JANUARY 26, 2009

Cat rubs whiskers
Against newly pruned
Potato vine branches.

We spent an hour or two yesterday afternoon pruning the two oleander plants against the back fence and Bev cut back the potato plant against the left side of the storage shed. The hope is that this will encourage the oleanders to fill out, but this morning they simply look spindly and bare. The potato plant always comes back like gangbusters and tries to seal us out of the storage shed. I am thinking of taking four or five pieces of the old rough redwood 2X12s and building a planter box for tomatoes. Hope to grow some cherry tomatoes this year. Will have to look up Seeds of Change or Google the Web to see if I can determine the ideal dimensions. Will see if I can get some heirloom cherry toms like the ones I grew one year here that were so profuse. We agreed to use only chicken manure to fertilize and feed them this year as Miracle Gro (or perhaps the failure to apply it regularly) always seems to result in that withering near the end of the growing cycle, just when the plants start to produce. Of course, a drought year is projected, so water will be scarce; they may wither anyway, but let’s hope not.

Frost on the roofs
But this sun brings to mind
Spring planting.

(c) Bob Loomis
01-26-2009, Concord