The Big Sandy Mountaineer -

This has been a tough year for trying to keep grass green and flowers growing.

One large Green Spruce in my front yard has lost a whole branch to what I think is simply drought and not enough water on everything around the house.

Once my water bill gets over a hundred dollars I start looking at places to stop watering and this year I let the whole front yard dry up which I hope will not kill all the lilacs and spruces that make up my private front lawn.

Meanwhile in the back yard, no matter how much water I put on my dahlias, Zinnias, glads and the like, they all look pretty shop warn to coin a phrase. I do have some shade for them at parts of the day but when it gets from 95 to 100 day after day after day, that is hard not only on us old humans, it is really hard on what grows usually so well in the garden. This year it was too hot for my lupines early and they did not do well. A little later the cone flowers and the lilies seemed not to do as well as they usually do and after that it looks like a disaster in the glad department. My glads should all be blooming now but there is only one with buds out of around 40. The rest are green and look nice but I have yet to see another bud. Sad.

What I need to do is to stop growing temperamental flowers and instead just plant dry land vegetables that grow without any rain at all in a season. Sort of like Bob Quinn does. My great grandfather and grandmother Behrends did the same thing on their dry land farm just south of Havre. They knew what would grow with or without rain and simply planted things that did not require rain. I do remember my mother saying that Grandpa Behrends knew that cultivation was what made their vegetables and even flowers grow without rain.

Maybe next year I will cultivate or even better, maybe I will not and just not worry about it one little bit!