In the garden

Above you see one of the many delights and attractions of summer break that has lured me away from blogging. My compost box demands nothing other than steady feeding from the top. I don't stir it or add a magic potion to make it work. Layers of pulled weeds and other green garden and kitchen waste alternate with decaying straw, leaves, and pine needles. When it rains, I take the top off so it gets watered every now and then. But mostly the sun beats down upon it, heating it up and transforming it into gorgeous black compost.

What you see above is what accumulated and transformed over the winter. I opened the compost box up at planting time, which is when I took this photo. Then I misplaced the camera, which made me mad because I took the photo to accompany my next blog post. And since I couldn't find the camera, I couldn't blog -- or so I told myself.

Today, I found the camera in the linen closet! Good thing, because the garden has never looked so good. I spent today filling in a few gaps here and there. It's a good time to pick up bargains at the local nurseries. Dunkler's Farm has flats on sale for $7 and all individual plants and hanging pots are greatly reduced.

The skies started to get dark late afternoon. I ran inside to check the forecast only to find that Summit County was in the middle of a tornado warning, with the storm cell forming in Barberton and heading straight to Akron! Yikes! After running around closing windows and putting away loose tools into the garage, I fooled around with the TV remote trying to find useful weather coverage. Channel 3 was the only station that interrupted programming to show us the Doppler tracking the storm.

I had the cat carrier ready to stuff Ophelia into should we need to head down to the basement. Fortunately for the cat and for our neighborhood, the storm tracked north of us and we didn't see as much as a hail stone. Just short bursts of heavy rain, which was just what the new transplants into the garden needed.

Here's a shot taken today of a clump of rescued tiger lilies. I found them on sale at a grocery store a couple of years ago, all dry and root bound in their plastic pots -- 99 cents each. What a deal and now look at them:

Blogging ennui

May has been a blogging bust here at the Village Green. The first word that came to mind was a fancy one, "ennui" -- which, according to dictionary.com means:

...a feeling of utter weariness and discontent resulting from satiety or lack of interest; boredom: The endless lecture produced an unbearable ennui.

In other words, sometimes you have to put a cap on it or satiety will wipe you out.

Sometimes you need a respite. I've been down with a virus, so I've been doing little more than reading actual books, not blogs. Watching some television. NBA Finals. The weird last four weeks of House. Making plans for the garden as planting time approaches. I've managed to get some weeding done and have a few new perennials waiting to go in beds.

I tried to find a spice bush locally. We had one in the garden in Granger. I remember looking forward to it's amazing fragrance every spring. So I looked on Ebay and found a grower with Spice bushes for sale in Indiana. Two 24" bare rooted plants are on their way via US mail.

Obviously the garden is a good place to lose the ennui and find some renewal. Blogging energy is beginning to return! I'm going to the Akron E4S event this week at the new Ohio Brewery on Main St. The topic is "Waste is a Business Opportunity." I hope to see lots of local interest in reducing and reusing various waste streams. Looking forward to blogging about it!