Caught a cold, Gardening, and Compromise

Jack came down with a cold yesterday.  He doesn’t take to bed and moan wishing for death to be swift like I do.  He just has a really low voice, a lot of sneezing, nose blowing, and takes an extra nap during the day.  He sounds better tonight than he did this morning.    He also gets over his colds quicker than anyone I’ve ever seen. 

We had great weather this weekend, mid to upper sixties so I took advantage of it.  This fall I failed to cut back the clematis plants.  Saturday’s project was take care of them and whatever that other vine is that came across from the neighbors.  It never bloomed and all but took over one of their apple trees.  It has to be some relative of Kudzu.    And I also got the lawn trimming done.  Neighbor girl does the actual lawn mowing.

I don’t have a lot of tulips, but the few that came up never flowered.  Sunday’s project was to plant a few more and some daffodils.  I also cleaned up along the east fence a bit.  I’m thinking of putting in a Amsonia Bluestar, maybe flanked by a couple of wild indigo on each side.  It’s a narrow strip, but I don’t want the work of maintaining a bunch of perennials.  Looking for more of a wider bush that doesn’t go over 3 -31/2 feet in height.

It was nice enough that Jack sat out on the deck in the sun (with a jacket on) and watched.  Every time he tried to talk to me it started him hacking, so it was kinda odd.  Me just digging away and him just sitting there sneezing and sniffling.

Last weekend we bought the tree for shading some of the deck.  This was a long time coming.  About five or six years I started talking about getting something planted that would shield us from the late afternoon sun.  At the time, I was thinking about the Bradford Pear.  Jack didn’t think we needed another tree for reasons I no longer recall (or…just didn’t really listen).  We bought the side based umbrella, but in the wind it almost seems to want to flip up and over.  He finally compromised and agreed we need a tree.

My idea of compromising is more of waiting until he sees it my way.  In this case, it turned out for the better.  The more I read on-line about fast growing and flowering trees the more I kept coming across the newer Cleveland Pear.  It has the same fast growth, but not the problem of the trunk splitting in strong winds or ice and snow.  New tree goes in on Tuesday.