If You Won't Do It During a Pandemic

I've read a saying that, in this time when much of the world was on lockdown, and we had to stay (for the most part) at home, we would have time to do whatever we wanted indoors.

Week after week passed.

We forgot what day it was.

Some of us baked.  Some of us read.  Some of us remodeled our apartments or homes, or drank (maybe too much) or rediscovered crafts, or learned to make sourdough bread from scratch.  We learned what Dalgona Coffee was, even if we didn't make it. (I didn't).

We all eventually came to one realization:

If you won't do it in a pandemic, you will never do it.

Yup.  My stack of unread books - still unread.  My bedroom - still messy. (My spouse did work on other parts of the house, while I worked from home).  My mind was still in winter mode, half asleep.

But, after our last snow in May (yes, May), things suddenly warmed up.  After three freeze warnings in a row, frosts were suddenly (we hoped) out of the picture.

It was time to rush and garden.

So, spouse and I went to the nurseries.  As much as we had tried to flatten the curve (especially with his brother having survived a COVID-19 hospitalization) flowers and veggies were calling and these businesses, considered essential in New York State, were open for business.

I remembered when, last year, I wanted to make potpourri, something I did years and years (and years) ago, and decided that potpourri material would be on the shopping list.

This year, masks were required, and we all did a dance of dodging other customers with (most of us) trying to keep social distance.

My finds:  Three scented geraniums - nutmeg, orange and pinewood (the pinewood was a repeat of last year) in this photo.  Scented geraniums are not hardy here and I have not had luck in overwintering them.

In another planter, lemon (citronella) geranium.

I am trying patchouli for the first time.  This is not its ideal clime, and I know it will die with the frost.  But I am willing to try it.

I planted sweet woodruff years ago in the most shady part of my yard.  It's perhaps too shady. It has never thrived.  It hung on, though, and, this year, I decided to do something about it.

My back has gotten pretty cranky in the last couple of weeks, and massage is not available in New York due to the pandemic.  So the harvest was a bit painful - this grows low - fortunately I had a gardening bench to help me.  

I blogged last week about my experiment in drying lilacs in cat litter.  So yesterday, I decided to dry some sweet woodruff.  It's now at the end of its blooming season so it was time to harvest.  I looked up microwave instructions and it said "place on paper towel, cover with another paper towel, then dry at 100% for 30 seconds, then in 15 second increments until fully dry.

Here the sweet woodruff is before I started to dry.  Green, it doesn't have a fragrance but once dried, it has a vanilla like scent.

It took, perhaps, two minutes, and I had to do it in several batches even for the small amount I harvested.  This is what it looked like by the time it was dry.  I put it in a small container and am keeping it for when my lilacs are dry. (I hope to report on that tomorrow).

There's more to potpourri than lilacs and sweet woodruff, though, and I have to work through that.

Gardening has become so popular, though, that our biggest area nursery is closing tomorrow, a month early.  They ran out of plants.

So...what have you done these past few months?  Do you have "When I Get Around to It" items you know now that you will never get around to?