Tuesday, June 3, 2014

Good news and hopeful news.

First off - the gas company (Jimmy) came out yesterday morning to check for leaks.  I showed him the dying hydrangea, the non-start hosta, patchy pulmonaria and the crabapple that is dropping leaves.

He used his equipment and checked everything - company lines, my into-house lines, the meter, the works.

What did he find?

Nada.  Zippo. None.   Yay.  That is such  relief because, honestly, the former owners of this house for some stupid reason planted a crabapple tree less than 3 feet from the meter.  What where they THINKING?   WERE they thinking?  So I was worried about the roots deforming the supply line.  But it's all good there. :-D

That took about 5 minutes.  Then, Jimmy asked me about the tomatoes I was in the midst of planting.

Well, before you knew it, we'd swapped rabbit stories, good firewood, how to redirect rain runoff from an uphill neighbor, what we're both planting in our veg beds this season and how to make pepper plants bush instead of grow tall.

Yep.  It was like a mini-vacation - having a pleasant conversation with a friendly service man.  It set me up for the day.

Then, last night, we got just over a half-inch of rain.

And, lo and behold, the oak leaf hydrangea responded to it!  The leaves are not dangling today, but perked up some.

So I'm not writing this baby off, yet.  There may be something wrong with the roots that's not allowing water absorption very well (like a cabbage with club root?). 

Or maybe this year's HollyTone application has kicked in.  Whatever, I'll be making sure I keep this thing hydrated, regardless that the soil is moist from our regular rains this Spring.

Fingers crossed.

10 comments:

  1. My fingers are also crossed for you :)

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  2. what a relief that you do not have any leaking gas lines!

    I have noticed that while regular water from the hose (city water) keeps things from dying, it doesn't actually help anything thrive. Sometimes, even after watering the non-edibles in the yard with the hose, they don't really ever seem "perky." I now rely on watering all of my yard and garden from our rain barrels. By hand. Every day. It's a huge pain in the rear, but it is worth it in the end.

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    1. Hi Ashlee. Thanks for stopping by. :-D Yeah, I had city water at my last house and it was so full of chlorine, etc that you could smell it. Here I have well water. But ever since I set up rainbarrels couple years ago, I, too, lug rainwater to plants now. It's like harvesting free money, that's how good it makes me feel to use it. And the plants thrive -- until the deer show up. Ah well. We do what we do, no?

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  3. It's hard to believe that it is lack of water with all the rain you have been getting. I recall there was an area in front of the house that we moved from that dried almost immediately and had to be watered constantly or nothing lived....maybe an underground cavity? I never knew.

    Good luck with it.

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    1. Yeah, no - can't be lack of water. Just got 2" two days ago. SOmething is wrong with the plant. I'm just gonna let it go, see what it does. That soil is NOT dry.. Nor is it saturated. The nearby hostas, astilbe, sedum and huchera are loving this weather.

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  4. It was thirsty? That's a bit weird. I wonder if you have voles that might have damaged the roots. But at least it's perked up so hopefully it's on the mend.

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    1. Nope, after this week's 2" it's back to dangling. I think it's a goner.

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  5. What about something eating the roots, like vine weevil?

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    1. Nope, no insects. I'm still thinking the fact that there is no bark on the main trunk is the problem. Without a cambium layer to transport water/nutrients up the plant, it will eventually perish.

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