While I have been feeling extra discomfort around my mid-section (months now), I stopped feeling like walking regularly. I don't have super high daily walking goals, but even those weren't getting met while I felt so poorly. I've been trying to increase my steps as often as I can lately. My idea of where to add steps to my day and most people's may be a bit different. I tend to go places like the grocery store or Lowe's or Target to get my walking done. Today, I entered the Danger Zone.
For Valentine's day, daughter #2 gave me some flowers in nursery pots. Two were mums, one was coral bells, and one was salvia. One mum seems to have died, and the other is barely clinging to life, because I set them outside too soon, unplanted. The other two suffered for being indoors, fighting for light at my front window. All should have been planted into bigger pots or the ground quite some time ago. I've had dead plants in the container pots up front since last fall. I had a creeping juniper in one that I'd planted the first fall we were here, and it gave up the ghost somewhere over the summer. The annuals in the rest of the pots died at first frost. I knew I wanted to freshen those up with living things, possibly the plants from February. I just dragged my feet about it, because I dreaded touching the spiky juniper that pokes me and gives me hives when I handle it. It became necessary to dispose of it this afternoon.
When I left Rotary after lunch, I drove toward the big, wonderful, locally-owned nursery in the heart of the industrial part of town. I had a mission to search for a white lilac, and I found several, but I put off buying one right away when I saw the price tag. I want to make sure I have the right location for it before I drop 50 bucks on a single plant, and I want to make sure I have agreement from the man who will be doing the digging for it that it won't dry up in a pot. I wandered around the perennial section, getting my steps (slowly), pretending that I was just information-gathering, and planning for later. I took pictures of things to remember, and kept my hands empty...until I saw a perfect, dark purple pansy that said it was a perennial even in this zone. It was in my hands before I knew what happened. Suddenly, I was creating a collection for the big, square pot up front from where the dead juniper had been tormenting me. In no time I had a vivid orange gazania, a white creeping phlox, a striped yellow and purple viola, something showy and trailing with orange flowers I'd never seen before, and an upright purple Veronica that I couldn't live without. Okay, I thought, one pot down. I should stop here. But I kept walking, and out of the corner of my eye, I saw delicately pale nemesia. I've had a passion for them since we last lived in California, when I had the most sweetly fragrant pot of them that died a tragically early death in the Mojave sun and heat. I kept walking, and picked up a four-pack of alyssum. I thought they would make a good scent-pairing for the nemesia, and together they'd complement the salvia. I almost made it out then, but instead I saw "Herbs A-Z." I was lost. I needed to get a jump on growing basil, because I love to cook with it. Rosemary never survives a winter here, so I needed more of that. I decided to try an apple mint, and I grabbed a catnip from right next to it. I looked for my favorite herb to grow, lemon verbena, but although I found a sign for it, it was the only herb in the lot with an empty space underneath the sign. I tried three new ones I've never grown before: bergamot, sweet bay laurel, and summer savory. I have no idea how they'll go, but I couldn't turn them down. The bergamot is in a pot with the coral bells, in the protected cove next to the garage on the front porch. The rosemary, bay, savory, and basil are in a pot in the direct sun on the porch. And the mint and catnip are still in their nursery pots on the back steps, out of reach of the Pride, who noticed that they existed in the brief five minutes they were inside while I filled cat food bowls.
It feels like a very successful day. I made my walking goals, I threw away the dead juniper, and I freshened up the pots on the porch. I have flipped a switch, and suddenly it feels like the growing season is in full swing. Allons-y.
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