Good Things
Sometimes, good things come in large packages:
1st note from post office: Package too large for vehicle. Please collect.
2nd note from post office: Plant too large for vehicle. PLEASE collect.
3rd note from post office: Large tree. PLEASE COLLECT
Sadly, while the local tiny post office has "movie parking" it also is only open late morning until lunchtime and then after lunchtime till late afternoon. It is open on Saturday mid-morning to slightly after mid-morning, but as we didn't get the 1st note until later Saturday, today was the earliest I could go and rescue the poor neglected live plant-babies.
With expectations of your usual crabby, cranky, disenfranchised postal worker, I slunk in with both kids and presented my slip to the cheery, efficient, good-humored clerk. She smiled, then chuckled at the description of "Large Tree", waving my mumbled apology away, saying she just figured it was a tree based on the size of the thing and the sending address. She confirmed I was, indeed, Diana, and pulled out the 6 foot long by 2 foot by 2 foot cardboard box. She then, still smiling, asked if I needed some help with it. Gratefully, I stated the obvious, that I did, as visions of me somehow maneuvering The Box through the doors of the post office, down the sidewalk and across the street while holding on to Sara, evaporated.
How do I love living here? Let me count the ways, starting with the lovely and helpful folks, including the public servants. Where else but Wisconsin? Even the DMV employees were lovely to work with. Maybe it's the thorazine.
So, we raced home and opened The Box, which actually contained 2 trees (one a Meyer lemon about 12" (30 cm) high and one a hearty Brown Turkey fig), about 8 different blueberries, 2 butterfly bushes, 1 viburnum, and a half dozen FREE! strawberries purported to grow berries the size of a child's hand. I am all a-tingle. As of this moment, none are dead.
since it is to be frosty tonight, we will plant the bare-root ones tomorrow and mother-hen them. The potted ones are being hardened off over the next few weeks, having been brought up in the sheltered girl's school that is a greenhouse.
I am a sucker for blueberries. I figure a dozen or so bushes are a good start, especially as it will be a few years before the wee ones are ready to bear some fruit. Plus, how else will I know which to then order more of unless I try one of each cold climate blueberry I can get my grubby hands on? I knew you'd understand.
Besides, the blueberry bushes I already have are getting too big to cuddle.
1st note from post office: Package too large for vehicle. Please collect.
2nd note from post office: Plant too large for vehicle. PLEASE collect.
3rd note from post office: Large tree. PLEASE COLLECT
Sadly, while the local tiny post office has "movie parking" it also is only open late morning until lunchtime and then after lunchtime till late afternoon. It is open on Saturday mid-morning to slightly after mid-morning, but as we didn't get the 1st note until later Saturday, today was the earliest I could go and rescue the poor neglected live plant-babies.
With expectations of your usual crabby, cranky, disenfranchised postal worker, I slunk in with both kids and presented my slip to the cheery, efficient, good-humored clerk. She smiled, then chuckled at the description of "Large Tree", waving my mumbled apology away, saying she just figured it was a tree based on the size of the thing and the sending address. She confirmed I was, indeed, Diana, and pulled out the 6 foot long by 2 foot by 2 foot cardboard box. She then, still smiling, asked if I needed some help with it. Gratefully, I stated the obvious, that I did, as visions of me somehow maneuvering The Box through the doors of the post office, down the sidewalk and across the street while holding on to Sara, evaporated.
How do I love living here? Let me count the ways, starting with the lovely and helpful folks, including the public servants. Where else but Wisconsin? Even the DMV employees were lovely to work with. Maybe it's the thorazine.
So, we raced home and opened The Box, which actually contained 2 trees (one a Meyer lemon about 12" (30 cm) high and one a hearty Brown Turkey fig), about 8 different blueberries, 2 butterfly bushes, 1 viburnum, and a half dozen FREE! strawberries purported to grow berries the size of a child's hand. I am all a-tingle. As of this moment, none are dead.
since it is to be frosty tonight, we will plant the bare-root ones tomorrow and mother-hen them. The potted ones are being hardened off over the next few weeks, having been brought up in the sheltered girl's school that is a greenhouse.
I am a sucker for blueberries. I figure a dozen or so bushes are a good start, especially as it will be a few years before the wee ones are ready to bear some fruit. Plus, how else will I know which to then order more of unless I try one of each cold climate blueberry I can get my grubby hands on? I knew you'd understand.
Besides, the blueberry bushes I already have are getting too big to cuddle.
Labels: The Life Rural
posted by Diana at 9:53 PM
5 Comments:
oooo fresh blueberries... how many years does it really take for a blueberry bush to actually produce fruit?
Fresh Blueberries!!!! Did I ever tell you that you are my favorite daughter? These will be almost as good as the Himalaya blackberries that populate my raspberry patch. I decided to let them live as I have had no luck in exterminating them. Pie-on, Piffle-head.
RF
The blueberry bushes I planted when we moved here should start bearing serious amounts of fruit just about the time we move.
Doh!
I am jealous. I am going to have to start all over.
Large tree. How hilarious! Since when is 6 feet considered large for a tree? Sounds like you got a really nice assortment of plants. How thrilling it is to have new stuff to add to the garden.
Looks like all your readers are blueberry-heads. I've been closely monitoring the progress of my three little bushes this spring. I planted them last year and got about two dozen berries all told. They are flowering nicely this year and one seems to be setting a nice amount of fruit already. I hope to have enough for a blueberry pie or a blueberry buckle.
Mojavi- I think it really depends on the size of the bush. I planted the 1st several last spring and the plants already had a handful of berries (am I a smart cookie or what?), which is how I chose them. I got to taste test them at the plant store! We'll see how they do in my yard. As spring is finally jumping along, here in the frozen tundra, they are starting to put out some leaflets. Will keep the world abreast of the exciting situation.
Dad- Yeah, yeah, too bad they will not be ready for your visit this time. Guess it will be a way to keep you and C coming out. The raspberries I transplanted are soldiering on despite having the concrete bed erected along side them.
Jamie- I feel your pain. Planted 4 small bushes in my old yard in Portland, moved 5 years later, just as they started throwing out lots of blooms. Ingrates. Bet the guy who moved in either ignored them or tore them out. Can't really complain, though, he paid our asking price...in cash!
Rozanne- I have meditated long and hard and have decided that of all the lovelies, blueberries are my favorite. I also have strawberries and raspberries, though, just so the blueberries don't get too cocky. I ordered a new breed of cold hardy / large berry blackberry but am on the waiting list. I should get them, I kid you not, next spring! Not like I'm going anywhere. And the tree? It was in a 4" pot and a total of 8" high. Guess it will be a year or 20 before I harvest lemons out of my diningroom. (Unless I kill it 1st.)
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