Some might wonder about the name of this blog. "Hypochondriac" refers to my incessant fussing over my plants. I'm not a hypochondriac about myself. This post will highlight the issue at hand.
My pot of Rosemary is in a bad way. I don't know quite what happened but I brought it inside after spending the summer outside and it immediately started dropping needles. It didn't do this last year so I am fairly certain it is doomed. Which is a shame because it was a big beautiful pot and frankly, which herb goes better with chicken and roast potatoes?
Chuck thinks I am worrying needlessly. And anyway he says "everything has a life span. Maybe it just got old." Maybe. Anyway, hmph!
Sunday, October 16, 2011
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
A Clean Slate
It is rare that a gardener gets to start with clean slate. Or in this case, 3/4 of a slate.
18 months ago, my husband and I bought a house with a yard where roughly 3/4 of it was contaminated with lead. Most of Eastern Omaha was polluted by a lead smelter that has been long closed and the EPA sued them for the widespread environmental damage they caused. The settlement money has been used to essentially replace every residential yard affected by this problem.
The previous owners did little landscaping and so here we are. They finished cleaning the contaminated dirt out of our yard today and replaced it with clean soil that evidently came from a farm field. I say this because the entire block smells like a barnyard and the dogs have been eating any cow nugget that they have been able to find. But oh! What fertile soil this is! The smell will dissipate and the nutrients will remain. That is gardening gold.
Readers, do you know what sheer torture it is for a crazy gardener to do almost nothing for 18 months? Because we don't have children, we were far down on the priority list. Maybe someone finally heard my cries of despair. (Literally there were tears on a few occasions.) Bulb planting will commence soon and this winter I can curl up with my seed catalogs (gardener's porn) and dream about what this barren landscape can become.
18 months ago, my husband and I bought a house with a yard where roughly 3/4 of it was contaminated with lead. Most of Eastern Omaha was polluted by a lead smelter that has been long closed and the EPA sued them for the widespread environmental damage they caused. The settlement money has been used to essentially replace every residential yard affected by this problem.
The previous owners did little landscaping and so here we are. They finished cleaning the contaminated dirt out of our yard today and replaced it with clean soil that evidently came from a farm field. I say this because the entire block smells like a barnyard and the dogs have been eating any cow nugget that they have been able to find. But oh! What fertile soil this is! The smell will dissipate and the nutrients will remain. That is gardening gold.
Readers, do you know what sheer torture it is for a crazy gardener to do almost nothing for 18 months? Because we don't have children, we were far down on the priority list. Maybe someone finally heard my cries of despair. (Literally there were tears on a few occasions.) Bulb planting will commence soon and this winter I can curl up with my seed catalogs (gardener's porn) and dream about what this barren landscape can become.
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