When it comes to gardening, I am an eternal optimist.
Not entirely without precedent.
I mean, I once rescued some sadly wilted pansies from the clearance table at Walmart and brought them back to lush, blooming life.
I even saved the seeds.
[Did I plant the seeds? No. But hey, I could have.]
As I have gained more experience, I have begun to mix a fair amount of practicality and tough love in with the optimism. If something is dying a lingering death, I don't always wait for fall frost to finish it off anymore. I am much more likely to yank it out then and there.
And truthfully, these days I probably wouldn't waste my precious flower money on a wilted clearance table specimen, even as much as I love pansies.
With all of that, at times it takes another person to tell me truths that I don't really want to hear.
This person is usually my husband.
I try not to hold it against him.
Truths, such as:
Those blueberries are not going to make it.
Ouch!
And yet....
I have to admit there is some truth in those hard words.
They have never really recovered from whatever disease they contracted on the slope a few years back. Even now, planted in acid-lover's soil and watered regularly for a year, their leaves are tiny and just barely coming. Their stems are spotted. They haven't grown at all in 2 years.
I can count on one hand the number of berries we have gotten from them. And that was from the first summer after we bought them.
{sigh}
But but but, I'm going to give them sulfur this year, and mulch with our old Christmas tree needles, and shower them with--well, water.
And hey, what about numero uno on the old New Year's Resolution list?
"Baby the blueberries."
That's right.
What about that, huh?
So now I'm faced with a dilemma.
The optimist in me wants to give them one more chance. Just one more season. Maybe they are just now getting resettled after the transplant last spring. Maybe this will be the summer that they really thrive, and if I yank them out now, I'll never know.
On the other hand, they are taking up valuable garden terrace space: 2/3 of the top terrace, as it currently stands (garden expansion #2 is in the works as we speak!)
If they are never going to be healthy or produce it would be better to end the misery now and use the space for something that will do well in it. (Like more strawberries!)
Or so says my practical side.
To add another twist to this decision, the blueberry I planted in the terrace last year is green and growing, leafing out as we speak. Blueberries need at least 2 different varieties for pollination. So if I pull out these two, I either need to plant another or just pull out the healthy one as well and send it on to a new home. I'm not sure how many more dashed blueberry hopes I can take.
Adding more seems risky. Pulling out a healthy plant just feels wrong.
Decisions! Ack!
But don't worry, when I'm ready for some more truth I know just who to ask.
