Madwriter

For some reason today I've been fighting the compulsion to post entries that revolve around lists of one sort or another. Only a couple of these might be at all productive: One is a list of the eras I've decided to write about in Arizona (an update of one I posted here last summer), though I'll hold off on that until I have a more solid accounting. I do want to post an update about the garden, though.

Strawberry plants: A couple of them looked like they were already dead by the time I was able to replant them at the end of July; I planted them anyway, just in case, though it turned out my initial judgment was correct, alas. A few more died anyway after replanting, I suppose either from being out of the ground too long after their rushed haphazard digging up, or from me accidentally cutting a couple of the vines trying to get them out of their temporary bin space. So I lost about half of them, but the ones that survive look pretty good--a few, in fact, look like they were never out of the ground.

Rose bushes: We were able to dig up the smaller one, as you may remember; the first / larger rose was shredded, but most of the canes we recovered still had root stock. The salvaged rose bush is looking kinda' OK--some of its canes are healthy-looking, some are only fair but no worse than when we had to dig it up a few months ago (and they recovered then), while a couple have died. As for the shredded canes from the big rosebush, we've been able to replant one so far, and it's still holding its own.

Apple tree: Our 3-year-old Stayman was a complete loss, of course, and we couldn't even find any traces of its remnants, but we still plan to replace it and possibly get one or two more heritage trees come October at the local annual Folklife Festival--where we bought the original Stayman. In the meantime I want to plant the new Stayman where the old one was, so I'm keeping that space clear.

Mint: None has reappeared yet, but I'm patient. Laurie and I have also talked about adding sage to the garden as well.

I'm keeping my hopes up--and still having good luck with watering plants with air conditioner condensation.