Friends. Pals. Anyone out there?

I give up. No, not forever. But for the season. Can’t take it anymore. Not another minute.

The Pretty Much Picasso petunias are completely faded and have almost quite blooming. The dahlias were DOA. Dead on my arrival (I was in Chicago for 5 days). Beans are barely producing. Strawberries and raspberries have come to a screeching halt and the tomatoes never did get up and running. The Sungold tomato, um, someone forgot to water IT in my absence. You know about the hoppers and weevils? Well, as if they aren’t bad enough, we’ll add 4 downdrafts to that, peaking at 70 knots. Believe it or knot, that is 80.6 miles per hour. It knocked over my two tallest tomato plants and broke one in half. It broke one branch of my new 5 foot tall ‘Twisty Baby’ honey locust off at the soil. Enough already.

One man died when a tree fell on him.
My darling niece’s wedding reception was cut very short by the power outage from the storm.

I will now turn my focus to ordering bulbs for 2011.

Dee and Carol, I hope your gardens have fared better than mine.

Ta ta,
One pathetic caretaker at Ranch du Bois

Gardening 365 – Day 237 and a pathetic one it is.

I am a complete and total SUCK-AH for gardening magazines. My all time fave is Gardens Illustrated from England. I subscribe to a zillion of them, well, those that are still in business. So, imagine my delight when I discovered this newbie on the block:http://www.growingwithplants.com/.

May or may not be the leading edge of magazine publishing today but I am with them for the next few issues. Check it out for yourself.

Gardens 365 – Day 231. More gardens, all the time.

I learned two new terms this week that are totally cracking me up: Mommy Water. Heehee. Essentially, it means vodka. You know, for all those overstressed mommies.

Second, Porch Pounder. Now, this is more my style. Certain wines fit into the “Porch Pounder” category. I understand this. It means the kind of wine you drink when you are sitting on the porch and pounding it down.
Relevant. Yes. Soon. Very soon.

Gardening 365 – Day 230

one small vignette from the incredible Lurie Garden in Chicago

Check this out: the view from the mezzanine level. Yes, over 1200 vendors and then some. What a show.

Yours truly was down there mixing it up with all these fine folks. Chicago is a very cool city. Oh, and this is at the Navy Pier.

Whew, this is a big day. Off on the Independent Garden Centers bus tour today, to check in at 6 or 7 Chicagoland nurseries to see what’s happenin’ now.

Get this money maker: cord wood. $200 bucks a cord. And this stuff will be gone in no time. Interesting way to make a buck in the off season? I say so.

And this little bright spot, I am calling it, “A Tiskit a Tasket – A bright Autumn Basket.

Gardening 365 – Day 228. Tomorrow: the show.

Dee and Carol and lovely readers,

There are two ways to look at this: either I am 7 days late in getting last week’s letter up, or I am a day early. Let’s go for early. But while we are dwelling on last week (oh, we’re NOT?), I just want to echo Dee’s sentiment about the garden week from hell. The postcard from hell.

I’ve pretty much given up on the garden for the year. Yes, I have a bunch of company coming next weekend.I just can’t do much about the issues at hand. The plague of locusts is hideous. What they haven’t chomped on, the black vine weevils are snacking on, too much heat and not enough heart and determination on the part of yours truly. I just threw my hands up and said to hell with it last week. Spraying down Ranch du Bois with ‘hopper poison won’t do me any good.

I did count 36 apples on the espalier. Maybe I reported that already. The apricot tree has about 36 leaves left on it. There are 3 pears between the two pear trees. Green beans? Might as well chew on my Mirado Black Warrior pencils.

So, I ‘ve run away. Run away to Chicago for a few days hanging with garden peeps. I’ll think about the locusts another day.

Hey there. Your roving reporting is checking in. I am in the fair city of Chicago for a couple days, taking in the IGC Show. Several thousand gardening peeps will be here to discuss the latest and greatest innovations in the garden center business. I am not talking big box stores, I mean the independent folks. Tomorrow is a 14 hour bus tour of the finest, most innovative nurseries in the Chicagoland area. As if I could be any more exhausted. Nothing like being over stimulated for several days in a row. With all things gardening. And more gardening.

Of course, you know and I know, I dropped the trug on posting 365 on gardening. Would you believe me if I told you I never once stopped gardening and not a day has gone by that I have not been consumed by gardening in one way or another? Please, believe me. I’ll be able to ’splain later. Wait, let me show you now:
The Rocky Mountain Gardeners’ Resource Guide. 384 pages. Covering 600,000 square miles. THAT’S what I’ve been doing.

So, I owe you a few days of catching up. OK, it will be hard, but I’ll go to 12 garden centers tomorrow and report back to you. They are serving fresh pie at one. Yes, I’ll let you know how that goes.

BTW, I am here to present on the Top Five Hot Button Issues and Gardening in the Intermountain West:Goldilocks and the water issue: too much or not enough; hitting pay dirt; going native isn’t pretty (enough);the land of fruit and nuts; and I WANT IT NOW! I’ll elaborate later.

If you have a pressing concern you’d like me to take up, on your behalf, with these nursery folks, just say the word.

Gardening 365, and its the 227th day.

If you are up and around, tune in this morning, about 7:35 am, to 94.9, THE RIVER radio station. I’ll be there, offering up all kinds of swell fresh advice for your garden’s health and well being. You, too, will fell better, just for having listened. I promised.

Western Idaho Fair is just ten days away. Do you have the biggest melons? How about a perfect zinnia or dahlia? Enter to win fame and fortune. Entry information can be found online or pick up a premium book at Zamzows, D & B.

This photo is from Garden Geek and Photographer Cool, Mr. Rick Cate. Check out more of his work here: Zenfolio.

Gardening 365 – Day 216.

Looking for something to like. When it’s 100 several days in a row, I have to work at finding something to embrace… besides air conditioning.

I spent some time this week going through the list of newbie coneheads! Lookie here now! Hot Papaya, Maui Sunset, Green Envy, Harvest Moon, Twilight, After Midnight, Ruby Star. Oh yes, yes, yes. The whole bunch of them can be found at Far West Nursery this week. Unless I get there first.