Thursday, July 2, 2009

Bad background, and cactus......


I have had this daylily a couple of years and this is the first year that it has bloomed. It is in a tough location. The William Baffin rose has to be kept pruned back and the junk under my garden porch doesn't help it. I have a tiller there in the background and a roll of material given to me and I don't know what to with it. I had the steel fence post leaned over it but they are now all out in the garden helping to stake up the fast growing tomatoes. I cleaned up the area a little and now will do the rest so I can retake the picture. I really like this daylily.

While out working in my yard, I was next to my gravel grass alley. My neighbor tends to use the alley to dump things. Spoiled tomatoes are sometime out there, fish scales and bones, old apples from the refrigerator and other things that I don't want to tell you about. He is doing what we use to do as a farm family when I was a kid, throw garbage out in the orchard, so that it could decay and eventually disappear. Anyway, I looked over and he had thrown some dried out cactus plants. They were ones like my other neighbor's cactus that I had decided I won't get any starts from .
The lady named Shirley, who lived on his property next to me, had a variety of interesting plants and she must have had cactus somewhere on the property. The new owner has killed off most of it and now the cactus are discarded. They were really dried out and looked dead but they had very green sprouts on them. It was the green sprouts that sucked me in, it was new growth and I had to save it. Not wanting any plant to die, I cut it up with my shears , chunks of it and put them into two different flower pots. I put old aquarium rocks on top of them and I will try to grow them in the pots. I will wait till spring and put them in a much larger single clay pot. I didn't get stuck after all of the cutting and planting, but being stupid, I went back and picked up another one and immediately got spines in my hand. I should have left them well enough alone. Anyway I will experiment with these for awhile.
My photo of blooming cactus from across the street. It may take a couple of years to get my sprouts to look like this.
I spent the morning mowing my parents yard and then dug up peonies and iris. I know it isn't the right time but I am hoping to have the place sold before fall. I have one medium sized clump of fern leafed peony yet to dig. I also dug some English Ivy. It's roots system is sure shallow should I say, short rooted. I will replant the peony's and iris in the shade of my garden shed and I want to take them both to the cemetery this fall to be planted. Resting this afternoon for a while, but I do need to paint my front porch steps. Thanks for reading....
The potted cactus are sitting on one of my rain barrels, metal with its lid on top of it. It has a history of being in Madagascar and shipped here quite a few years ago. That is another story, someday. Also the neighbor who dumps things in the alley has a dog that is mostly wolf. That is another story I will share some time. Needless to say that the wolf howls just like on Nature on PBS......at night of course..

2 comments:

Catherine@AGardenerinProgress said...

Sounds like a strange new neighbor. I hope the cactus does well for you though. I also hope the plants you dug from your parents garden do well in yours so you can enjoy them in your yard.

Far Side of Fifty said...

A wolf..I had a acquaintence that had some 3/4 wolves, 1/4 dog..they were pretty scary animals..and I LIKE dogs..but these guys are different! Sounds like a sloppy neighbor to me..doesn't it attract Skunks? And flies? We used to take stuff to the hogs on the farm..but fish scales..how smelly and rotten is that..they should be buried..the scales I mean..not your neighbor! :)