13 years of trial and error with balcony gardening

Some balcony gardeners plant their containers tightly and have full displays right away. Instant gratification makes sense with the North’s short growing season.

In contrast, if the instructions say that plants should start out six inches apart to give them room to expand, I plant them six inches apart. My pots don’t look impressive until midsummer, but I enjoy watching plants grow. Buying fewer of them also saves money.

This year tested my methods. Half of the impatiens plants died after heavy spring rainfalls. More impatiens and some coleus were tried and also withered. The containers looked skimpier than usual in July. At that rate, I’d still be looking at bare soil in the fall. It was time for the big gun: sweet potato vines. 

A vacation amidst a nor’easter

My niece Alex said she was free the last weekend of September or two weekends in November for me to visit her in Boston. I chose September, anticipating warm, sunny days and needing just a light jacket at night. 

Instead Boston got a nor’easter, a cyclone named for strong northeasterly winds hitting the Atlantic coast. The storm arrived on Saturday and lasted until Monday. Staying upright in 50 miles-per-hour wind was hard. Trying to walk a few feet from a restaurant to an Uber car, I was pushed back by gusts that turned my umbrella inside out and broke off the handle. Pelting, cold rain soaked my clothes and shoes and chilled me to the bone.

When your inbox overwhelms you

In the play Octet, recently staged by Raven Theatre at the Goodman, the characters lament their internet addictions, including compulsive gaming, conspiracy mongering, pornography, and doomscrolling.

My problem wasn’t any of those. It was simply being overwhelmed by the volume of email.