Happy, Happy Joy, Joy!!!

Only the BEST Christmas gift EVAR!

Riddle me this?

What's better than a shopping trip to the man's toy store -- also known as the Home Depot?

We'll -- I'll tell you.

It's a shopping trip to the man's toy store -- with a $200 gift card in Bill Bird's grubby little hands. Now that children -- is a slice of heaven! It's free cash! It's free stuff! It's one of the very few chances to spring on something that I WANT -- rather than what I really NEED.

As my dear old mother taught me years ago, there is a difference between the two. Although -- I must admit -- I do try to blur the lines as much as possible.

So -- on the first day of a three-day weekend -- our Master of All Things Gardening Errors found himself at the North Natomas Home Depot -- looking to pick up what he really needed and also a few things that he really WANTED.

Loading Up at the Depot

NEED: Light bulbs of all shapes and sizes. These goofy, new cookie-cutter homes in cookie-cutter developments are outfitted with every kind of light bulb conceivable to mankind. Remember when light bulbs came with four or five different choices? Were you shopping for 60 watt, 75 watt, or the dreaded 100 watt eye atomizer? A few years later -- a new choice entered the shopping realm -- regular blinding white or "soft white." But still -- choices were few and far between.

My friends -- those days are LONG gone. It's getting to the point now where someone could open a new store dedicated to light bulbs and light bulbs only. There's a reason why Home Depot dedicates an entire aisle to all things light bulbs. They come in an array of shapes, sizes, colors and tints now. Plug in or screw in? Saucer shaped or straight? Ceiling fan bulb or appliance bulb? Oh -- they might look the same -- but apparently -- there's a difference. Read label directions!

Bare Root Fruit Trees!

WANT: When it comes to a store like Home Depot I just can't confine myself to the areas that sell the products that Bill & Venus Bird really NEED. There's got to be that inevitable tour to the garden area where BARE ROOT season is in full swing this year.

There's nothing like row of neatly lined bare-root fruit trees to get the heart muscle pumping. Peaches here and plums there -- all of them promising a lip-smacking payoff. All you have to do is purchase -- take them home -- dig a hole and plant.

Or -- if you're not in the market for a fruit tree -- how about a fruit bush? Table grapes anyone? Blackberry vines? Raspberries? Boysenberries. They're all boxed up in an array of shapes and sizes -- just waiting for someone to take them home.

Bare Root Raspberry

But this time -- I would not allow my natural instinct of gluttony to take over. I learned a hard lesson last year when I followed some advice that may have not been all that good -- planting four bare-root blueberry bushes underneath our peach and cherry tree plantings. We were assured the pairing would work -- as would planting strawberry plants under said trees.

Unfortunately -- it didn't work. Three of the blueberry bushes gave up the ghost with the onset of summer. The fourth and final bush is still alive. Unfortunately -- the Lapin Cherry tree it was planted under? It died from what I strongly suspect to be brown rot. At least -- I think it's dead. I'll know more this spring when it should flower with abundance. If it doesn't? DEAD!

But -- back to the subject at hand -- I was actually looking for something specific. I would not find them at Home Depot on this day -- but I did find them later somewhere else.

But that is a blog subject for another day and time. As of right now? I have light bulbs to replace!