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Puffball snowflake hydrangea burst with color at the Patrick Ranch Museum on the Midway, despite the punishing heat. (Heather Hacking/Contributed)

Puffball snowflake hydrangea burst with color at the Patrick Ranch Museum on the Midway, despite the punishing heat. (Heather Hacking/Contributed)

It was a sad day in Costco this week when I darted past the display of plants. Normally, I can’t help myself. I buy optimistically — more plants than I can put in the ground on a leisurely afternoon. The leftovers sit on my front porch where I need to walk over them day-after-day. Finally, I realize if I don’t do some gardening, I will have wasted money, and I hate wasting money.

The plants at Costco were glorious, the way that any enticement can be when you are trying to say no. I had to try not to glance at the pink puffball blooms, or the glossy leaves stacked all the way to the top of the 8-foot-high metal racks.

Last weekend I was at the Patrick Ranch Museum on the Midway. The hydrangea on the grounds are beautiful and have grown over time to about four-feet wide. This is proof that hydrangea can grow nicely in a semi-shaded area, even if the summer heat is consistently above 100 degrees.

At least for now, I’m not buying it.

I also said nay to the tomatoes, which were just the way I like them, already mature with the earliest of flowers. Buying mature plants means that a professional gardener kept the plant alive during that late spring frost and prevented cutworms from killing young seedlings.

Nope. A friend gave me two tomato plants a few months ago. I put them both in the ground and one has already died.

I can pretend I won’t buy any new plants this year, and momentarily feel like a conscientious drought observer.

Of course, I’ll need to keep my grape plant alive. I love cold grapes in August and my mom loves when I dry the leftovers to make raisins. My peach tree is also important and will receive some of my water ration. In all likelihood I’ll also put some zucchini seeds in the ground — any day now — because those can grow and set fruit before it’s too hot to go outside and see how hot it is.

It’s only the beginning of June and even the potted plants under my side patio shade structure are begging to be moved to Canada.

Last year I watched with envy as my neighbor Penny populated her newly-constructed raised beds with vegetables. The plants were just getting to the point that I fantasized about hopping the fence and helping myself to some chard. Then the plants started to wither. Time passed and I considered knocking on her door to make sure she had not died.

We talked later and she said she opted to stop gardening for the season due to the drought. I think she plants by seed, so the loss of her investment was minimal.

Recently Penny asked me about the huge maple tree that straddles my yard and my very nearby neighbors. When she looks at the tree from a distance, she sees dry, crispy on one side.Related Articles The joys of a great bowl of chips | Sow There! A job with a built-in exercise routine | Sow There!

I reported the news to my nearby neighbor, and encouraged her to run the hose on a slow drip overnight.

“But our water bill says we’re not supposed to water,” she said.

That tree is fairly important. It shades my neighbor’s entire house. It shades my car. That tree has been there before my great-grandparents were born and after all the years I have lived in my house, I consider that tree a personal friend.

I couldn’t help myself, at least not that night. I dragged my hose under the tree and gave it a slow trickle until it was time to turn off my lights. I live alone. That means fewer showers, less laundry and a little leftover for my favorite maple tree.

Trying not to buy new plants isn’t easy. Maybe if I buy plants in full bloom, and consider them to be only short-term bouquets …

Or maybe I’ll make friends with some maple trees in Canada.

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