What Survived the Winter?

I’m under a deadline right now and feeling the stress. I went to town yesterday morning to do the errands I didn’t get done on Wednesday. The husband wants to plant potatoes this weekend and I promised to pick up seed potatoes. Sometimes we use leftovers from the year before, but sometimes we eat all the potatoes and don’t have any for seed. I got German Butterballs—we did those last year and they were great—Clearwater Russets, and Red Norlands. We have enough fingerlings left to use for seed.

I also went to Costco and discovered they had apple trees! Most of the trees in our front yard orchard came from Costco 10-12 years ago. They have done exceptionally well, unlike the trees we planted on the rental property around the same time. Those were bare root trees we ordered from a supplier and they have not produced a single apple. I want to replace them.

I haven’t seen apple trees at Costco for several years and always assumed that I missed the one week when they were in stock. I only go to Costco once every 4-5 weeks. Yesterday, they had Winesap, Norland, Haralson, Northern Spy, and Lodi trees. I have a Winesap and a Northern Spy. I also have a Lodi but I bought another one because I like that one for pie. I didn’t buy a Norland or a Haralson, even though I don’t have those, because Susan is grafting several apple trees for me and I like the interesting varieties she gets.

I was supposed to attend a birthday party luncheon yesterday but I came home instead. I was too peopled-out from teaching and choir practice. Some days, I just can’t do it. I also knew it would be hard for me to enjoy the party while I was thinking about everything on my to-do list that wasn’t getting done.

After lunch, I went out to the garden to begin cleaning up the mess. I raked dead vegetation into a pile to be burned. I pruned all the lavender hedges. I propped up the pea trellis, although it needs a more permanent fix. I wandered around and looked at everything. The two peach trees—Halehaven and one other whose name escapes me at the moment—survived the winter and look good.

The hollyhocks I put in along the fence last year also survived the winter:

This is a black variety and I hope they get big enough to bloom this year.

I think my rhubarb plants are done for. I couldn’t find any rhubarb and it’s usually the first thing to come up. I had a very robust one when we first put in the garden, but it got some kind of fungal infection and died. Ever since then, every rhubarb plant I’ve put in had has struggled. Growing rhubarb should be as easy as falling off a log. Oh, well, I know my friends will share.

I’ll clean up the other half of the garden this afternoon and prune the grapevines.

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I’ve just about given up on our Joann Fabrics store, and on Joanns in general. I was there yesterday and saw that their adult Gildan T-shirts were on sale. I need to replace some of my work T-shirts that are old and falling apart and I like these because they are long enough. The sign above the T-shirts—literally, three signs all saying the same thing on that aisle—advertised the shirts as “3 for $14.” I picked up three in my size and went to the register.

They rang up at full price. When I asked why, the woman at the register said, “They aren’t on sale.” I said, “Well, the sign says otherwise.” She insisted they weren’t on sale because the sale price wasn’t in the computer. She sent another employee back to check the display, but I didn’t want to hold up the (long) line of people behind me over a few dollars’ difference, so I just went ahead and paid for them and walked out.

That kind of thing happens regularly there now. I don’t know what’s going on, but that company seems to be falling apart. The computer system is as slow as molasses in January and the prices never match what is supposed to be on sale. Perhaps it’s just our local store, although the stores in Spokane aren’t much better. In any case, I’ll start my shopping at Hobby Lobby and only go to Joanns as a last resort.