A Gardener's Work Is Never Done

Well, of course it isn't. But sometimes we make it harder on ourselves than we need to. I suppose that's just a true gardener's nature - we love the challenges that are placed before us, dangling like the proverbial carrot. It seems that there's always an opportunity to test our mettle in the garden.

If I told you that Romie and I were outside yesterday afternoon, planting two Japanese Maples that had arrived in the mail, that wouldn't be an unlikely scenario at our house. Except that yesterday was December 12th and we were on the melting side of an ice storm. Good timing, I say! The last couple of days have been mostly above freezing and we've had rain. The ground isn't frozen and in spite of all the rain, wasn't a mucky mess to plant saplings into.

You may recall that I'd ordered Paris polyphylla from Trans-World Plants and while browsing their site as I was placing my order, I had the "misfortune" of discovering they sold Japanese Maples, and at very good prices. I'll take two!

One is called "Autumn Moon" and the other is "Pacific Fire." The first is slower growing than the second, which is actually okay, as far as trees go, because of where I wanted to put them. They'll be fine as young trees there and equally fine as they grow over time.


We got them planted in short order and then mulched. Romie put plastic drainage tile around them to protect them from the rabbits. We've lost far too many young trees and shrubs to those pesky rabbits. You just learn, after awhile.

As I was walking in the garden over the weekend, I saw evidence that the rabbits are out there, searching for tasty young plants. Last year, they chewed my young Dwarf Fothergilla all the way to the ground. It didn't die, but it certainly lost a year's worth of growth.

We didn't plant the Paris polyphylla outside, though. They (I bought two) will remain in their pots in the basement greenhouse until spring. Though they're dormant, I could see the crown of the plant and they look like nice beefy bulbs.

Does this mean my indoor plant count is now 176? No . . . It's actually 177. I was a good math student, so it's not that I can't add. I'll explain the extra plant in my next blog post. It deserves one all its own.