Death of a Political Plant Read Online Free PDF Page A

climate. Lawns are water-gobbling, high-care prima donnas. Get your soil right: Make it rich, loose, friable. Make your motto, “Let no bare earth show its face to the sun.” This means mulching heavilyto avoid water loss and weed growth. Seriously consider replacing high-maintenance plants, no matter how beloved, with regional plants that are fully as beautiful and don’t need chemicals to stay healthy. Group them together according to their water needs.
    These are basic tenets that define “xeriscape.” Xeriscaping is the only smart way to garden, if we are to conserve America’s precious water resources and to guard against the harm done by chemicals. Here are further tips from successful low-maintenance gardeners:
    Design lawn areas compactly for easy watering.
    Eliminate hand trimming by putting a barrier between earth and gardens: A row of submerged bricks is an easy, attractive solution.
    Plant thickly. This sounds arduous, but spacing plants so that they can grow together quickly reduces weeding and watering. Besides, it makes a wonderful picture. Some plants, of course, are takeover artists; though it is nice to have them filling in, we don’t want them smothering their delicate neighbors.When planting, use polymers to aid in water retention and thus give plants a good start.
    When planting shrubs and trees, you could surround them with landscaping cloth, but heavy mulching with organic materials is just as effective, and much cheaper. Keep the mulch away from tree trunks so they can breathe.
    Select plants for your climate. Don’t waste your time with plants that won’t thrive there. Visit the best gardens in your area—they may be your friend’s garden or the botanic or civic garden—and copy what you see. Talk to the person who made the plant selection and find out what works and what doesn’t.
    Even if you failed physics, get scientific about water use. Use a timer when watering. Establish simple drip systems in gardens and circular watering rings around individual trees. These cheap and easy practices can reduce your weekly workload by literally hours.
    Know your yard as intimately as you know your spouse, its temperamental micro-climates, the effect of wind on its well-being, its watering idiosyncrasies,how the movement of the sun affects the plant through the seasons. This will lead you to put plants and trees in just the right places for a handsome, carefree garden.

Four

    T HE ODORS OF FRYING ONIONS and draft beer, soaked into the walls and wood floor of Joe’s Raw Bar, went with college days. They awakened memories of the summer of 1975.
    Jay had pleaded the need for a cup of coffee, and this nostalgic bar was on the way home. He slowly shook his head. “We really had something going.”
    “For a few weeks we did,” amended Louise, stirring her cream soda with a straw.
    “Six weeks.” Jay looked straight into her eyes. “Then came that son-of-a-gun Bill down from bloody Harvard.” He grinned, to take the sting out of the words.
    “It happens, Jay. I fell in love with Bill. I’m sorry, but remember, you liked Bill. You even came to our wedding. You’ll like him when you meet him again.”
    He reached a hand over to cover hers as a gesture of remorse. “I don’t know why I’m sounding like a vindictive spoilsport. But he sure grabbed you up in a hurry.” The pain in his eyes was unmistakable. “I turned my back one day, and you were gone.”
    She realized how selfish it was to reminisce about those days. To her, it was romantic, but to Jay, it was painful. Back then, she had found him to be a man for all occasions: They went to foreign films and art events, explored Virginia waterfalls, and hiked the Shenandoah trail, Jay adroitly leading the way over rocks and ridges. She remembered best the simple walks along the C&O Canal at twilight and the canoe trips on the Potomac. Jay would beach the boat and hide their packed lunches so cleverly no animal could find them, while they