Saturday, April 27, 2019

maybe this is a gardening blog after all


the front flower bed that I hardly ever post a picture of

I finally got out there with the trimmer Thursday and neatened up the little backyard and then started on the hay grass seeds stalks in the front. I was using the automatic feed electric trimmer as opposed to the new gas trimmer because I'm more used to it and it worked fine for the little backyard but started getting balky in the front because

this is a piece of shit!

It's a Black and Decker that is fairly new, think I bought it two years ago because the old one started spooling out too much string at a time so I thought the part responsible for that was worn out. Turns out, Black and Decker makes a crappy made-in-China product. I had barely got a good start on the front when the spool emptied so I came in to do a search to see why it was doing that and found A. bad reviews about this problem and product and B. a video that showed how to disable the little doohicky that automatically spooled out the string. So that's what I did and finished the front and then came in and wrote my own bad review.

Then I got this email from Black and Decker:


Obviously no one at B&D read it since they seemed so happy to get it.

But it was a nice day out, yesterday too, sunny and dry as in not only no rain but not humid and the Easter lilies have finally started blooming and I cut some to bring in the house Thursday and they have filled the house with their heady fragrance.


As long as the weather keeps up like this no art is getting done.

Yesterday I went around with the shovel and dug up all the pecan and oak trees the squirrels so helpfully planted during the winter and then started in on digging out the rest of the wild mexican petunias which I still did not get all of.

Today my sister and I went to Caldwell's nursery because...plants! I wanted needed more things for the summer since the spring bloomers will have gone by the end of May. I was hoping she had a coral porterweed this time, but no so I came home with five moss rose, another penstemon, a couple of cuphea 'batface' and a couple of gomphrena 'fireworks', a pot of liatris, and three small pots of calibrachoa or million bells, something that is new to me. I bought them to put in the small dish pot that sits on the little boy's head but now that I read the tag, I may only be able to put one in there. So now of course, the age old dilemma of where to plant all this stuff in the ground since where I bought it all for is still full of poppies and larkspur and love-in-a-mist. Ah well, it's a constant work in progress but!!! when I got home I went on-line to see where I could get a coral porterweed and I found a place in Louisiana and it should be here end of next week. Yay! I know exactly where I'm going to plant it.

And speaking of my sister, I don't remember if I've mentioned this before but she writes a good blog, funny and informative. She's relatively new to the blog world and hasn't many readers yet so maybe stop by at Running Naked Screaming Down The Street!  We sometimes write about the same things as we do a lot of stuff together but always from different perspectives.




19 comments:

  1. As I recall, from experience as well as hearsay, it gets hot as hell in Texas in summer, so there will be art. But please keep gardening. My little garden soon will be at the mercy of a new tenant and I may not want to come look at it.

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    1. yep, there will be art. I figure I have a few more weeks of being able to play outside all day before I retreat to conditioned air.

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  2. I will go visit your sister. I love your flowers and the reason all my columbine were closeups is because they are little dots of color among all the weeds in the beds.

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  3. Woman! You are definitely gardening to the maximum! So many beautiful flowers.
    Love the note from Black and Decker. Seems a little weird that they'd want you to keep up with all of the latest recalls. Somehow that doesn't sound like they have great faith in their products.

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    1. the front flower bed was well established when we bought this place. I just try to keep it weeded and watered but even so two of the knock-out roses have died under my care. the easter lilies that grow in the front also came with the house. and yeah, B&D seem to know their products are shit.

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  4. Your lilies are gorgeous and I can almost smell them.
    In Ireland these lilies are a symbol for the old republicans, the ones who fought for independence in 1916 and at around Easter you can still see people wearing small versions on their lapels.
    In Germany these lilies are traditional funeral flowers and only in recent years have I seen them used as "normal" flowers.
    When I was living in Amsterdam in the late 1970 white lilies were a symbol (sign?) used by gay men.

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  5. Oh those lilies are gorgeous. I wished you had taken pictures of the plants. They all sounded exotic. I have to repot my lemon trees yet again. They are falling over now and I need to stake them today.
    I like both you and your sisters blogs. I read the posts as soon as I see them posted.

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    1. right now they are nondescript plants but when they are big enough to look like something, I'll take pictures.

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  6. Your garden and your gardening are part of your art. When you return to the studio, you will bring everything you are doing now and it will inspire you. I've always felt that life is inextricable from an artist's art.

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  7. Figured out where you're putting all the new stuff from yesterday? Thanks for the mention in your post.

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  8. I've been enjoying the weather instead of blogging, but finally figured out that our WiFi reaches out to the swing under our tree. Best of both worlds!

    Love all the flowers in your last post & can't wait to see where all of these new ones land!

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  9. Your sister's blog definitely has a catchy title! LOL

    We have the same problem with our garden. Too many plants, and yet...not enough plants!

    My brother could give you a whole dissertation on the sad state of home hardware and all this made-in-China crap, marketed under formerly trustworthy brand names. It causes him no end of frustration. (I rarely buy hardware so it doesn't bother me as much!)

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    1. I read an article years ago about the fact that companies stopped making their quality top of the line products because people stopped buying them in favor of the cheap and cheaply made items. now things are manufactured to wear out and need replacement in just a few years.

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  10. I'm envious that you can have those lilies in the house. I'm so allergic to them that I can't even go in the grocery stores when they're displayed en masse. I know where there's coral porterweed growing. It's in a public spot that I can get to, and if you want me to collect some seed at the end of its season, I'd be happy to.

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    1. unfortunately it's an annual in our zone, not root hardy. maybe this year I'll remember to collect seeds myself from the one I have coming. but thanks for the offer.

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  11. How is it that every spring we go to the garden centers, get caught up by our own enthusiasm, buy too much, run out of places to plant everything, and then next spring go back for more?
    Every year.

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  12. The first time I read your sister's blog I kept thinking, why does she go everywhere Ellen goes? Duh! Finally figured it out. The garden looks spectacular. We no longer walk through the garden centers of the big box stores, I do not want anything else jumping into the basket. It's too hard to dig here, and then we'd have to extend the irrigation system. We're practicing minimalism out of necessity.

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I opened my big mouth, now it's your turn.