From My Backyard

An obsession; a burning desire. The undeniable passion or love for someone or something.

"Basketball Jones, I got a basketball jones, I got a basketball jones ooh baby…"
Well, I got a gardening jones and just gotta have it, ooh baby…..!

The picture looks out of place relative to the title…. but just keep reading!

I have been traveling and have not been able to get my hands dirty in my little patch back home in Kingwood TX. I have called my wife to check on the plants, worms, rain/weather and – oh yeah – how she is doing and how the soccer match went and to tell her that I love her and miss her!

I spent a couple of days with my mother in Los Osos CA doing a few honey-do's around the house and in the yard. I trimmed some run away ground cover, repaired some sprinkler heads and tried to unclog the rain gutter conduit out to the street….. got some flow but it needs to be pulled up and properly flushed and reset. As I was working I couldn't help but notice some wonderfully bare ground ……….. That bare ground, let me tell that story and then I will get back to my jones for this bare ground.

June of 2009 my mother had a wonderful  80^th  surprise Birthday party that she had spent months planning – LOL – Her children attended with spouses, her grandchildren (15) and two of the three great grandchildren were in attndance. And yes, there were a few great grand children in the oven. She invited 100 or so of her friends from the park she lives in….. great bunch of friends that will always take a free meal and hope that Grammie Glo will entertain them… Well the family provided a very large work crew to do some clean-up at Grammie’s place the next day. Now the story….

My brother-in-Law Bill was on a chain saw massacre mission. I thought that maybe the nieces and nephews would get a chance to witness how badly flesh can be damaged by a chain saw… no such luck for flesh but before the chain bound up there was considerable damage to vegetation and the drip sprinkler system (well maybe he just added more drip locations????). Several months later the remnants of once healthy plants were removed, eg. The lush green juniper to the left of the chainsaw in the picture.

There is now a bare area just begging for seeds and transplants. It is deep sandy loam. I wanted so badly to get some carrot seeds and create an edible border coming up the walk. Those carrots would have had lush green tops and nothing to put those ugly forks in the roots like I have with the Houston clay that makes it so hard for me to grow carrots…( run on sentence). It just screams at me to create an edible landscape…. But, I left jonseing for a chance to give that bare spot some love – Mom said no and like a good son I resisted the urge. She said something like the deer would eat it…. I would share… wouldn’t you?

OK – next I stopped at my daughter Melissa’s house and she shares my jones….. I felt better after getting some Camarillo dirt on my hands, seeing the berry plants, checking out her new raised beds and the veggies taking root. I feel better now!!!! I may be able to hold off until I get back to my little patch now.