Went for vacation and worried about my plants. I had potted some up, placed them all in a sheltered (from the intense sun) area and watered them well. Too many plants to ask someone to tend to them so I took my chances and figured I'd have to replace the special ones. Back home after 10 days and to my amazement, they didn't need me...
This was the first time the dittany of crete ( ornamental oregano) has bloomed...
The Texas Star (hibiscus coccineus) began blooming too...
The Hibiscus...
Daylilies....
and more daylilies...
The first blooms on the sword bean vine....
and rain lilies....
and society garlic...
and purple gomphrena and red gomphrena globosa and creeping daisy (Wedelia trilobata)...
and the french hollyhocks...
and the jasmine....
jewels of opar (ophar)...
and hoya. Ahhh at last, someone who needs me, the hummingbird feeder needs filling! It is nice to be home...
I experienced something similar, but on a small scale for plants. I left out of town and had someone tend my planted seeds and potted plants. returned to dried up soils. they did not know what they were doing no green thumb award for the person plant sitting for me. however, to my suprise some clematis (intergafolia), datura, and gourds that were about a month overdue had sprouted.
I wonder if the drought caused the seeds to shock and germinate?
Great pictures!
thank you for sharing
calvin
Hi Calvin, I was lucky to have received a couple of well scheduled rains here while gone. Usually I try not to get too carried away with plants when I know we are planning a trip for this reason.
I also have 2 dogs & 4 cats so have a friend tend to them. Too much to ask for a plant tender too. I always thought that would be a great job but don't know where I'd fit it in.
I was so excited to find all was well when I got home I had to tell someone... Thanks for looking. Pod
Pod, Looks like your yarden welcomed you beautifully.
Hope mine does as well. Am going away for a coupla weeks and I got a waterer for my yarden - here in the desert plants MUST have a waterer. I told her she needn't weed, deadhead, or otherwise fuss. Just water whatever looks saddest. It doesn't rain here.
Thanks for sharing your garden with us. ~Blooms
Blooms Thanks for your kind words. Most folks wouldn't understand the feeling of leaving plants behind. I am sympathetic to you and hope you AND your plants do well. Yarden... I love it. Hope to see some photos when you come home. Take care, pod.
I am getting ready to go out of town for a week!!
I to live in a place that you MUST water or your plants will die. In the past I have found it near impossible to find someone who cares as much about my plants as I do. I come home to find little yellow crisps that once were lush plants. My neighbor had her kids water them!!
I started all of my plants from seed this year and I gotta tell ya, I am attached to the little guys. (24 tomatoes, 20 peppers, flowers, and all sorts of vegetables) Funny how that happens. I am scared that I will come home to crispy critters again this year so I am going to try something new.
I am in the process of putting automatic timers on my gardens. ( Back breaking work) I am trying to see how long each station needs to run and how often. I hope that I come home to blooms and vegetables like you did Pod! Those pictures helped me have some hope!
Now all the neighbor will have to do is pick up the mail and check to make sure the timers are working!! I will have my fingers crossed that it works.
Thanks for the pics.
Lissy
Wow ~ you are ambitious but your watering system will pay off in the long run. I know your area is more arid but here I am loathe to water too much. It seems when I water it is never deep enough. The roots stay too shallow and then suffer from water deprivation worse than ever. Should I actually water adequately, the tree roots surface in that area and sponge up the moisture. I keep most plants in pots so I can control moisture and soil quality as well as sun or shade.
I wish you luck and hope you have a worry ( & trouble) free week away from home. It is sooo nice to get back home. Good luck pod
Podster,
I love that french hollyhock. Where were you able to find it?
I sometimes think I have that phobia (agoraphobia?) where I have a fear of leaving home. But what it really is that I don't want to leave my plants. And I am dead serious!!!! I also don't want to leave my cats, even though I have people who would gladly pay attention to them.
I need serious mental health counseling!
Murmur, I am on your side. It is ever so hard to leave the things you love behind. I feel guilty that I am enjoying life without them all. The plants hurt my feelings by not needing me. The pets on the other hand are obsessively underfoot!
Hi Knolan, Are you sure you want ANOTHER purple flower? I got the seeds from a little old lady in (believe it or not) Goober Hill. That is a few miles south of Possum Trot. They are beautiful. I had wanted some and was going to order but she was generous. If you care to dmail me, I will check to see if I have some seed left. Once you get them established, they will produce seed and come back from roots as well as self seeding.
Hi Pod. Oh, yes, yes, yes....I'll d-mail you.
Funny....you've been reading my thread! Wait until you hear what I bought today. ;>}
BTW - Goober Hill and Possum Trot? Hmmmm.... are there relatives to Jed Clampett living there?
Podster, that is one beautiful cat!!!!!
Really good people in this area. We are backward but good to the bone. I think I would have loved the Clampetts for neighbors. Especially if you read the problems with the homeowners assn. I really love the names of the old rural communities. Most are known only by natives, no signs needed here.
Murmur, Siscoe thanks you. She was discarded in our driveway 11 years ago, along with her brother Roscoe. She is an eccentric little old lady. The tiniest cat of our four and rules with an iron fist! We all bow down to her. Thanks.
LOL - Siscow and Roscoe? Love those names!!
Sometimes names are hard to come by. Roscoe just fit her brother but we waited for her personality to name her. We decided because she was Roscoes' SISter, how about Siscoe. Of course she has been called Sissy but she is not one. We live in a remote wooded area. She used to go on walkabouts. We wouldn't see her for extended periods of time. When we would get ready to write her off, in she would roll. Acted like she hadn't been gone. She would never have been to the neighbors as she is too spooky. We wonder if she would encounter a snake, coyote or dog and lived in a tree for eons. In her old age, she has lost the wanderlust. Now she serves as Queen of our catdom... They are always fun.
Ah, yes - they are indeed fun! I have Margie, Bigfoot (real name Prints - as in paw prints, as he has an extra toe on each paw), and Friday. All three were rescues since last August. I had just lost my last cat and was devastated - wasn't going to get another one for awhile as I didn't feel like I could go through that kind of grief again. My brother and his wife were bringing the folks over for a visit and called to say they had just found an itty bitty black kitten, obviously hungry, in a hedge at the folks' place. Did I want it? Oh, gee . . . We named her Friday as my husband thought she looked like a Friday the 13th kind of kitty - all black. She's about a year old now - we guessed her birthday to be July 1 so yesterday was her big day.
Then came Bigfoot - he had been abandoned in an apartment when the owners moved out. Hard to imagine as this is one nice, nice cat!!! He's quite a wuss, though - wish he'd toughen up and tell the girl kitties to mind their manners and treat him with respect. He has allergies that turn into sinus infections, can you believe it? The vet guesses him to be six or seven years old.
Lastly, Margie arrived. She is one gorgeous white/black/gray cat who had been living on my brother's deck. But they didn't want her as she was mean to their three cats. So I took her and am glad I did. She had always liked me and when I brought the carrier to possibly bring her home with me, she jumped right in!! She would prefer to be an only child, but does okay with the other two, plus is friends with one who comes to visit every day (this visitor sits outside the French door, looking in - wondering where his/her buddies, Margie and Bigfoot are - Friday is afraid of him/her . . . I just started letting her go out on occasion and she is a Fraidy Cat . . . Fraidy Friday Cat, that is).
Well, I'm here in California, and i can only hope my water person does as well as the last time she took care of my yard.
Lissy, where is Stansbury Park? Up by SLC? We live in the state that has NO plants that "like full sun". LOL Before I left I laid two new seep hoses and bought another back and forth sprinkler to handle emergencies.
Let us know if the timers did the trick.
And wow [!] the humidity in Cal is a major change in hairdo.
Love all the kitty stories.... always had kitties in my other lives.
Now I rather like being free to go off without a worry about another being.
~Blooms
Blooms, I can't imagine being catless (dogless, I might try). Even when I worry about leaving them to some elses care. My cat genes are too strong.
Murmur, losing a kitty is hard but that is part of life. There are always cats/kittens that need us almost as much as we need them. And as a friend says 'we all need a kitten around every so often' and we do....
I hadn't had a kitten for a long time when I got Friday and even my husband, who is NOT an animal lover by any means, laughed at her antics! She truly was the goofiest kitten I've ever had. She's still a real nut at the age of one, but when itty bitty was an absolute riot.
Hush Murmur, You are going to make me get the urge. I have four adults at home from ll to 4 years and acquired a hurricane refuge who is older. He stays at work as he isn't "cat" compatible. This is enough but we have had up to 7. All neutered/spayed. It is just a matter of time when we will find a kitten that needs us... Yeah right!
Another pretty kitty and what a lovely setting!!! Cats and gardens, just go together, eh?
Bless your heart, too, for taking a hurricane refugee - I considered that as well, but you should have seen the look dh gave me!!! I'm eager to have a dog again, too, but again you should see the looks I get AND I will wait until I am no longer working. I want a very small dog, though, one who won't leave big poops and ruin my flower beds! And one I can take with me all the time (we have pet friendly stores around here!!). And my folks, if they are still with me (fingers crossed, prayers said), would so enjoy having a puppy visit them.
Boy, this whole thread hit home with me! Plants, cats, and worries on vacations!! We've had the opportunity for some really wonderful vacations (my DH is retired), but I limit us on how many times we can go someplace in a year - and then for an absolute maximum of 10 days. By that time I have worked myself into a frenzy of worry. We leave our two cats at home (indoor cats), and hire someone we trust to come over to feed them and pet them, but they get so lonely! One of them won't come out from under the bed when the sitter is in the house. And the plants! We have automatic sprinklers, but lots of things in pots, too. So I moved them all under the port-a-cachere, for protection. A friend was to water them - begged to water them, and the first time over, she tripped and broke her leg. So she had her husband do it. Well, because it rained while we were gone, he didn't bother to come over. You can imagine what 10 days in pots, in the heat without any water does to plants. I was sick. But the cats were OK. :-) So now the person that feeds the cats, waters the plants too. Trust me, the friend that broke her leg got even with me. I was her virtual slave for almost a year. LOL
podster - your plants are beautiful! You were one lucky lady! (Your kitties are beautiful too.) I love rescue stories. Rescued kitties are so grateful, I think, and make such great pets. We lost a much loved cat too early (a rescue) and couldn't stand the thought of going through such pain again. But a year later, we realized how empty the house was and adopted two kitties that we adore. I know we'll go through that awful pain again, but I have to remember that in the meantime, these two cats have a loving home. And I can't imagine our life without them.
Thanks for the comments. Our rescue cat got away from an evacuee. Never could find them. We are located on one of the evacuation routes. He walked across the porch at work just yowling. He was wearing a harness but no leash. I went out and picked him up bringing him in without thinking. We have 2 dogs that go to work with us. He never flexed a claw and was best buddies with them immediately. Me thinks he grew up with a dog. We named him Scraps ( somebody elses left overs ). The vet says he is a Russian Blue and he is now an IT! He is SO nice. People who don't like cats like him. They worry when we let him go out at work. When we went on vacation, we boarded him.
Something you might do next time you leave. I always get at least two and try for a third backup person. They have each others phone number and I give the first two keys to the place. That way no one has to be totally commited.
By the way, the plants in the photo were clustered in the shade for vacation. Pearlie is peering into a little birdcage which I have ivy in. A group of plants is always prettier... but thank you. pod
Interesting. The Russian Blue doesn't like cats, but likes dogs, if I understood correctly. We had a rescued Russian Blue - Rookie (found in a tire at a farm auction - eyes not open yet - mother had apparently rescued the others in the litter, but hadn't returned yet for this one - daughter brought it home and we had to nurse it from a tiny bottle with special kitty formula) who was raised by our sweet little Westie. I always thought that was the reason she liked dogs. But when we brought home the rescue that died at the age of 5 (Harley), she would try to kill her whenever she saw her. We introduced them according to the books, but Rookie ('cause she was a rookie cat/dog) never would accept Harley (Davidson, 'cause she purred so loud all the way home after we rescued her - sounded like a motorcycle). We kept them in different parts of the house, and hoped it would get better, but after Rookie got loose a couple of times and beat up Harley so bad that she had to go to the vet, and after she started biting us (including our young son), we had to give her away. She went to a good home, and she liked their dogs just fine. Just hated cats. And then us, for bringing another one home. She had been such a good cat before. And beautiful.
ceejay, you are right - rescued kitties are grateful!!! I see that so clearly in all three of mine - mainly the two that were already adults. Come to think of it, Friday, the kitten, just thinks she owns the place.
Podster, probably lots of folks know what you do for a living, but I don't and would love to know where you can take your pets - probably your own business, but from the pic I can't quite tell. Hope I'm not being too nosy - but will answer any question you might have about me (well, almost any question!).
Ceejay, I love the name Harley, an interesting tidbit I read is that a cat purrs when happy, content or scared. Doesn't that make me feel bad. In dogs and cats, we have always had best luck with others discards. They are far more grateful. Murmur, we are self employed in a retail sporting goods business. It doesn't pay particularily well but I love what I don't have to do for a living. I.e. Dress up, leave pets at home, if a trip to the vet (27 miles away) is needed I can slip off. Must like it, been there since 1977. It is a business in a rural area which has afforded us the lifestyle we chose. This was after living in Mpls and Phx. Had enough of big city life. Great friends and neighbors. They help us out on vacations and worry about us when ill. The only down side is to a percentage, animals don't mean much. Money is too spare to spay/neuter and animals can be discarded like garbage. This is why we have/had so many. If you have followed the suit in Spring, Tex by the home owners assn, you can see why we love it here. We can do as we please and try to let the rest of our neighbors do the same.
