The Colored Man loves winter and the coldness that it brings. However, I also love to garden. It would seem that the two loves would not go well together, but they really fit together like two peas in a pod.
For instance, look at the picture of this beautiful amaryllis, which is normally a plant that grows in tropical climes. It was a very welcomed gift from my girl, Ms. Loveheart, and it is sitting on my kitchen
table with about 4 blooms in full glory. How did this happen in 10 degree weather, you ask? Well, through a process called "forcing," you trick the bulb into thinking that it is 80 degrees and time for it to wake up and grow. Forcing can be done with pretty much any bulb plant-tulips, narcissus, hyacinth and so forth and so on. In order to force a bulb, you need to get yourself a decorative shallow bowl or planter, preferably clear in color, some pea stones or natural-colored rocks, and some bulbs of your choice.
Once you have the stones in the dish, place the bulbs into the dish, and then add more stones until the bulbs are covered about two-thirds up. Your bulbs should not be submerged in large amounts of water,as this will cause them to rot. You only want the root part to actually touch the water. Place the dish in a cool, dark location. Once you begin to see green sprouting from the bulb, relocate them to somewhere they will get lots of sunshine, and with a combination of heat and light from the sun and heat from your furnace, plus water, and you will have vibrant flowers in about 3-4 weeks. They will eventually die back, and when they do, continue to keep them feed with water and sun, and when it gets warm enough outside, take them out and plant them directly into the ground. Be warned: they may grow or they may not grow.
I guess that the Colored Man's love of plants and landscapes started when I was just a young lad. My great-grandmother had a gladiola garden in the backtard, and one day yours truly decided to go and play in it, breaking a few plants (well, maybe a little bit more than a few). Trust me, I learned to respect a person's garden after that incident, and thus I still have that feeling towards them some 20, oops 30, well actually 40+ years later. I must have some talent in the area, having won certificates and ribbons for my horticultural expertise, and at one point was a certified and active Master Gardener. So it's a good thing.
Any avid gardener will tell you that gardening is time consuming and year-round. But I have always loved getting up around 5:30am on a hot Saturday morning in August, and just spending time walking around the yard and looking at the plants, making mental notes to myself to divide this one, or to deadhead another plant. Or asking myself why did I buy this plant? Or this plant is not working here in this spot. Being in the garden is meditative for me, and there have been times that I have worked in the yard from 8 in the morning, to 3 or 4 o'clock in the early evening. It is my chance to escape and get away, and to be honest, I love when neighbors come by and admire your handiwork, or engage you in conversation regarding your vision. During the winter months i enjoy perusing plant catalogs, watching programs on television, and looking for unusual plants.
Of course, there have been some miscues, like the time that I purchased these outstanding topiary rose bushes, only to have them not come back the following year. I paid good money for those plants so I raised some hell and got a full refund. Then there is the time that I decided to compost, only to have the worms die out, because I hadn't taken the time to fully read about what I was doing. Only this time I did not get my money back. I was dealing with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and figured that I had better not fuck with them too much.
Gardening is also a way of honoring people, for instance, I love portulaca, which blooms in full sun, but closes up when the sun goes down. This is a plant that my mother grew. Another plant that she grew was verbena, which I have tried to grow, but it is susceptible to powdery mildew in my part of the country.
Visual beauty is also another great part of gardening, and I love visiting great gardens. I can't wait to go back to the Biltmore to witness the imagination of Frederick Law Olmstead. My favorite city for gardens is Chicago. It seems that in the Windy City, no expense is spared in their public garden spaces. Most cities usually only plant annuals, trees, and shrubs, but in Chicago, it's all of that plus roses, succulents, grasses, perennials, and vegetables. In Chicago, even the roof of City Hall is a garden. I have often wondered how much money do they spend on their gardens? and will things continue to grow when the city elects a new mayor? We shall see.
My ultimate gardening dream would be to have a space with about 10 acres, so that I could create cutting gardens, dozens of rose varieties, do some espaliered fruit trees, a few grape vines, specimen plantings, wide and deep plantings throughout the space, a pool surrounded by lush tropical plants, lots of potted plants, color galore, bee hives, a greenhouse, French vegetable knots.............................................
Wake up, Colored Man, WAKE UP!!!! Oh...I'm sorry, I feel asleep there for a moment. Excuse me.
So outside it may be frigid, but inside the Colored Man's mind it is as warm and sunshiny as a blazing summer day,when the garden is in full bodacious bloom. I'm going back to sleep, perchace to dream some more about dirt and shovels, and roots, and mulch, and color combinations, and retaining walls, and slugs, and.......
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The Colored Man
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