I've been kind of busy, so I'm really behind on my updates. I'll try to catch up. I wrote this entry earlier this week. It's about last weekend ( Read more... )

Just got back from a local garden store with herb plants, pots and potting soil. That's right, I'm going to make a potted herb garden. This way I can plant herbs without having to break sod or dig holes, which could hurt my back. Additionally, the soil here is also very poorly drained, so any planting really needs to be done in either pots or ( Read more... )

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The scythe-like weed whip works really well for everything except tall, thick grass and saplings. It is light and easy to use. Far superior than the gas-powered trimmer. Well, except for tall grass around trees. I may invest in a rotary mower for those areas.

Whacking thistles with the weed whip is very satisfying. Very satisfying indeed. :-)

I got all the plants in. The weatherman predicted rain, thunderstorms, and possibly hail, but it all seems to have missed us. Went north and south of us. So I was able to finish up the gardening. I even dug a bit more sod, this time along the sidewalk, where I planted ground cover. Now I am sore. I think I will not do any more garden work for a ( Read more... )

I just found a brachiopod fossil in the flower bed beside the house! Is that cool or what?!?

Also, something rooted around in the new flower bed I planted yesterday. It didn't eat any of the plants I put there, but it might have gotten some of the seed I put down (purple cone flower and black-eyed susan). Only time will tell.

rfunk drove out to meet me at the after work happy hour yesterday evening. He didn't know anyone there, poor thing, and ended up mostly listening to me talk with other people, but at least now he has some faces to put with names. He was a good sport ( Read more... )

Trees are flowering and leafing out. Days are warming up. And around my house plants are putting out new growth. I took some pictures.

In the front shade garden: dead nettle ground cover, with hostas poking up in the background.

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The annual ant invasion of the kitchen began last week. I got out the diatomaceous earth. Now there are stripes of white powder along the baseboards around the kitchen, but very few ants ( Read more... )

Friday before I left for Marcon I replanted the three plants that had been uprooted the night before. I noticed that the four surviving plants were farther back, so I moved the uprooted ones back in the same line. That seems to have been the problem; they all made it through the weekend without being uprooted, and seem to be doing fine. This ( Read more... )