Carrie Barre-LiBaire's Gardening Column

Down to Earth Gardening

Late last fall, my neighbor tossed me a bag full of Cannas that had been given to him. Never one to decline plant material (except Stella D'Oro day lilies, never by a flat of them, even at a steal) I took them off his hands and went about finding out what to do with them. After much information all about the intricate care of these things, I decided they were just too much work. So I threw them in a lidded plastic cat litter container with some packing peanuts and stuck it in the basement next to my ceramic planters that were in for the winter. I figured they were free so if they lived I'd deal with it in the spring.

Late last February I was in the basement poking around my planters in some poor attempt to hurry spring along. This is when I happened on the forgotten Cannas. I was in shock when I opened the container and saw green shoots coming from every one of those rhizomes! I was ecstatic that I had some gardening to do, so I potted them up and invaded my husband's office with them. All went pretty well, save a nasty case of aphids and the potent cinnamon smelling insecticidal soap I used to control them. It was June before I was confident enough they would survive in the garden. They finally started blooming the first week of August and are a gorgeous 4 feet tall with red blooms that the hummingbirds love. A feeling of accomplishment and pride that I got them to grow and bloom is overshadowed by the bewildering fact that it has taken 6 months of care to get them to this point.

My other gardening bane is my fountain urn. I had looked for over 3 years for the perfect fountain, and when I did I entered a whole new world of water pumps, gallons per minute and algae. Every spring I dig a square hole in my garden to the exact measurements of the holding tank for the water. I level the dirt repeatedly and set up timers and buy pretty glass rocks for it. Then I fill it and it pumps beautifully for about 7 hours. I first notice the water movement declining into a faint shimmer. I try to ignore it, but I open it up anyway to find mulch or an unlucky night crawler clogging the pump. This has gone on every day for the past month. I am about to give up on it, but I really enjoy it when it's not spewing worm fragments.

Being a strong advocate of low maintenance gardening at this point in my life, I seem to have somehow fallen into two high maintenance gardening situations. My low maintenance self is debating whether I should continue this cycle. I'm sure I'll forget all about this effort over the long winter and will be in the same situation next year. It's what we gardeners do in dormancy.

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