I love the earth and the things that grow in it. However, I have never pretended that I do a good job at keeping living plants and things under my care.
I almost always kill plants. Even those that are tough to kill. I had a ficus in college (which I loved) and my roommate and I got to the point where if you didn't touch it (or stare at it for too long) it looked okay because the dead leaves were barely hanging on. One bump to the tree and a whole branch would drop its leaves. Sad.
I do the same in my home now- people give me beautiful things and try as I may, I kill them. If they aren't dead, they just don't go anywhere. I mean, they sit and look the same, no blooms, no nothing. I didn't even think that was possible. I have had tiny successes- like half of our veggie garden grew last summer! The other half was eaten by mangey squirrels. And, my aunt gave me a philodendron years ago that is virtually impossible to kill, though I have gotten close more than a few times. But, that's about it.
When it came time to finally do something with our flower bed outside of the front of our house, Ben and I searched far and wide at the local nursery to find the most deer-resistant and Tara's-lack-of-a-green-thumb-resistant plants. We chose these happy little hollies called Inkberries. They are green, they don't need much sun, or water for that matter, and deer don't find them tasty. Perfect!
And I did not kill them.
But the snOMG did.
I can't believe it... the snow has been melting quite a bit in the past week with some of these "warmer" days- And finally the horror was revealed to me. Under the weight of 800 inches of snow were my Inkberry bushes- broken. Now what? do I trim them to nothingness and hope they grow back into the lovely shape they once were?
4 comments:
Poor Tara, try as you may, your green thumb is pale...and I with a very light green thumb say, go ahead and trim those bushes. Worst case (in my opinion) is that if they are supposed to blossom, you might have to wait til next year. I just think you don't have to go to "nothingness". Any gardeners out there who could help Tara?
Yeah...they'll grow back. Trim 'em and they'll be fine. :)
Tara- that ficus died b/c we threw it in a dumpster once we realized it was infested with maggots. Remember?
Tara,
My mother in law, who has a very green thumb, says to leave the bushes alone until spring. She has an e-mail from Homestead Gardens she is going to forward to me and I will get it to you. It tells you what to do with the bushes that have been crushed by the snow. Or you could see if you can find it on their website.
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