There are times when I hate gardening in Albuquerque. Today was one of those days. It was one of those fists-to the-sky yelling, then collapsing to the ground crying "I'm getting out of this godforsaken place!" while lying on the ground kicking-at-nothing-in-particular, days. Well, maybe not that bad, but this is spring in Albuquerque after all, and New Mexico is a powerful dramatic place, so maybe I was doing it a little, internally. The most powerful thing in spring here is the wind. I tried to make my peace with Albuquerque's spring wind, way back when I wrote my blog entry in Casa Coniglio. But who was I fooling? The bone dry wind here makes spring, which should be joyful time of year, into a teeth-clenching, sinus-burning, gritty-eyed, nerves-on-edge, itchy and cracking skin, time of year. No cute chicks and lambs. They are miserable, too. I want to slap that curved-bill Thrasher that just tore out all the newly sprouted Night Scented stocks, into tomorrow. All the fresh new growth that I gleefully blogged about previously, torn to shreds and dehydrated. One of my luscious William Shakespeare 2000 David Austin roses that I had been pampering, with a dozen flower buds, SNAPPED. AT. THE. BASE. (I can't even bear to show a photo - I am showing the one that is okay - so far). My violas at their prime, SNAPPED AT THE BASE. This never happened when I lived in California! (Deer, yes, wind, no). And before I hear a snide little Tina Fey voice saying (or writing) "that's why you should grow native plants", let me politely say DON'T GO THERE, BITCH. So @#($*)@ spring in Albuquerque. I will either have to get out of Duke City, or build an enclosed garden with wind blockers. For now, I'm going to wallow in my misery with my trusty bottle of Balvenie. Yeah. That's my new Spring in Albuquerque celebration.
I hear you, having spent 15 years in the windiest part of Abq!
ReplyDeleteNatives - your reply to a hypothetical Tina Fey snark is hilarious, it made my day and caused much laughing reading it! I had more than one native succumb to E canyon winds, sometimes whole branches and not just delicate Salvia greggii or Poliomintha, though most were OK. I do remember some damage from Santa Anas in San Diego, too, but those are several times a year for 10-12 hours, not most afternoons for hours over 2-3 months. When your plants get larger, they should be fine.
Hang in there! (though I wouldn't blame you from moving out of the horticultural doldrums of the Duke City, either:-)