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Lazy Vacation
• Thursday, June 22, 2006 • 1:03 AM
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I'm on vacation this week, which I had planned to spend working in the yard. So far, I've gotten minimal yard work done. Although, I have finally had some time to relax, which is good also. We got a small grill on sale at Target and we decided to grill last night for dinner on our patio. We don't have any electricity on our patio, which means no lights. But, lots of candles did the trick. I also bought a few citronella candles to mix in and those did a nice job on the mosquitos. (Most of the citronella candles came from the $1 section at Target. I also bought a toy for Elvez... I warned Eliana this would happen!) We grilled corn, mushrooms, zucchini, and veggie burgers. I put fresh tomatoes and greens on the burgers. It turned out pretty good. We drank lemonade and sat on the patio watching the fireflies; Luca had a great time, leaping into the air after them.
It was very very hot today. We decided to go and see a movie; working in the sweltering yard seemed particularly unattractive. We saw X-Men III right after visiting the comic shop. That is so nerdy. But not nearly nerdy enough, apparently, as we proceeded to play the Terminator 2 pinball game at the theater before heading to our seats. We also had the largest drink and popcorn that I have ever seen, which were very nearly the end of us.
After the movie, I went to the garden center to look for some "Spiked Gayfeather", which they did not have. They did have a similar plant, but not in the color that I wanted. So, the spot where the purple loosestrife was will remain bare for the time being. However, I did buy two perennials as a gift for Spencer and his wife Megan. They recently bought a house and are having a housewarming party this weekend! I got an unusual deep red day lily and another perennial that I haven't grown before, but it has beautiful double red blooms on it. Red seems like a lucky color for a housewarming. Plus Spencer mentioned that Megan has planted quite a few tiger lilies in their yard, and it seems to me that red would look good with tiger lilies. Now I just need to make them a card... I will put that on the long list for tomorrow.
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Mon-day.
• Monday, June 12, 2006 • 9:48 PM
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It's hard to believe that the weekend is over. It's even hard to believe that Friday is over. But, it is Monday. Thursday I planted all of my new perennials. I'm very happy with the way my garden turned out. I think that I got just the right amount of plants. However, on Saturday, I discovered that the only plant that I saved from destruction is the infamous purple loosestrife, which is so invasive that it is illegal to have it in your yard. Ironic, no? At least I'm not the one who planted it there originally; it was there when we moved in. So anyway, I'll be ripping it right back out this evening. I think I already have a replacement plant in mind. I hope that I can find it at the garden center.
Here is the bad, bad loosestrife. If you have it, get rid of it while you can! It is very pretty, but equally destructive apparently. Photo from the Nature Conservancy.
I think I'm going to plant some of this instead. It's called "Spiked Gayfeather". I like the name, haha.
Besides working in the garden, I also spent some time in the park this weekend with our friends' pet, Elvez the dog. Nicole (other friend) and I are taking care of him while they are in South America. I had Elvez duty this weekend. He's a very sweet dog, and of course I'm living it up since Keith has vetoed getting our own dog. While walking along the path through the park, we stopped at the little pond. This is the same pond that was loaded with tadpoles. Well, now there are tons of tiny little frogs, about the size of a dime, all around the edge of the pond. They are sooo cute! Almost cuter that Elvez!
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Landscaping!
• Wednesday, June 07, 2006 • 10:32 PM
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The landscapers came today! They worked all day, and now they are finished. The results are fantastic. They laid a new brick pathway, tore out an ugly rotted stump, leveled our yard, and built up the soil and mulch in my flower bed. The difference is amazing. I'm really glad that I decided to have the work done. It looks very professional and I'm very pleased with the results.
I took a vacation day today to make sure that the landscaping went smoothly. I'm also choosing and planting the plants myself, so I went plant shopping for perennials for my newly rehabilitated garden. Everything, except for one favorite plant that I saved, was obliterated. I went to a local garden center as well as Lowe's. Of course Lowe's is much cheaper, but they also don't have as many varieties of plants. I got some very well cared for plants at the garden center, including an interesting variegated Coreopsis. I have always really liked Coreopsis. After the garden center, I headed off to Lowe's to buy more common, but economically priced, plants. My design theme incorporates a lot of dark purple and yellow with a little red added for extra contrast. I got two types of perennial Salvia, which covers the purple, and the Coreopsis covers the yellow spectrum. I have the plants still in their pots, laid out in the spots where they will go. Tomorrow I'm going to finalize my design and start putting them in the ground. I just need to pick up three more plants from the garden center that I decided should be added to complete the garden. My project is almost totally complete!
Between plant shopping trips, we had to visit Target to buy a sprinkler for the new grass seed. Our lawn was decimated when they leveled it and ripped out the stump with a bulldozer (it was a cool machine, it ran on big treads!). It was fascinating to watch them work. The landscape designer came out to make sure everything was going smoothly. I mentioned how interesting it was to see the work in progress; she looked a little puzzled. She sees it all the time, so I suspect she is over it by now. But I'm just a bumpkin apparently, and am still awed by machines and brute strength.
While we were out, we also got Mister a new cardboard scratcher. He had a hard day today; all of the rumbling and noise from the work freaked him out and he hid out in the basement all day. He's feeling much better now, stretched out on his new scratcher. He thoroughly enjoys a good scratch.
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Psychedlic!
• Monday, June 05, 2006 • 11:35 PM
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Our backyard is full of lightning bugs. I think that they are a different species than the ones I saw in my parent's yard as a kid. These lightning bugs have quick strobe-like flashes; it's dizzying when all of the trees and bushes are full of them. The ones I grew up with had long, slower flashes. I can't hardly think of summer without thinking of lightning bugs. It's like summer is official now.
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Slugs and Other Delicous Things
• Sunday, June 04, 2006 • 9:13 PM
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Well, this weekend was busy again. But, as always, there's still more to do. I put up green roll fencing around nearly all of the flower beds or places with mulch to keep the chickens out. They reeeaaly like to play and scratch in the mulch, dumping half of it out onto the lawn in the process. They did dig up the flowers in one of my pots as well, but that seems to be more unusual for them. I sure hope so, anyway. The fence seems to be working so far. They are big, fluffy, and kind of plump, which seems to keep them from venturing over the little fences.
I planted flowers on our patio and started seeds in my lettuce box. My lettuce box is really just an old giant drawer that I found in the garage; I painted it yellow and filled it with dirt. I planted a row of mixed greens and a row of cosmos. I used bamboo stakes and twine to mark out the rows. I put a little length of fence around the lettuce box as well, for good measure. I drug out any houseplants that would benefit from being outside for the summer. My poor, somewhat neglected airplane plant seems much happier on the patio. I also took out my big tropical "corn plant" and put it in a much bigger pot and underplanted it with impatiens.
Chicken proof!
A shot of the (hopefully) chicken proof rows of seeds.
I found a nice wire planter basket for a very cheap price. However, it wasn't the color I was hoping for. Keith spray painted it white for me. I got out the screw gun and hung it on the fence. It looks pretty good. Keith did a good job with the spray painting! Keith also hung a new hose rack for me on the side of the house. No more tangled hose.
I decided that the side of the garage could use some fixing up. I weeded, repurposed some concrete edging (I originally used it in the front, received from freecycle), put down layers of newspaper, and mulched the whole thing. All in all, it cost about $4, for two bags of mulch. Ha! I then moved my little portable garden table to the new mulched in spot and put some potted plants on it. It looks so much better. And the chickies really enjoyed eating up the slugs and rollie pollies that ran out from under the bricks that were stored in that spot previously. Yummy.
Ahh, the garage wall looks much better. And yes, that thing on top of my garden table is the giant fake praying mantis Keith mysteriously found in the yard last fall.
Oh, and one more thing. We installed our new bathroom faucet! It was part of Keith's birthday present from his parents. I know that probably doesn't sound very exciting, but it is super exciting to us! It is so much better. Oh man, the old one was pretty bad. The finish had corroded and was flaking off, plus the old sealant/putty was leaching out from underneath, making a perpetual mess. Keith ripped all of the old stuff out and put in the new drain assembly. I reconnected the drain, sealed the faucet in place, reconnected the water supply, and got the stopper working. Whew! The cats were very perplexed that we would spend so much time in the bathroom.
Our new (MUCH improved) faucet.
Today I tried (rather unsuccessfully) to order a new storm door for the back door. We went to Lowe's, but then I realized that I hadn't measured the door. Doh. So then, we went home and measured the door. I went back to Lowe's with measurements in hand, only to find that our door was an odd size and would have to be special ordered. That would make it over $100 more. So, I went back home to think about the problem. Keith helped me remeasure the door, and apparently we had mismeasured. Arrrrrrg! But, that is good really, because then there isn't a problem since our door is actually a standard size. Anyway, tomorrow Keith is going to arrange for the door to be delivered and installed. I think I've been to Lowe's enough for one day. The guy in the door department probably thinks I'm crazy by now.
This is the door we will be getting. Hopefully. If I can get it together, haha.
Of course I still haven't finished painting the concrete base of the porch. Heh heh. Nor have a I removed the plants I want to save before the landscaping crew gets here Wednesday. Well, you know what I'll be doing this week. Sigh.
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Don't Miss the 'Nuge
• Friday, June 02, 2006 • 12:12 AM
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I'm plagued with Ticketmaster spam. Today I received a message stating: "Don't miss Ted Nugent!" Yeah, I think I will pass on the Ted Nugent, but thanks, Ticketmaster.
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Nostalgia
• Thursday, June 01, 2006 • 11:28 PM
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I discovered the old radio console from the college radio station I was a dj for on ebay. It was kind of shocking to see it disconnected and out of the context of the station. So far it's a whole $12. I almost bid on it, but what would I do with it?
Whoops, scratch that. It looks like it's up to over $200 now. Haha.
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