More work and flowers

Got started on the other side of the house and the long garden area.  I dug out around the huge chunk of granite right by the steps to make it more of a focal point and got some plates half buried.  Then I went to town and the rain kept me from doing any more work outside today.

So, I worked inside.  The main bathroom is now grouted, restained, sealed and all that good jazz.  We wait 24 hours for everything to dry and we can have our shower back!

I then did the guest bathroom.  I probably should have taken a shower before working in there!

 You can see the red flower bush, strawberry plant, the dying spinach, marigolds, lemon balm and some others

 the bush is a crate myrtle, a bunch of salvias (yellow, red and purples), the Persian Shield in the back and strawberry plant in the tub

 no, there isn't a plate missing - its a clear one!

 you can see the granite rock on the right side in front of some rosemary - the plate border starts on the other side

 Love, love, love the celosias!

 A Persian Shield - isn't the colors fantastic?

 Victoria white salvia

purple salvia

opinions on the plate borders?  I'm going to do 2x2 boards in front, low profile.

Garden Borders and a brave sunflower

Got an idea for a border for the garden areas from a Gooseberry Patch cookbook (they have some wonderful little tidbit suggestions at the bottom of recipes). 

Jackie got the tiller going, I dug up the borderline of the garden and along the pavers.  I weeded some of the area (got more to do). Then I dug a little deeper and inserted the following interesting items for a border.  What do you think?

There's also a picture of my brave sunflower.  I got it from the "ugly, last chance" rack at Home Depot and planted it.  It had a broken stalk and three others were fine.  The other three didn't make it the broken one is growing.  Go figure.  I staked the plant once it began growing and trying to get upright.

Now I have a sunflower!  I love them and the Persian Shield is doing fantastic.

Check out the work (got more to do, I need more plates).

We Own a House

I started a SMALL project in the bathroom.  I removed the old caulk around the shower tiles connecting to the tub and the tub to the floor and used those plastic strips.  Since they don't really hold up for long I supplemented with caulking to hold and seal better.  Turned out well. 

Okay, I'm tired of the damned stained grout and trying to clean it for the last 3 years.  I got some grout stain and started scraping the grout lines clean.....

WTH?  There's caulk on EVERY single grout line. 

<hanging my head>

Okay, I have to remove all the caulk covering the grout with a scraper and LOTS of razor blades.  That took a few days since I can only do an hour or so at a time.  It revealed that most of the stains were the caulk and not the grout but the grout is still discolored.  It also revealed that this frickin hurts when you have to reach and scrape with screwed up rib muscles.

It also revealed that the grout has disintegrated all up one corner and at two tiles.  I'll have to pick up some grout and repair our shower and the shower in the guest room.  I've never done grout so this will be a learning experience.

You can see all the caulk I've scraped off in the pictures.  You can also see where I've started restaining the grout lines and how good that's going to look.

We did a lot of work Sunday - weed whacking, mowing the lawn, weeding in the garden, more removing of grout = we overdid. A few errands yesterday and I'm really tired. 

Today will be a laid back day except for some cooking (and most of that will be a rice cooker and slow cooker).  I might try my hand at shortbread again.

Holly & Blake

It's been almost 2 weeks since we last saw our oldest cat Holly and over week since Blake disappeared. We think Holly went off into the woods for a final walk and that someone picked Blake up (she's a beautiful tabby cat). It hurts.


Thank you for 17 years, Holly, our big handsome cat.

Another one Bites the Dust - or Dives in the Dirt or something

another tree planted and the fact that I am done with work for the day. I had to take it very slow because of the shoulder and neck muscles being in the "I HATE YOU" stage. Toss in the back pain dating back to 1992 and I'm a mess.

The tree is a weeping willow and will give us some nice shade over the screened in porch eventually. There's still so much to do and thunderstorms predicted for this afternoon. We'll never get ahead of the growth around here. We've seen entire houses consumed by the brush.

Oh and sending out a public shout out to Jackie, the fearless spider killer! Spiders are fine in the garden and yard. They're fine in the woods - just don't scare me.

They are NOT fine clinging to the screen that covers the sliding glass doors to keep flies and mosquitoes out. They are NOT fine clinging to the screen that I am pushing aside to feed the cats at MY EYE LEVEL. They are NOT fine when they are at least 3 inches big all around.

Stay out of my house and off my house and everyone will be happy

Grounded

Okay, I'm not sure which unhealthy/unwise move I did that threw out those shoulder and neck muscles that I sometimes have problems with but whichever it was, I am REGRETTING it! I was hurting badly last night - the hernia at the sternum was hurting, the back was hurting and my neck was a little stiff but I was feeling like I've gotten a lot accomplished over the last week and a half and the garden is starting to show it.

I woke up this morning almost unable to move.  The neck and shoulder muscles are definitely pulled.  I thought maybe getting out and moving might help so I went to the bookstore to get Jackie's books and I picked up a couple on gardening.  Nope, still in agony. 

managed to get home, still hurting very badly.  It grew darker, the wind came up and the predicted thunderstorms began threatening us.  Then a VERY loud crack shook the house followed by thunder and torrential rain that couldn't decide with direction sideways it wanted to go.  We got windows closed and I got off the computer and unplugged mine and Jackie's.

Something we didn't know before moving here - we are now in a very high lightning strike zone.  The local news channels have counters up in the corner of their broadcasts counting how many strikes they've seen in one storm.  Lightning rods - ones that really work and that channel the energy down and out away from a structure are big business here.  We have surge protectors on the electrical line, at the outlets and in electrical bars for the electronics for the computers and tv.  We still don't take chances and log off and unplug.

I laid down because of the pain and it's not any better several hours later.

They are calling for 40% chance of rain for the entire week.  Around here a 40% chance of rain almost always means we'll see rain.

So - I'm grounded from most gardening and my body will probably be grateful for it.

Gardening Notes from a Novice

What's on my mind is getting a 12 foot tree home in a small Honda Fit that has 6ft length inside. Along with 5 LARGE bags of mulch, 3 paver squares, one Boston fern, 2 trellises 2 bags of puppy pads and assorted misc. Throw in a "to go" bag of food from McDonald's and that described my late morning errands.

The tree is a Corkscrew Willow tree that will grow maybe to 30ft and it will have some very interesting branch growth, colorful leaves in the fall and shade in the summer. Yay!

I dug up and weeded another small patch in the garden, I transplanted some marigolds and salvia flowers, laid some more mulch, contributed a lot of sweat to the garden, and laid 2 pavers down.

I am unable to do anymore. I may lose a couple of salvia flowers that need transplanted but I can't do anymore today. <sigh>

I still need to plant some seeds that I ordered - huge marigolds for the back of the garden that helps keep grubs out of the flowers, smaller marigolds for the front and a "Love Lies Bleeding" - I ordered them late but I'm hoping they'll take for a summer/early fall blooming season.

http://www.burpee.com/flowers/amaranthus/amaranthus-love-lies-bleeding-prod000122.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amaranthus_caudatus

I'm excited about that one and the soapwort

beginning to look like a garden

 The Honda Fit.  Note the small size that is very deceptive.  This little car can hold a LOT

 This is the tall willow tree I got home in the Fit.

 Crete Myrtle, doing well

Persian Shield - the leaves are amazing

 Salvia - Victoria White

24 May 25, 2014

Dear Facebook; what is on my mind is plants and more plants. Our neglected garden is finally looking like we give a hang - for at least half of the bed so far. Today I planted a tall salvia, a Persian Shield, and a lower growing salvia, transplanted some marigolds, hung a hammock in the screen porch, spread mulch, transplanted a citronella plant (have 2 more to transplant) and watered everything.

Yes, the gardening bug has gone into overdrive in my system. I got up at 8am despite plans of sleeping in and taking the Sabbath off all work. No, I wake up early thinking about the garden bed and anxious to do more digging. WTH? Instead of more books and action figures (or desperately needed clothes) I'm using "fun" money to buy mulch and plants.

So between setting up the computer I'm also gardening. Time to stop, however. My back is protesting the work and the rest of the body is protesting the 90F temp.