New cartoon over on "Brake"... guess what was my inspiration??

New cartoon over on I Brake......

"Yeah, and the Subway Used to be a Nickel"

Oh, the whining in that last post! Golly, there are ticks in the world? They are in my yard? And, gosh, they get on me? The very idea!
For someone who uses the organic-by-neglect method of gardening, wailing about ticks is a waste of energy. I let the deer, hosts of aforesaid ticks, eat down the front bushes, I let all manner of weeds eliminate the grass lawn, I never turn the compost. I do fill a bird feeder when I'm in residence, so there's some interference with nature, but generally I am as passive as I can get away with around the place. When I first moved to New York years ago, I heard a butcher snarl to a complaining customer the quote headlined above, regarding the formerly low price of the city's underground trains. I've never found a more succinct way of saying, "Get over it!!" and, I hereby now get over the ticks. They are there. They just are. It's too damn bad. After all, the subway used to be a nickel.

Season Begins In More Ways Than One

Namely, my first *&%#@# attached tick, behind my *%$#@ knee, discovered in the shower. Just try pulling a tick out when you're covered in lather and your fingers keep slipping off the stupid thing. Of course, now I've got the creepy-crawlies, imagining they are all over me, even though I've thoroughly showered and inspected myself. Sigh. I want to have a field behind the house, and a woods behind the field. I want to have our side yard glow with daffodils in early spring, then another field grow up there through the summer. I like having a compost pile. All these places on my property expose me to ticks, even though my sole flowerbed is in the middle of the back lawn. I stay out of the tall grass areas assiduously [is that spelled right?] all summer, and tread so timidly down the mown path to the compost pile, I dress like a crazed paranoid geek when I go out to the garden, and still I get ticks every year. Shouldn't I just shrug it off, and consider it an unavoidable hazard if I insist on continuing to garden? [And who are those crazy folks who garden in shorts?] My nickis have sprouted, I have 11 verbena b. seedlings, three daturas, some petunias all coming along...can I please just garden in peace?! Now I can really see planting the flowerbed in all groundcover, and never going outside again. This feeling will pass--it always does. Sometimes it takes longer to pass, that's all...

Season Underway!

Is there anything more thrilling than seeing your seeds sprout into sweet little seedlings? Well, yes there is, but this event floats my boat around this time of year. The nicotiana alatas are going, verbena bonariensis, datura, and a few wave petunias are all going too, and I've got them propped up under the shop lights to soak up all they can.
Meanwhile, back at the garden, the main catastrophe is the lawn right by the driveway, where sand was thrown copiously all winter. The lawn is full of sand and small pebbles...have no idea how to remedy this. Anybody got any ideas? Raking doesn't help, as the tines are too far apart. While the lawn is so soggy, I can't walk on it anyway, so I have time to stew about this problem!
My favorite farm stand/garden center has switched to all Proven Winners rather than raise any seedlings themselves. I was crestfallen to note this... might as well buy plants at Home Depot the way things are going! It's appalling how centralized and homogenized the nursery business is getting. Now I have to sow some browallia, for nobody seems to have six-paks [now, usually 4-paks] of this wonderful, modest flower. And anagallis. And poppies. Yum. In truth, I do not mind so much after all...

Hellebores are Heaven

It's all I've got blooming in the back yard presently. But they are ravishing, and modest too, the way they nod their heads downward. I have no daffs or crocus or tulips, so I survive on these few flowers till the bleeding hearts come in...

New cartoon [two in one week! what's up with that?] on "Delphiniums" !