So far, things are good. Something was eating my spinach and lettuce, so I mixed and sprayed EIGHT on all the veggie plants earlier this week. I love that stuff because it’s safe for humans and our pets, but kills the pests.
Here you can see the holes in the spinach leaves. Hopefully, I’ve now stopped the pests at least for a while.
I’ll probably do some harvesting of spinach and lettuce later today.
Here are 4 tomato plants along with a few more spinach and lettuce plants. I’m see several yellow blossoms on the tomato plants now.
This is the other tomato planter with another 4 plants. I nipped off suckers and cut off branches that touched the ground earlier. I need to make sure all the branches are supported well. This can change from day to day, and growth can happen quite suddenly, so I want to stay on top of things before I can’t manipulate the branches through the cages anymore.
1st harvest of spinach for the season.2nd harvest of lettuce of the season.
Things are looking good so far in our garden this year. Yesterday I harvested, cleaned, and packaged spinach and lettuce. I fertilized, then mixed and sprayed EIGHT bug killer to hopefully get rid of whatever is eating the leaves. Finally, I watered.
By the time I came in, even though I hadn’t been out there too long, I was wringing wet – I guess due to the humidity. I took a shower, got a big glass of ice water and did some serious relaxing.
The forecast is for possible severe storms this afternoon and evening – with the threat of large hail – so I’ll cover up the three planters mid afternoon.
The Spruce
Before that today, though, I’ll try to get outside to tend our tomato plants. I’ve read that pinching off – or clipping off – the ‘suckers’ (the little branches that sprout in the middle of the “Y” of two branches) will increase the tomato yield and keep the plant healthier. Also, snipping off any branches or leaves touching the ground, plus any below 12 inches as the plants continue to grow. The plants really grow fast when the temperature, sun, and watering are right, so I’ll need to pay attention to keep up with the 8 plants.
I hope that you’re enjoying some nice weather where you are.
Rio Samba Roses, various iris, and Mama and Baby Snails we made.
More Rio Samba roses, and the pretty purple perennial I don’t know the name of.
Azaleas and iris
Some of our flowers are blooming nicely now. It makes me happy to walk around the yard and see a lot of blooms, plus buds. Everything needs weeding, pruning, hacking down, etc., all around the yard, so that makes me feel a bit guilty, as well.
I’ll start with my veggie planters this morning, then move to the roses planters, seeing how far I can get before I poop out or it gets too warm.
Our veggies are still doing well. I took a gallon bag of lettuce to my hairdresser, Michael, yesterday and he seemed very happy.
I’m going to tend the veggie planters today, weeding, doing any pruning needed, fertilizing, and harvesting some lettuce and spinach.
I’ll get out there this morning because it’s a bit overcast and just almost 70. It’s supposed to get to 88 this afternoon. That may be a record. I hope that it’s not enough fuel for the weather that the rain we’re supposed to get tomorrow afternoon and evening will be severe.
My iris started about a month ago. The deep purple iris are my favorites, although I love all of them. We have them around the yard, but in particular down the side of the driveway. My intention was to have the deep purple iris and the bright yellow iris blooming at the same time, but Mother Nature knows best, I guess. The purple ones are mostly finished now, and the yellow ones are blooming their heads off right now, all around the yard.
AmberAbby
Amber and Abby ‘walked’ in the yard with me this morning. (Abby was less enthusiastic about all the walking around than Amber (who kept running back and forth), but she luxuriated in the warm and the sunshine just off the driveway pad.)
I have these blooming all over the place right now. My ‘fancier’ ones are just starting to bud and bloom.
Kind of a mauve color.One of the fancier ones – a bright yellow with burgundy accents.Color is halfway between the pale yellow and the pale mauve.
The rest of the walk around the yard shows how MUCH weeding and pruning I need to do.
In among all the weeds is a rose bush with Rio Samba Rosebuds getting ready to open. I don’t know what the name of the purple flowers are, but they are nice perennials. More Rio Samba roses, with one blooming and several buds among more weeds…A different purple perennial flower. The iris were the deep purple variety.
I won’t say I have built a ‘habit’ of doing my approximately half-hour of old lady yoga stretching daily, but it HAS become a grudging ‘responsibility to myself.’ I highly resent that I don’t get a flood of endorphins, or whatever you’re supposed to get that makes you happy to be alive, raring to go, climbing Mt. Everest in the morning, and what not. I just do my stretches the best way I can, usually feeling a bit ‘looser’ than I did when I first got down on my mat, and put my sparkly star on my calendar.
Women’s Health
Yesterday I started a new thing – a few exercises to strengthen my arms with 5-pound weights. I only did 5 reps of each movement, but it’s a start and I’ll build up from here. I’ll do this M-W-F. (I put TWO stars on my calendar yesterday.)
vgajic – Getty Images – Fit and Well
Today I’ll do 10 minutes or so on my Elliptical Trainer in the garage – after cleaning off quite-a while’s-worth of dust off and finding my MP3 player. (I just FOUND it – plugged into its charger behind my computer screen, along with the earplugs that go with it. :0) ) I’ll plan to do this right after lunch, and the plan is to do this T-TH-S and increase the time as I can.
Since I’ve already been out weeding and harvesting my veggie planters this morning, the yoga and the elliptical will round out my day nicely on moving the bulk.
I ALMOST finished weed whacking the back yard – the three planters, the end of the house around all the geothermal stuff, under the porch, under the deck, along the sidewalk in the back and one side of the driveway pad before I ran out of cord – or it wouldn’t ‘bump’ anymore and give me more line.
Since I was thoroughly pooped by that time – the end of the third session out there today – I gave up, gathered up and put away the extension cord, pulled the back of the truck down as a place to work, managed to find a replacement cord thingie in case I needed it. I was too tired to actually try to change the cord thingie, so I came in.
I ordered six more cord thingies from Amazon, since the one I brought in was the last one I had. I rested, and drank more water (my eyes are floating) and I think I actually dropped off for a bit in my recliner.
I ‘roused’ a few minutes ago and went out to look at the weed whacker. I didn’t want to forget and have my husband try to shut the garage door later tonight and have the door run into the extended back of the truck.
I pulled out the old cord holder, with a lot of effort, and saw that indeed, I was out of cord. I got out the new one, threaded the cord through the hole, figured out how to put the new one on, including using the part of the old one you’re supposed to keep (:0) ) to hold the new one.
I DID IT! It snapped into place and the cord is extended through the hole, ready to be used again. I put a strip of duct tape around one part of the ‘rod’ of the weed whacker so I can now tell at a glance which one the ‘good one’ is.
HOOORAAAAAY!
Tomorrow is soon enough to start the front…
I spent over an hour with the 3 sessions outside. It’s almost 6pm here and I’ll start dinner soon. Will I do yoga?
I’m not this young (by a LONG shot) and don’t look this good, but I’m making progress with the weed-whacking this afternoon. It’s now 63 degrees and sunny. The stuff I’m whacking is still pretty wet, but it’s coming down.
I’ve finished the 3 veggie planters on the east side of the house and am taking a ‘back break’ and drinking some water before going out again. I want to at least finish under the porch, under the deck, and along the back sidewalk before I call it a day today.
This weed whacker is working fine. Everything is compatible. I told my husband I was going to mark this one with some tape, and that I wanted to do away with any others we have, as they don’t do near as good a job as this one does. Right now, it seems that he is in agreement. He is still holding on to his announcement he was not going to mow in March. I really can’t blame him. He spends a lot of time on our riding mower during the mowing season. Usually this begins sometime in April. This year is weird, but he’s trying to ignore it. :0)
Oh, I almost forgot! When I went out to weed whack this afternoon, look at what I found!
(Please, just look at the IRIS, not all the weeds in and around the planter….)
Going to rest a bit more, drink more water, then head out for the next session.
I’ve just come in from trying to weed whack around my veggie planters – a complete failure and now pooped from the effort.
I took one of our weed whackers and the long extension cord out to the side yard. I plugged in the cord at the back of the house, and then started to attach the other end to the whacker. It wouldn’t plug in. I’ve never had the problem before, so looked at things carefully and tried and tried, but it just wouldn’t fit. I took the cord back to the garage and found another one that was shorter, but had an end on it I thought should fit.
This one went easily into the plug in the back of the house, and also into the whacker! I turned it on and nothing happened. I checked both ends again – twice – and finally had things happy. I started the weed whacker and it was just chewing at the weeds – not really doing a good job – and was taking a LONG time. I thought about taking it and exchanging it for one of the others we have, but decided to tough it out.
My back really started talking to me when I was starting to try to weed whack on the back side of the long planter. THEN I found the cord was too short to go across the back. I was fuming, trying to rest my back, and THEN it started to sprinkle. THEN sprinkle harder…
I finally gave it up and brought the cord and the whacker back into the garage.
Tomorrow I’ll choose another weed whacker that will hopefully do a faster, better job, trying to make sure it’s got the whacking cord on it, ready to use, and trying to make sure the cord will plug in before taking it all the way out to the side of the house. :0(
Somehow I forgot to send Happy Spring Wishes yesterday. My apologies. I DO send them to you. :0)
I finished planting my spring garden yesterday afternoon. We got the rest of the plants yesterday morning and I waited until it warmed up to actually plant. Yesterday I planted 6 more spinach plants and 8 tomato plants.
This is the 8-foot planter. I planted Butter Crunch leaf lettuce, iceberg head lettuce, and spinach. Due to space, I just spread the plants out as best I could, changing from one type of plant to the other, rather than planting the spinach 4-to-a-square, and the leaf lettuce the same way. I’m hoping the plants will do okay like this.
This is a closer view. The plants have a bit more room to spread out than in traditional square foot planting.
This square planter has 4 tomato plants around the center pole with supports tied to the pole for sturdiness. Then I planted some of the lettuces and the spinach around the perimeter.
The ‘niche’ planter (because it is sheltered by the back of the house and our screened porch) has the other 4 tomato plants. I’m going to TRY not to allow the plants to spill over the side onto the ground this time. I really hate cutting healthy vines, but I’m telling myself that all the energy goes to the vines, rather than producing tomatoes…
Today I’m planning to get there this afternoon when it’s warmer (it’s 47 now) do some weed whacking, fertilizing, and soil-enhancing.
This yard work PLUS my yoga practice PLUS my normal other activities is really making me welcome the bed at night. Probably good for building my character, as well. :0)
Yesterday, as we were trying to leave to take our cat, Abby, to the vet, our progress was impeded by a 3 foot (+-) black snake. My husband tried to nudge it on its way, but finally picked it up and tossed it out into the back yard. (One sign of spring I’m not particularly fond of.)
Our tulip tree, If you look carefully at the bottom center of this pic, you’ll see the recovering Amber keeping me company as I took pics this morning.
Redbud and forsythia
It really helps my mood to be able to invite Amber to join me and to walk around the yard a bit, seeing things coming to life, or in full celebration of the joy of the weather.
This is what used to be the iris planter. It’s now weeded and ready for tomatoes in the spring.
This is the second tomato planter.
And I’ll plant spinach and lettuce in this planter. All three are filled with Mel’s Mix.
This is where some of the iris plants ended up.
This is a tall planter beside the front porch.
And this one is in the front yard, to the other side of the front porch.
I also cut the elephant ear plants down as far as I could. I’m starting to cram as many leaves as I can get in that planter between now and the first real freeze, with all appendages crossed that it will be enough to protect them until they hopefully start shooting leaves up again in the spring.
There is nothing to vote for or against in my county today, so I won’t be collecting and wearing a sticker such as the one above today. My SIL, who lives in Charlotte NC, is not only voting today, she is a poll worker for the first time! I applaud her motivation and energy to do this. I am always thankful to the volunteers who help with our elections here, and I always thank everyone who isn’t actively helping someone at the time I’m there. If you have an opportunity to vote today, I hope you take advantage of it.
Kelley Blue Book
Our 2006 Honda Ridgeline Truck looks mostly like this one, but we changed out the grill my husband didn’t like and ours is not nearly as shiny as this one after 17 years.
For the first time in that time, we put our mounted snow tires in the back of the truck and I drove it to the tire place in town to have THEM take the regular tires off, put the snow tires on, and air them up. It was two hours or so very well spent, in my opinion. We had trouble just heaving the tires into the back of the truck and rolling them from and to the place we store them in the shop. I’m really glad my husband honored his agreement to let the experts do the job this time.
I particularly noticed that the tire guy just picked up each tire and put it in the back of the truck like it was no big thing. I had to stop and tell him that I resented that a bit, but was grateful for his strength and expertise. We laughed together over it. The whole job was $32, so that was certainly a win/win as far as I’m concerned. Now we will be as able as possible to get down our driveway – and up again – if we have to – when it gets slippery this winter.
Navien Tankless Hot Water Heater
My husband stayed at the house while I went to get the tires changed, waiting in case the people who might deliver the tankless hot water heater our plumber ordered for us came. They called right before I left, so I was able to leave a check for the unit. The tankless is expensive, but we’ve learned the hard way that it’s no fun to run out of hot water when you’re in desperate need of a nice hot shower after working. We spent more on the installation of the current heater than we did on the unit itself, with a lot of expensive rules about venting and the use exclusively of stainless steel on the pipes. We’ve had the current unit, a Rheem, since July of 2014, so it has lasted almost 10 years with only one problem for which we had to call our plumber.
123RF.com
Since the new unit is about $1,000 more than the previous one, I’m HOPING that the installation will cost a lot less.
Ildar Abulkhanov-Getty Images-istockphoto
Today I’m hoping to weed the last 2 planter boxes in my square foot garden and cover them with tarps for the winter.
Mother Nature is thumbing her nose and laughing at me. First, she gave us much-warmer-than-normal temperatures, followed by 4 days of hard freezes, and will follow this up starting Friday with highs in the 60s and 70s. I might handle this with a bit more grace if my plants’ lives weren’t in the balance.
In the course of these 4 freezes, I’m losing ALL of the rest of my flowers and my elephant ears.
Example:
I read where I’m ‘supposed’ to dig up the bulbs and store them in peat moss in the garage until spring. I did that two years in a row, once in our garage and the next year in our shop, and both were complete disasters. I ended up each spring with ‘blobs’ instead of bulbs, and had to pitch them.
For the past two years, I just left the bulbs in this planter, cut the stems off as close to the soil -or just beneath the soil- as possible and then filled the planter with as many leaves as possible.
This past year was the best year EVER for my elephant ears, with them almost covering the window and shutters of the garage, reaching WAY above my head and being extremely happy plants.
SO – I’ll do my new procedure of cutting them off (probably this weekend) and will make sure to stuff as many leaves from the yard in there as possible and then hope for the best for the spring.
I won’t look this cute, but I plan to use this wonderfully cooler day today to get some things done in the yard. It’s 49 degrees F. right now, so I’m actually waiting a bit until it WARMS UP (imagine that!) before I go out. :0)
I’ll probably do several sessions, with some resting in-between, and see how much I can accomplish.
These two pictures give you an idea of what I was trying to clean out today. There are 11 planters on the deck – all of them overgrown with weeds – some dead, most alive and thriving. I just came in from getting things cleaned out.
In the black planter in the center of this photo, there was a really big, strong root that didn’t want to come out. I finally got a stool, a short shovel, and some loppers. I pried up the root as much as possible and then lopped it off as low as I could. I don’t think we’ll see it again, since it will have to weather the winter with no water, little sun, and no food, but we’ll see. You can also see that Amber was helping me with the project. :0)
Things are looking more like someone cares now. I’m going to turn off the irrigation system to the back. There is only one planter along the driveway pad that needs watering, and I can do that by hand.
“My Garden” – Gregorio Catarino – @gregcatarino1 on X
I love this painting. I wish I had an area like this. I used to have a greenhouse that my husband and I built-
But a storm killed it beyond repair a year or so ago and we had to take it down. The reality of it is that if you don’t have a separate heating and cooling system for it in Arkansas, you can’t get the temperature right for good growing of seeds and plants. It was a fun experiment.
TODAY’S PROJECT –
As you can see, there are multiple small containers that are totally overrun by weeds. I need to completely clean them out. The heat got to everything – despite the fact that we used our automatic watering system twice a day – and the flowers died. The weeds are much hardier and used the opportunity to thrive. I’ll have quite a job getting these out.
Before – the trio of brick planters had become completely overgrown with out-of-control runners on plants, weeds, and Bermuda grass. Today was a perfect day to try to get this under control. The sky was mostly overcast. It’s just now 81, but was cooler most of the morning while I was doing the first session. There was a breeze. I had my stool, the big trash can, my gloves, and two kinds of loppers.
Things are looking a bit better now, and I’m finished for the day outside. I haven’t decided what the next project area will be yet, but I have a wealth of areas from which to choose….
And that’s it for my outside work (and exercise) for the day.
Tomorrow (weather permitting) I have 4 planters – two really small concrete planters on either side of the garage door – and then two regular-sized brick planters that are on either side of the garage pad.
Here they are –
Hopefully, I can get something significant accomplished each day until I have things under control once again.
My husband said he was taking the dog and they were going to get the mail. I reminded him that this was Labor Day, so no mail. I told him I was going to mix up some KillzALL and was going to weed the rocks in the back bed. He decided to go with me – an unusual, but welcome thing.
I mixed up the spray container of KillzALL and brought my knee pad and gloves. I started weeding the rock bed and he started to spray the weed killer around the deck.
The skies opened up and POURED on us with no warning whatsoever. We dashed – as fast as old people can – into the garage and laughed as we dripped. We closed the garage door and came in. I’m still dripping a bit as I type this. We both have a cup of coffee and will probably try to work again after lunch.
Murphy’s Law – Finagle’s Law of Dynamic Negatives – whichever or both – says that particularly when the TWO of us agree to work in the yard, we will get summarily drowned.
It took 3 sessions today to finish, but it’s done. The rock garden beds in the front and the back of the house are weed-free. The final step was to mix up some KillZall to hose over the rocks in order to try to prevent a quick resurgence of weeds.
The heat index is 106 today, so it’s nice and toasty out there. It didn’t take long at all for me to feel like I was frying like a piece of bacon, so I did 20 minute sessions for the most part.
It feels good to have finished that. I’ll mix up more KillZall to spray around the yard tomorrow so that my husband has an easier time mowing. He has a riding mower, but it’s not one of the fancy ones that you can turn on a dime, so there are many places in the yard he can’t get up close to. If I can do a good job with the weed killer, it should make his job easier and quicker.
I WANT this sweet owl. What a beauty! With my luck, he has a terrible temper and hates old ladies, biting chunks out of them before they realize what’s happening….
olallie-daylily garden
Yesterday I weeded the front rock bed and half of the back. Today I’m hoping to finish the project and then spray with KillzAll to hopefully prevent a quick resurgence of the weeds.
The weather people are continuing to predict that ‘It’s GOING to get hot.’ Hahahahahahah The heat index is supposed to be 105 today and more impressive the next several days, so I’m just trying to get what I need to done in short sessions and not worry about it.
I hope you’re having a fun weekend, staying cool and hydrated. I’m going outside to play in the weeds now. :0)
We have some of these, but mostly it’s ones that spread their arms far and wide, trying to cover the top of the rock beds. The soil is dry and hard right now, but I don’t want a muddy mess, either, trying to get the weeds out.
Olallie Daylily Garden
THESE above are mostly what has taken over our rock gardens. They’ve done a GREAT job of spreading their arms and now are almost covering the rocks.
I have found the best way for ME to get them out is to get down on my hands and knees, using some nice foam knee pads, covering my hands with weeding gloves that are thin and allow me to root around and find the roots of the spreading weeds, and then pull them out. I’m wearing a sweat band, sunglasses, bug repellent, and a hat (that keeps falling off.) I have some EIGHT handy in case I undercover a swarm of ants with my weed pulling, and I’ll spray the whole bed with KILLZALL when the weeds are out.
I’ve just finished the first session of the day – just 20 minutes. I’ll do some serious resting and drink a glass of cool water before I head out again.
I would like to finish the rock beds in the back and the front by the end of the weekend. Since the sun is trying to fry me like an egg, this means LOTS of short sessions with LOTS of resting and water in-between. I’ll get exercise just by going out and coming in again so many times, and the heat ensures I drink more of the water that I should be doing on a daily basis. :0)
I just gathered these, plus a bunch of cherry-tomato-sized tomatoes from the two planters. I think this is probably the last harvest, as the vines are looking tired and the tomatoes are small or spoiled on the vines. I’ll probably start pulling them out and cleaning up today.
Meanwhile, I’ll have a nice gift to take to Michael, our hairdresser, soon, and we have a few left that are hopefully not ‘mealy’ as my husband said of the earlier ones.
This has been a disappointing year for tomatoes. Tomatoes like a warmer temperature that doesn’t fluctuate a bunch, lots of sun – but not the intensity that fries them on the vine, and a steady amount of water. We’ve had none of these things this season, so it’s really amazing we got to enjoy any tomatoes at all.
I’m thinking I’ll try to get several packages of zinnia seeds to sprinkle on the cleared spaces in the planters once I finish. I truly love the wild, colorful, spontaneous look of those.
I’m waiting awhile before going back out to tackle Planter # 2 for the day.
After the rain stopped yesterday, I had two good sessions in the yard. I re-weeded the trio of planters
that run between our front yard and the driveway that had already sprouted up with the rain and the sun we’ve been having.
The second seession also included weeding the brick planter that faces the front yard to the side of our garage where the elephant ear plants are trying to come up.
After the two sessions and before bed, I took a long shower. That helped, but I’m still feeling much older than usual this morning.
This morning I’ll tackle the two brick planters on either side of the garage pad. Both are terribly overgrown, as you can see in these pics –
I’m not sure how far I’ll get, since we’re under an “Excessive Heat Warning” today, but I’ll take it a bit at a time and rest and drink a lot of water between sessions.
If the grass dries up sufficiently, I think my husband is planning to mow. Then the yard will start looking like someone cares. :0)
Ahhh. We finished our errands and I headed out to check the tomatoes. Good thing I brought a big bowl because I was stunned at how many ripe tomatoes we had – and more coming!
I only had to toss ONE that bugs had gotten to. I’m thrilled.
Needless to say, we’ll have tomatoes with lunch in a few minutes and our cookout dinner tonight. HOORAAAY! My lettuce and spinach this year were pretty much a bust, but the tomato plants are LOVING the heat and the sun.
Weather across the U.S. may be severe today, so we need to keep a close eye out. I think I read that 50 million people are under threat of severe storms, gusty winds, hail, etc. today.
Unless things turn bad quickly, we’re planning to go ahead to Lunch Bunch this morning and then to pick up a prescription and groceries before coming home. Of course, this is all subject to change if we see flying hairballs.
If we’re lucky enough to have this bad stuff bypass us, I plan to check my tomato plants and harvest the rest of my heads of lettuce this afternoon.
Hopefully, we’ll all come through this threat intact and safe.
We’re starting to get ripe tomatoes! There was one larger ripe one this morning, but the bugs had gotten to it, so I had to pitch it. I gathered some cute little ones for us to eat celebrationally with our lunch today.
“cute” rather than substantial. The vines are pretty loaded. I’ll spray and fertilize the tomato plants Friday and keep my fingers crossed for more beautiful ripe tomatoes.
I checked our head lettuce plants and most are starting to bolt now. :0( The weather just got too warm too fast this year. I’ll salvage what I can and then see if there are any other plants I want to start when we are in town next.
This is my sister-in-law’s garden in Charlotte. They will be moving at the end of the year, so this is the last spring display they will enjoy. I’m so glad they – and Mother Nature – are cooperating to show them the proper send-off. So colorful and pretty! (If you look carefully above the hummingbird feeder, you can see a hummer!)
Beautiful combination of colors and different shapes. :0) “Happiness in a box.”
creativeartworksblog 