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.
