dream vs do

dream – get more daylilies. reality – alter mixed perennial and vegetable beds to emphasize daylilies. hybridize daylilies. that is take pollen from one plant and place it on the pistil of another plant to grow seeds making new daylilies. eventually. not all crosses of pollen from one plant to another take. not all seed pods ripen. not all seeds grow when planted. that is a rough explanation. the above ground pool is gone. it made a nice round garden space. the vegetable garden and the row of grapes are gone. the trees that used to be medium size are now big size. there is more shade. the three 4 foot by 4 foot compost piles increased to four 5 foot by 5 foot bins. three for raw compost and one for finished compost. and along the way the garden went from 10 to 20 daylilies to a much bigger number. there are three seedling beds planted in a three year rotation. each can hold about 600 seedings. one holds brand new seedlings which will not bloom for another year or two. the one year old seedling bed can see anywhere from 30 to 70 percent bloom. the two year old bed usually sees most of the plants bloom. remember the big trees and shade. and that fall and the next spring that two year old bed needs to be emptied. time for a new crop to be planted. along the way the favorite flowers need to tagged and labeled. there is nothing worse than looking at a row of green leaves, dialing a psychic friend, and trying to find the flower that i really loved ( and is not blooming now ) and then digging up the set of green leaves that is not the right one. yes i have lost as in misplaced and thrown out a some plants i wanted to keep. i have also kept some that i am very happy to still have. then there is the squeeze training. squeeze as in planting younger plants close together. when they grow bigger they squeeze too close together. great for sardine cans. not so great for flowers. out in the main garden area there are about 900 plants. a guess. i am not counting. at least not here tonight. all of this fits on a 50 x 259 foot lot. 15.2 x 78.9 meters. 0.297 acres. that would be 0.120 hectares. so all told there about 2,400 daylily plants still mostly crammed into this garden at any given time. just enough to keep me happy and thirsty. yes the garden is a built in exercise and refreshment program. the dream lives on… and if you look closely ‘she who must be obeyed’ might be seen. her flower of same name is hiding in another post. and to answer the rhetorical question – sometimes…

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