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Monday, May. 03, 2004 - 8:42 p.m.

Ben�s iris�.8 flats (are more than) enough�.and a first for Jay-dog�

When you have as many odds and ends growing in your garden as I do, many have stories behind how they ended up in my possession. Such is the case with Ben�s iris.

No, that isn�t the real name for this yellow-flowered tuber. I call them Ben�s iris because they came from (get ready now!) a person we know named �Ben!

This man is an extraordinary guitarist. He went to the local private college to study music (he has a degree), but has spent the past 15 years or so doing what he truly loves � teaching young people how to play the guitar.

He was Codeman�s teacher for about 6 years. He never appears to be in a down mood- always running in high gear, always with a smile on his face. His patients with children is something to admire. He never forces them to do anything. Instead, he lets them advance at their own pace. He always lets them pick out some song or style of music to work on that they WANT to learn, as a reward for learning the boring things (like scales and chords).

As you might guess, teaching kids music might be a personally rewarding occupation, but in a town like Mohall it doesn�t pay that well. For this reason, he used to work as a handyman during the morning hours for a private landlord. He would put in 5 or 6 hours of hard labor each weekday for this man- dry walling, carpentry, landscaping, whatever he was asked to do. After that, he would take a quick shower and head over to the music store. For the next 4-6 hours, he gave students instruction in 30 minute blocks.

Like I said- we came away from Codeman�s years with Ben with much admiration.

�But Roadiepig- nothing you just wrote explains why you call the flowers Ben�s iris. Get to the point, fool!�

You are right.

In the course of his morning work, occasionally he had to remove plantings that had become overgrown at one of the houses. Usually, he would load up the back of his 1977 Chevy pickup with the waste from such a job and haul it to the composting facility.

He knew that I was a gardener from our many conversations. So whenever he came across something that he thought might be worth saving, he would share whatever it was with me (he also had an area where he planted his finds at his house in the country).

I left many of the perennials he gave me in the early years at the old house. What I tried digging up and moving didn�t do too well. Hard to transplant old plants in the mid-summer heat.

But these irises made the trip with flying colors. I started with six roots (tubers) 8 years ago. Even though they don�t get a lot of sunlight (growing under the shade of our weeping crab apple tree), they have slowly expanded to cover a pretty big area. This spring, they have put on the best bloom show I can remember. This iris doesn�t grow very tall (maybe 2 � feet, tops), but is one of my favorites.

Since the starts came from Ben, I can�t think of a better way to remember them than that�.


A small photo to show you why I am hoping that forecasts for frost are over for the spring:

I have 8 flats full of plants. Way more than I need, and probably more than I can even give away.

Might not be a problem, though. Something is continuing to damage my tomato plants, causing leaves to turn light yellow. Some have started shriveling up, ends burned by something either in the potting mix, from fertilizer damage, or from cool temperatures.

Don�t know what for sure, but it is starting to reduce the number of healthy plants at an alarming rate.

Might have to shove a few of the babies into the garden earlier than I would like, just to see if they snap out of it�.


Oh yeah- I started several varieties of cucumbers in peat pots last night. Also, some seeds for an unusual Cosmo variety that caught my eye in a catalog last winter.

Like I need more stuff to baby�..


Took the big dogs for a walk when Lease came home this evening.

Note to self- if you decided to take the boys in a different direction, make sure there are sidewalks on the street you choose for variety. The one I picked tonight was 3 blocks long, and the sidewalk ended about 100 feet in.

Nothing like trying to control the dogs while walking in the road.

Anyway�

After living here for the last 10 months, and untold walks both short and long, Jay-dog did something tonight he had never done before:

He actually urinated somewhere besides our back yard!

By the way Lease and I praised him, you would have thought he had saved a baby from a burning building.

Made us happy, that�s all I am saying.

Now, if he would only have done this a week ago, while the concrete was in the process of curing on the new patio. Would have made my life a lot simpler�.

Antique - Futuristic


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