The stretch of rainless weather continues. Today’s overcast skies and breeze provided cool, but, ultimately, no downpour. Nothing but a quick drizzle. It’s been over two weeks since I last wielded an umbrella. I’m concerned the soil’s already too warm and dry for a good carrot crop, and carrot is one veg I was planning to turn into baby food. (Freya watches us eat constantly. As soon as she’s sitting up reliably — which I predict will be happening in a matter of weeks — we’re going to start her on rice cereal, then move on to vegetables. She’s in a race with the garden; they’re neck-and-neck.)
It was a good day to transplant some woody old herbs. This is the “after” shot. I wish I had taken a “before” photo, because the rosemary was on top of the lavender was on top of the trailing rosemary, all three plants straining out of a space the size of a milk carton. I’m hoping these three will do better in separate pots of terra cotta and galvanized metal, which will drain quickly and heat up nicely and just basically provide Mediterranean conditions on my deck. That trailing rosemary is hurting, though. I like to think I gave it a dormancy period?
To propagate the lavender, I’m trying my hand at layering. It’s silent violence! Strip some bottom branches of lower foliage, staple them to the soil with clips fashioned from mangled paper clips, and cover with earth. They should breed roots and be ready to transplant in, oh, a year? A dog’s age. I’m not a patient person by nature, so I find it most satisfying that gardening involves constant fits and starts. Sow these seeds while waiting to transplant others. Sunny day: pamper the plants; cloudy day: transplant them. Rainy day…not a problem, there’s been no rain.
Weird, though. I’m not one of those people who says, “What a mild November day — I love global warming!” I’m vigilant for signs of dire climate change, don’t dare enjoy them, and generally dislike people inviting the death of Earth into their lives. Much as I griped about snow this past winter, I loved that winter really came through, really showed us what it had, dire predictions notwithstanding. So this whole rainless April thing really gives me the willies. Watch, all I have to do is think about it too hard, and irony will triumph, and it will rain tomorrow, it will rain for days on end, and everything will be restored, and then I’ll fret about monsoon conditions. Kind of funny, kind of makes me neurotic, living in New England, looking for signs of restive weather, where restive weather is the norm.
