Does anyone have gas?

Good grief it is dry around here. It hasn't rained in three weeks and there is no gas at the "gas" stations. It has been a weird couple of weeks. The gas shortage was initially a problem in Atlanta, but has spread to the suburbs now. What the hell? What is the deal. Why is there no gas in Georgia, but plenty everywhere else? Nobody seems to have an answer. It is very perturbing to have to find a gas station that has gas and then proceed to wait twenty minutes to fill up. Moooooo cow!.......Then there is the lack of rain, oh wait I don't want to talk about it. I am bored with this drought. Damn drought!........Then there is the economic fallout on wall street. I don't want to write about that either, but I will say that there are about fifteen people that fully understand the entire situation and I am not one of them. I am, however looking forward to The Great Depression Version 2.0.....Then there are the locusts and the plagues......I kid. Life goes on. Just another day. I did find a cool plant this week. Red spider lily (Licoris radiata) I posted a picture of it. I found it growing in a customers yard and made a trade for some tulip bulbs. It is an interesting plant. It is a bulb that has grass-like foliage in spring until summer when it dies back. Then the single flower stem arises. After the flower fades the foliage re-emerges in early winter. It is an interesting plant. That is about it. I start back to school next week (oh Boy!), so I am going to go enjoy my last homework free weekend.......

Time to plant

Today was a nice day. The temperatures are cooling down, only making it to the low eighty's for highs. I am done with school for the quarter and I enjoyed a somewhat stress free weekend. No homework. The break will be short lived, however, as I will be returning to school in ten days. A very short break between quarters.....We planted some new plants in the Garden (I like to think my yard has reached garden status). I chose to plant a couple things today that are on the fringe of our zonal area. We planted a Bears breaches hybrid (Acanthus x Summer Beauty) , which I am counting on good results from. I also planted a couple lily of the Nile (Agapanthus sp.), that are typically a zone 8 plant. We are officially a zone 7b, so lets hope Al Gore is right. I also have a ginger lily in bloom. Ginger lily's are a great plant and it has taken a couple of years for it to establish enough to flower. It was a good day, well spent in the garden......I have changed my site around a bit to try and make it a bit more interesting. I have a poll, on who you are voting for, which is interesting to me. I will try to add a couple more interesting things in the coming weeks....Tomorrow is the first day of fall. I am ready for the first taste in the air, which usually comes around the end of September. The only bummer is that I wont be able to plant any more perennials. It is however the best time to plant trees. Anybody need a tree or fifty planted? .......Oh yeah, I have included a picture of an Agave americana 'variegata' That has been growing through the winter and is doing well. Agave's in Georgia?

Just another weekend

It has been a normal weekend. I have been catching up on all my homework. In fact I had to take a break to write this blog. I am taking my finals next week, so it is cram time. I am taking herbaceous identification, and I am forced to remember one hundred and forty Latin names. Damn Linnaeus and his binomial nomenclature. I will list a few of my favorites in no particular order: Aster novae-angliae 'Alma Potschke', Brassica oleracea var. Acephala, Dianthus gratianoplitanus 'Baths Pink', and Plectranthus amboinicus.. Say those three times fast. It's good to learn all these. They will come in handy when I feel like annoying my coworkers. I love saying "hey, have you seen that Ophiopogon planiscapus 'Nigrescens' that Mrs. Smith planted?", and then an hour later telling them I was talking about the black mondo grass. Fun stuff. Everyone is doing well. My back is feeling better, thank God. Just another normal weekend.

Bring on the hurricanes!

When the hurricanes reach Georgia, they are already tropical depressions. And when they hit just right, as Faye did, they usually dump rain for days on our area. We received about five inches from Faye, and it was a great thing. It filled the areas lakes up a bit, which is great as they are an important part of ending this "drought". It has been a little over two years since Katrina, and another hurricane is pounding on New Orleans, although it looks as though this storm will leave a lesser impact on the city. There is yet another storm that is headed our way, a weaker one, and I hope it makes it to north Georgia.......I hurt my back on Saturday. It wasn't a good thing. I make a living with my back, so I am hoping it is nothing major. I went to the E.R. on Saturday night (what a blast). I have never had back problems and it scares me to think this might be chronic. I am hoping for the best, as all signs point to a sprained muscle. It is scary to have such a hard time moving around. It takes about fifteen minutes just to get out of bed an firmly on my feet....Summer is coming to a close, and I am glad. The temperatures have not been that bad as of late, but hot nonetheless. I am ready for the leaves to start changing, and to get our first taste of fall.......I turned thirty last Wednesday, and I couldn't care less. It is; however, a weird thing as It seems to have sneaked up on me, as I am sure forty and fifty will. Oh well it is just a number..........