Blooming Idiot

I lived in Las Cruces, where there are just two seasons (Summer and Not Summer), for so long, I have forgotten what Spring is like. Now I'm trying to figure out how it's not already 80 degrees and why the Spring-flowering bulbs and trees are blooming in progression and not all at once. (The Okame cherries are done, the forsythia have peaked, and the Yoshino cherries and Bradford pears are at the start of full-bloom.) Even for a horticulturist like me, it's downright weird.

A couple of weeks ago, before our most recent rains, I used up my extra retaining wall blocks at the corner of our apartment building -- and then realized I needed more. So, I bought more. As I was setting them in, I uncovered some bricks. Then I uncovered some more bricks. And even more bricks. I have between two and three dozen unearthed. I started using some of them for edging between the planter and the sloping driveway, but they look bad. I'd rather use more wall blocks, but that would take a lot more effort and more money that I don't have, so if I get motivated again, I'll stick in the bricks anyway.

Of course, I can't do all this work to create planters without imagining what they might look like full of plants. However, since I don't want to spend a lot of money, and since no one else will take care of the plants if/whenever I move out, it's kind of stupid to fantasize. But those croci and daffodils around town look so nice, and the tulips and hyacinths are almost ready to bloom, and then there are all those Summer-flowering plants, and this corner will let me grow sun-loving plants that I can't have in my completely shaded bed, which would look pretty darn nice choked with impatiens this summer...

It appears that some of the plants in the bed right in front of my apartment survived the winter. I see shoots emerging where my Agapanthus and blue-green Hosta were. I'm not so sure about the Christmas fern, the asparagus fern, nor the Purple Dome aster, though. (If Spring is stretched out here, there still might be weeks before they start growing.) My Lenten rose, I'm pretty sure, is dead. There are a couple on campus that are blooming like all-get-out, and mine has nothing to show for itself. Oh well, it was nearly dead when I bought it (heavily discounted) last year, so I'm not surprised. If the aster has indeed died, I want to replace it with an Honorine Jobert Japanese windflower.