them cut down, actually. It was interesting to watch. I also took down the white dogwood standing beside my garage. It had been dying for years and the trunk was hollow with rot.

So, not much to write about this month after all. Living in the Heights is a lot like living at Lake Wobegon, except that Garrison Keillor usually finds a way to make the stories there almost interesting. Almost.