Sunday, November 7, 2010

This Bud's For You

It's a week after Halloween, and this is still sitting on my front step.



I'm such a procrastinator. One year when I lived in Edmonton, I actually left the Christmas tree up until March because I couldn't be arsed to take it down.

I've been procrastinating when it comes to garden tasks. Things that should be cut back, deadheaded, or whatever. I know you're all shocked and surprised.

A frost threatens, and I peer out through the window at my potted plants. I don't feel like hauling them all into the garage. I'll just buy new ones next year, I think.

I've been surrounding myself with pansies, because they last through the winter here with little care. I rescued these ones from the Clearance rack yesterday.



The one thing I am pretty pleased about it is my 'Governor Mouton' camellia. This is the third winter it'll have been in the ground, and both of the previous winters it has only had 3 blooms on it.

3.

I've seen the camellia 'twigs' that they sell at Lowe's with more blooms than that on them.

I almost didn't even bother looking at it yesterday. I didn't want to be disappointed again.

But it looks as though it's full of buds! Even though I could only get 3 big ones in a single picture.



Hey, does anyone else on here have a camellia with Yellow Mottle Virus?



I've read that this won't really affect the tree much except in terms of aesthetics, but I was just wondering. I thought maybe this had something to do with lack of blooms. I really wish I would have known to look for YMV when I was buying this thing. Same thing with rose black spot. I learned about that one AFTER I planted my hybrid tea. And that one's been a thorn in my side (heh) ever since.

Speaking of thorns in my side...





The fire ants have built a luxury hotel under my magnolia. They're putting in a pool as we speak. If you're walking through the yard and listen reeeeeally closely, you can hear the sound of hundreds of tiny slot machines...

Fire ants. Yellow Mottle Virus. Deadheading.


Balls!! I say balls to all of it!!




Cribbage and chardonnay on the rear verandah. Much more civilized. Best way to procrastinate, hands down.

19 comments:

biobabbler said...

I hear ya in a BIG ol' way. I have 2 days to either pot my (4) pepper plants and (4) chrysanthemums and bring them inside and deal with the attendent ants (we already have lots indoors) or be a carbon-killing Earth-eater and just let the frost kill them all. CAUSE I'M LAZY. I REALLY need to buy some big pots today and get this done. Foo.

Planning any more cribbage? I'll bring the hooch!

Mandy said...

Did your pumpkin look all moldy before you threw it out? We JUST threw our pumpkins into the compost pile, and mine looked like a meth addict--its face all caved in.

Well, I'm totally with you in procrastination mode. In Boise, things are starting to die off for the winter now, but I still haven't done any fall cleaning. I still have tomatoes growing and ripening!

Is the Wiz said...

Never put off till to-morrow what you can leave till next week!

Kyna said...

Bio: Cribbage is on the schedule for this afternoon, when Chuck gets home from work. Lets make it martinis!

Mandy: Who says I threw it out? :) It's still there.

Is: *high five*!

Kate/High Altitude Gardening said...

Oh, Kyna;
A woman after my own heart. I had tons to do yesterday but it took very little arm twisting to bag it all and swill some wine with the neighbor. :)

Curbstone Valley Farm said...

LOL, don't feel bad about the pumpkin, some years I've left ours so long we've had to scrape their partially liquified remains off the porch with a shovel! Enjoy your chard...the deadheading isn't going anywhere, it can wait :)

Shyrlene said...

Awesome picture of Johnny Cash... where in the hell did you find THAT gem!!

I'm in BIG denial about 'fall garden chores'. I should really put the Sedum in the garage (I leave 'em in pots rather than plant in the garden - to invasive for me.) I should compost the annuals that bit the big one, etc. etc.... but maybe next weekend?!! ;D

Marguerite said...

Not nearly enough people enjoy chardonnay. Good job.

Bub said...

One thing I never procrastinate about is my Christmas tree - it get taken down on New Years Day. Can't wait to see the arse-end of it.

As for the chardonnay & cribbage, well, some things just have to be done!

Jim Groble said...

Why do today what you can do tomorrow or the next day. Thats how we got our pumpkin patch. All our pumpkins are still on the stoop or the yard. jim

Kyna said...

Kate: If swilling wine were an Olympic sport, I'd be more decorated than Michael Phelps.

Clare: Haha, cheers! I almost wish some little juvenile delinquent would sneak up in the middle of the night and smash the thing.

Shyrlene: I think it's actually sort of famous, a friend of mine had that as his profile pic for a long time. I love Johnny Cash :D

Marguerite: 'Those' people don't realize what they're missing.

Bub: I always leave the tree up until at least a week after Christmas. Ukrainian Christmas is on Jan. 7, and being Ukrainian, I use that as the perfect excuse for procrastination. That one year I left it till March...that was just a freak thing. My mum finally forced me to take it down. :D

Jim: Well, you can use the excuse that they're decoration for Thanksgiving. When there's a Christmas tree up in March, there's no excuse for that unless you're a specialty shop. :P

Unknown said...

I like the pumpkins--they're just matching the pansies. As for camellias, they don't grow here so I only know that they are exquisite and that I suffer camellia envy when all my friends in warmer zones start posting photos of them. But it's okay. Really it is. Snif.

Northern Beauty Seeker said...

Sometimes it's best to hang out on the back porch - esp with a little vino and cribbage. :)

ps. Love the pansies!

Jayne said...

I live by the gardening philosophy, "if it's too wussy to make it through a Houston winter, it doesn't belong in my Houston garden." Cribbage and Chardonnay sound like a good idea to me.

Steve Asbell said...

Oh, wow! You're pumpkin lasted pretty long! Mine rotted in a couple days since I carved it in the beginning of October, when it was still hot out. I got my gackolantern in the Tampa newspaper though, so who cares if it didn't last long. Btw, have you gotten frost yet?

CanadianGardenJoy said...

Hey there girl .. I am looking out my deck doors to the CHAOS of my back garden (I stopped looking at the front .. dropping and screaming was just too hard on me now) .. so a million and one leaves are sneering at me .. taunting me but they forget I leave the lucky ones that grabbed their spot in the plant beds .. the rest of the little buggers are going in the brown bags and to the compost dump .. so there !
Even hearing the word FIRE ANT makes me CRAZY !! How on earth can you deal with that ? I feel a scream building in my throat .. lets not talk about that .. I'd rather move on to the wine and funny board with pegs and cards.
Any Merlot there ?
Joy ;-)
PS .. keep the pumpkin .. it loves you !! and send the pansies .. I love THEM !

Anything Fits A Naked Man said...

That pumpkin still looks good! I'd keep it, too! And, bless you for rescuing the pansies! They look terrific!!

The Idiot said...

If a job is worth doing, it's worth waiting for someone else to do it.

Fire ants? I want some of those. Think of the experiments you could do. You could join me in my science crusade.

How many fire ants can you stuff down your pants?

Kyna said...

Jodi: Well, I feel the same sort of 'the grass is always greener' envy with things like lilacs. So you're not alone :)

Ms. S: My favourite place to hang! Although with the time change, the porch sitting has been cut short a little. I get home fom work, and I have one short hour till the sun's down. :(

Jayne: That's a really good philosophy, I think I'm now a follower of it lol. The first couple of years I gardened, I was determined to overwinter everything. Now I don't give a rat's ass :)

RG: Yeah, mine would have rotted quickly too if I had carved it that early. It was still in the 80's then. I usually carve mine the day before Halloween. I didn't carve the one in the picture, that was my stepdaughter's handiwork :)

Joy: I can't deal with the fire ants, that's the problem! There are hills like that all over the lawn. I don't dare walk in the yard barefoot. Ever.

Naked: I was glad that I came upon the clearance rack that day, because everything on it looked so nice. Usually everything looks neglected and sad.

IG: Considering the size of my pants, I'm sure I could stuff quite a lot down there. As I posted on your page just now, I'm all for science. But my bits and pieces are not. They're screaming in horror at the thought of thousands of fire ants in my pants.

Hehe. The idea of a screaming vagina is hilarious. And I think I just found my new band name. The Screaming Vaginas. Very punk.