by CKR
I've been feeling guilty all winter for not watering my outdoor plants more. The lilacs I planted last year particularly would need water through this very, very dry and relatively warm winter. I got around to it two or three times, but it didn't feel like enough. Spring will tell, of course, and I appear to have been lucky.
Even some blossoms to come! But around here, one must be cautious in those expectations. Pinky-white apricot blossoms are beginning to float around their trees, but some have already sogged into brown--the result of early frosting, common in our capricious mountain weather.
The daffodils and daylilies are coming up; some nibbling of one daylily by squirrels, but we can hope that the measures I've taken will eliminate him. I'll remove the cheatgrass, too, when the junipers calm down. There's much less of it than there was last year. A battle of attrition that I seem to be winning.
The soil here is very where it isn't caliche, so it doesn't retain water well. I've worked some organic mulch into the surrounding soil when I've planted stuff, but that can have an even worse effect: the interface between different types of soils can prevent water from moving in one direction or the other. I'm pretty generous in my watering, so hopefully I'm getting both sides of the interface, and the coarse organic material and coarse sand will have large enough spaces between particles that water might move freely.
The lilacs may be using up what little strength they have left and will die after leafing out. I've had that happen. But this little shrub (about three feet high, more or less round) argues that otherwise is possible. It was here when I moved in. It has lots of little white flowers, sort of heath-y, but not clearly a blueberry. The fruit is differently shaped, and the blossom end is different. I'd be grateful to anyone who can tell me what it is and if the berries are edible. The birds seem to have ignored them, like they did the crabapples nearby.
I'm more confident of this penstemon that I transplanted from where it seeded itself to a flowerbed. There are a couple of others that are doing well, too.
This aloe vera, since it's inside, has received more consistent care. The flower stalk is just starting to unfurl.
All to be thankful for, and it reminds me that there's more.