Dis Wednesday

Today I share with you a picture of a Desert Willow (Chilopsis linearis), one of the few plants actually happy with the levels of heat and drought currently afflicting my corner of Katy, and some words from a post I wrote in June of 2008 which reflect my current state of heart and mind.

I am feeling dispirited, dissatisfied, discouraged, disenchanted, disgruntled, disheartened ... oh, hell, just look in the dictionary under dis-! Right now they all feel like they apply. I headed outside thinking that I would water and then take a few pictures to share ... After seeing the dismal and disappointing conditions wrought by the disinclination of rain to fall on my corner of Katy, I am filled with dismay and disgust. I am disconcerted. I am disconsolate. I am distinctly disposed to disappear for distant and distinctively different destinations ... do not try to dissuade me lest I become disputatious and disorderly.

Seriously, folks, it's bad out there. Let me be clear: I have blooms a-plenty. The plants to which those blooms are attached, however, are feeling the stress. What MSS at Zanthan Gardens calls Brown Summer is upon us ... and it is indeed painful to experience on many levels. A gardener learns that sacrifices must be made: which plant gets to live and which should be yanked and thrown into the compost? Those that are deemed worthy will need the gardener's attention ... nay, vigilance. Watering twice a day may be necessary: is this plant worth her/his venturing forth into the heat and humidity, wrestling with the hoses, getting dirty and sweaty? Will the eventual rewards make that gardener glad s/he sacrificed personal comfort, time and effort in order to nurture that plant through hostile weather conditions? It's a very personal decision and one only that gardener can make.


Comments

Anonymous said…
Hi Cindy, We are suffering too in Connecticut through what is drought for us - a lot of plants have just shut down for the season, and we're all hoping they'll be back next year. It's been a challenging year and sometimes dismayingly dismal, I agree.We're crazy gardeners though, so we're still out there with the hoses :)
I feel your DISenchantment with gardening. Do not DISpair! Remember our excitement in early Spring watching for the signs of the gardens renewal? We will have a renewal of our spirits as we feel Autumns tug on summer and we feel that luscious crisp coolness in early morning...and the quickening chill in the evenings as the day get shorter and shorter. The heat of the day will lose it's fierceness and we will once again be in love with our gardens as we watch them come back to life.
It's that horrible time of year. It's hard to even enjoy gardening -- dispiriting, to say the least. Today, all I managed to accomplish in the garden was washing the aphids off the milkweed. I don't even know why that needed to be done, actually! But it really is changing. We won't notice for a while yet but the days are getting minutely shorter and the nights longer, which can't help but bring down the temperature. The end is in sight!
Cindy, MCOK said…
Cyndy, I didn't think it could be as bad as last year, since we had a fair amount of rain in June and July. I was wrong, dang it!

MG, I look forward to that renewal of the spirit! It can't come too soon for me.

Elizabeth, I know each day brings us a bit closer to better days. I should probably stop trying to do anything outside after 9 a.m. It's hard to see so much that needs doing and not be able to get to it.