raining again

I am still sick, so nothing is getting done, even though I had the day off. I still didn't get my co-worker's brother called about working on the kitchen countertop, must do that tomorrow. I wanted to get some shoe boxes at Big Lots to work on putting my one closet back together, but we went out to the mall and ended up spending more time there than I planned, and I was totally exhausted. I have to drive right by Big Lots on my way home from work, so hopefully I will remember and stop tomorrow. That will give me something to work on for Sunday.

Last night I couldn't sleep so I ended up putting away clothes and rearranging things in my closet at midnight. Then after that, I spent some quality time trying to figure out what all needed to be done to finish off around the dishwasher. Somehow we need to put in two little (or depending on where we move the dishwasher maybe 1) piece(s) of wood as blanks in the row of cabinets. I think this needs to be done BEFORE the countertop is installed, so actually it will be a two part process. First put in the blanks, then cut and install the counter. I tried to figure out how to put in the blanks and have a few ideas, but I think I need to leave that to someone with more woodworking experience. I would love to get this project FINISHED. I am still living in the land of partially completed projects, which I do not like. All the rain has made working on the railing impossible, so I'm not as worried about that (plus I've basically been too sick to even go out the side door so I haven't really seen it), but I would like to do something about the bathroom floor. I did talk to Neil about that when he was hanging the lights and he said we would need to pull the toilet. So, basically that is on hold until I can get him back out here for a full day. I think right now my plan for that would be to have him work on the outdoor outlet and maybe my dream of a laundry room light while we work tiling the floor. Right now that is all in the future, at this point probably not until February. I will just have to live with plywood in the bathroom until then.

The good news for the yard is we once again had rain today. This is fantastic as I haven't watered for several weeks now. Hope the rain keeps up until I get healthy! I do have a whole bag of bulbs that I have not gotten planted, irises and some left over tulips from my presentation at work. I guess I will dump them in the ground and they will either come up or not. Mom did notice a few weeks ago that my paperwhites under the pear tree have started to send up foliage. I hope they bloom this year.

more decorating

Here are some pictures of the decorations we have up in the kitchen. We also added a few prints to the walls last week.

My collection of baskets. The far right one is a handmade kudzu basket from Georgia:


The quail, the chicken and a teapot. The quail and chicken are Taylor & Ng pieces my mom bought in San Francisco in the 1960s at Takahashi Main Street. We finally located them in storage just recently. The teapot is possibly from Japantown in SF.


In other kitchen news, my co-worker talked to her brother and he thinks he can install the patch piece of kitchen countertop. I need to call him as he wants to look at it to make sure he can do it. The other problem I have is that I can only find the countertop piece in a 6 foot section, which is way more than I need. I'd love to find a 4 foot section as it is a lot cheaper, but no one seems to carry the 4 foot sections in white.

lights finally hung!

Neil came out this morning and we finally got the living room light hung and got the dining room light hung as well. As it turns out, we probably could have hung the dining room light ourselves, but due to the mess in the living room and not knowing what was up there, it was far easier to have Neil do it. He got the dining room light hung first, then tackled the living room light.


The living room light was a bit more of a situation, as there was no box in the ceiling, guess the previous fixtures had been screwed directly into the ceiling? So first, a box was put in. Then he ran some new wire over the the fixture up in the attic, which is always fun as it has such a small entrance. After that, it wasn't too much, just getting the lamp wire cut to the right length and getting the chains set at the right length. The fixture was obviously designed to hang in rooms with VERY high ceilings, as each chain was over 5 feet long. Yikes! We used only 1/2 of one chain to hang the whole fixture.


All the recent home repairs and improvments have been a tad more costly than I was expecting, so other than total do it yourself projects, I think I will be taking time off from home improvement for a while. Once I have some money saved up again, I need to get Neil back to pull up the toilet so we can finish tiling the bathroom, see about installing a light in the laundry room and do something about finishing out the around the dishwasher. Then of course there is always the shack. Somewhere in here, I'd like to get the attic insulated, something I sometimes think will never get done...

As far as anything soon goes, I'm still pretty sick with my cold/whatever. I went to the Dr today, but the prescriptions she wrote for me were non-generics that were $40 a piece, so I called to see if she could give me something else, but she had left for the day. I took some old meds I found. I'm pretty exhausted from being sick and don't think I'll be tackling anything around the house in the next week or so at least. Thank goodness we got another 1/2" of rain last night, as I'm not up to watering either right now.

sick for Christmas

I had 4 days off at Christmas and I had all sorts of plans. I was going to finish the railing, work out in the yard, maybe even look at trying to wire up the outdoor outlet myself.

Then I got sick and stayed sick. Four whole days off and I've been out in the yard for about 3 minutes. Luckily we got some rain earlier this week so I didn't have to water. None of my projects even got thought about, I didn't even retouch the paint in the bathroom where I caulked last weekend.

The work in the kitchen also cost a bit more than I had initially expected and it is not finished, nor is the bathroom retiled. Those will have to wait at least until after the new year. I had also wanted to get some more frames to finish putting up art in the living and dining rooms. Also tabled... We haven't even gone through the framed artwork we have here at the house to decide what we want to hang.

Pretty much a total waste of 4 straight days off from work. I'm planning to go to the doctor tomorrow AM, as I'm still sick, though it seems to have moved more into my chest now. I really don't feel good.

more work around the house, hiding the formica

Today was still very cold, so no work outside. We did get almost 1 1/2" of rain yesterday, so that was very good and I did not have to worry about watering at all today.

The area of the wall I patched is looking good, but when I held the outlet cover up, I realized that I also needed to patch above the outlet, so I did that and then left it to dry. With the wall patching still drying, that left me looking for something else to do instead of painting, as that would have to wait.

We have several large boxes that have been in the living room since we moved and several other boxes we had brought over to go through "later". I decided that "later" had definitely come and we worked most of the morning going through the boxes of kitchen, desk and just misc stuff, deciding what to keep, what to give to Goodwill, what to take back to storage and what to toss. In the end, I had a small box for Goodwill, one of the big boxes 1/2 full for storage and a full garbage bag, plus some new things in the kitchen and the desk. The living room looks SO much nicer without the boxes sitting there. I hid the piece of formica my mom uses as a table under the loveseat. I just hope we can remember where it is if we need it!

I also want to do something about all the artwork we have needing to be framed. I had some 11 x 14 black frames I had purchased for some of my mom's old photos, but they turned out to be 8 X 10. So, I found two saluki prints, one which is a cheap knock off version of the real print and I've never been happy with, and one that I need to mat as it is an odd size. The print whose quality I wasn't happy with was 11 X 14 and fit perfectly in the frame. I hung it in the kitchen up fairly high on the far wall. The colors look great and from that distance you can't tell that the clarity is not all it could be. The print that needs to be matted is almost large enough for the frame. I need to get a piece of acid free white paper to put behind it, but for now there is just a tiny edge of cardboard. I hung that on the wall you pass closest to when you walk into the kitchen. I think it looks great there. We also found an old southwestern themed trivet that we hung on the wall above the telephone.

I also rehung the framed tile that we have always thought looked like Bally. It now hangs in the dining room facing the keyholder tile of a red saluki.

I have another piece of saluki artwork that will look good in the laundry room, but it is in a very thick mat. I've had a bit of trouble finding a frame that it will fit in, at a good price. I'll check Garden Ridge after Christmas and see what I can find. We also got our order of 3 large posters this week, two of which will go in the dining room. But, they will run about $25 each for the frames, so they will have to wait a bit. I did find two nice smaller frames for a few pieces of art in my mom's room. I purchased 3 11 X 14 black frames I had hoped would work for the Ruritania ads that I want to frame up in my room, but I will need a 16 X 20 frame for them, so I have to return those. I'm still not sure exactly what I am doing in my room, as I am waiting to get a new frame so I can FINALLY frame up 'Azali's Domain'. Again, that will have to wait a little bit.

After dinner, the patching was dry so I was able to paint that area of the wall and touch up where I had caulking yesterday. I also touched up the bathroom, but the wall there was stripped back to the wallboard and I think it might require a second coat of paint.

Mom did a lot of work in her room today and there is a lot more space. There is still tons of stuff that needs to be put somewhere. That is our major problem... no storage space. I am hoping we can figure out how to use the space in the dining room closet better once the lamp and its box are out of there. Speaking of the living room lamp, I am hoping we will get it hung this week if we can get Neil back out here. I also bought a lamp on ebay, but I don't think that will be here in time for him to hang, but I should be able to hang it myself, just have to figure out what to do with the ground wire.

burying wire, re-caulking

I went to a Christmas party this morning, so my work on the house did not start until the afternoon. First up was a trip to Lowes to get some supplies (always need MORE things...). I got a 2 x 2 piece of particleboard that will serve as a temporary counter over the dishwasher until I get a piece of countertop and have it patched in there.

The wires for the new outlet above the dishwasher have been exposed and driving me crazy. Plus, I realized that having the wires on top of the wall would prevent any countertop from fitting up against the wall. So, a major plan for the day was to figure out how to bury the wires. I found out I could cut into the drywall, stick the wires down below the level of the drywall, then patch over it. I had to buy some new heavy duty blades for my utility knives, but I was able to get the drywall cut. There is a little twist to this, as typically when you cut back through the drywall, you would run into the empty space between the studs. In our case, the drywall in the kitchen was put up over existing beadboard, so the wires did not have a very big area. I ran into some problems when I was trying to put on the patch and finally figured out how to bend the wires so they fit in their little trough and was able to patch over the area pretty well. It did necessitate a second trip out to Lowes in the late afternoon, as I had not purchased patching material earlier, not knowing how big a hole I'd end up with. Once I got the wires bent, I was able to get the patches up with a bunch of spackle and left them to dry overnight.

My final project for the day was to do something about some poorly caulked areas. I bought a caulk removing tool and a caulk smoothing tool. I was able to get rid of almost all the old caulk on the left hand side of the sink. While I was at it, I got rid of some old wallpaper still hanging in there as well. I did manage to peel off a little paint but since I am painting the area where I patched the wall, that is not a big deal. I also removed the caulk from around the bathroom sink, which again took off a little of the paint.

dishwasher installed

We now have a working dishwasher installed in our kitchen. We also have THREE working electrical outlets, instead of the one we have been making due with. One additional outlet was installed above the dishwasher and the outlet next to the stove that has never previously worked was reactivated. The dishwasher and two outlets are all hooked into the mystery panel under the house, which Neil says is safe.

My mom has done one full load of dishes so far. The leak in the sink drain is also supposedly fixed, so we are going to moniter that situation. If it is fixed, then we can remove the bucket and actually have some more storage space under the sink. There is still work to be done in the kitchen, as I need to figure out what I'm going to do about filling the space between the dishwasher and the wall and we still need to install an additional piece of countertop. Neil is going to come back out next week to work on the living room light and the outdoor outlet and I'm going to see if he can do the countertop at the same time, assuming I can find what I need a Lowes or Home Depot. I am pretty much running out of money for this project (not like I really had the money for it in the first place) but now that it is most of the way through I really need to finish it out.

In garden news, my Debutante camellia is blooming. I figure it is only blooming so early because I bought it from the nursery already heavily budded.

one post in

I left work early today and Neil was finishing up for the day when I got home. The leaking sewer pipe is now wrapped, with one little place that needs some additional tape. The newly leaking toilet was caused by a bent flange. That is now fixed and the toilet is back in place with a new wax seal. He also looked at the odd fuse box under the house, which he thinks is safe. The only things connected to it are some other weird box with a switch and the non-working outlet in the kitchen. We did discover that the wire on the back of the house that used to lead to the shack is hot, so that can be turned into an outdoor outlet.

The plan for Thursday is to do the drain plumbing and electrical work for the dishwasher. It is being delivered on Thursday. Then he will work on getting the outdoor outlet in and take a look at the light fixture wire in the living room. He did find the wires that were stuck up in the ceiling, but he wants to run some new wire, as that is really old wire.

After Neil left, we set to work on the handrail. I was worried whether or not I'd be able to drill into the concrete. That turned out not to be as much of a problem as the fact that the steps are made of concrete blocks, NOT poured concrete, so I ran into holes when I tried to drill. I had to slightly reposition the top post but after a bit of fiddling around, I was able to get the post attached to the top step. Because my step is not totally level, the post looks like it might be just slightly leaning.

I ran into some problems when I went to drill for the bottom post. First I dug out the dirt so the post would fit, but once I started drilling, I ran into nothing but holes. There simply is not enough solid concrete down a the end to drill into the secure the post, so I am going to have to set it in concrete. I will probably end up working on that this weekend. I am having second thoughts on whether or not I can cut the railings correctly. My mom thinks I can, but I will need to buy a miter box and I want a new hand saw, something that will be very sharp.

operation handrail begins

Mom wants a handrail on the side steps, so I decided that (along with re-glazing windows) was going to be my next project. It is such super nice weather right now, like late spring or early summer that I said I wish I would take Wednesday off until 5 PM, but another co-worker is off. However, my boss did say that I could leave today (which I declined as I wasn't ready to work on any project) or tomorrow. I said tomorrow would be great.

I spent some time today looking at our home improvement books for examples of stair railings. Most of what I saw wasn't any help. So, off to Lowes after work. A nice (and cute!) guy in the lumber department said that yes, I did actually know what I was supposed to do to install the railings. I bought the two main pillars today to start out with. I also got some good help (always nice to find) from another employee who helped me pick out the right fasteners and find the right drill bit. I am all set for tomorrow now!

While I was shopping, Neil called and he will be over tomorrow, which is perfect because my mom has the day off. He said he is also free on Thursday and I said I might want him back then. He is going to deal with the sewer pipe first, then check out the toilet. Next task after that is going to be to see about getting the needed connections for the dishwasher. My dream would be that he would be able to get all the connections for the dishwasher done tomorrow so that we could then have the dishwasher delivered and have it hooked up on Thursday. The reality is probably more like maybe we can get all the dishwasher connections hooked up by Thursday, then have the dishwasher delivered and look into installing it ourselves...

hut shingled

After getting a start on shingling on Wednesday, we were able to get all but the top row of shingles on the hut roof on Friday. This AM I ran out to get a tube of roofing cement and used it to glue down the top layer of shingles.

I finally watered the yard today. Due to the cool temps a few days of rain, it has been a while since I've actually watered. I remembered once I got started that I had had issues last time I tried, no water came out of the water wand. I thought it might be the bad hose I had on the inner part of the reel, but taking that off did not good. I tried using the wand without the quick connects and that didn't help either. So, my only a few month old water wand no longer works and I have no idea why. Something in the very top seems to be stopping the flow of water, but I can't find any way to take it apart. So, I'll have to return it. I used an old hose nozzle to water the yard and that took quite a while.

I finally got around to running some chicken wire along the inside of my side fence where it is the 4" squares. While that fencing will keep MY dogs in my yard, it will not keep my neighbors chihuahuas OUT of my yard. The little LITERAL ankle biters keep coming into my yard and getting right up to my fence. Of course my dogs want to fence fight with them and I have been worried that one of the little idiots might try to actually come into my yard or that one of my dogs might get their head through the fence and get one of the little pests. The new male Chi is particularly brave, though he has not bitten me yet. I'll have to see what happens the next time I'm working in my foundation beds... At least with the chicken wire up we should have no actual dog on dog violence at my side fence and everyone should be safe and sound.

I went out to Underwoods to price daphnes but after seeing the price, I figured out why I didn't get one last year. At that point, I was at a loss for what to do next. I want to get started on painting the windows again, but several of the windows need to be reglazed.

Once I got home I started trying to chip the old glazing out of the laundry room window and hoped that I wouldn't break the glass or cause it to fall. A lot of the glazing came away easily and some didn't want to come at all. I finally got all that I thought I'd be able to get off today off and then I got the tube of glazing I had purchased last year. I now understand why the glazing on the front windows looks like it does! In theory this glazing in a caulking gun is easy to use, but in practice it was a mess. Still, I guess there is less prep work than with traditional glazing and you can paint it with latex paint. I did get the parts of the window where I had removed glazing re-glazed, but I still need to remove more glazing from the top part of the window, which will require the ladder. This has been a project that I've wanted and needed to do for some time, as I have been afraid that the glass would fall right out of that window. Now I'm not as worried about that. I think I'm going to have to do similar work on the one kitchen window. Unfortunately, it will all be ladder work, as that is the highest window in the house.

When I was cleaning everything up, I managed to knock over one of my pots of coleus. So, it went outside to be repotted and I also repotted the croton that was sent home from my mom's work to see if I could help it. I took several other plants outside to water and they are out there now draining. I just need to remember to bring them inside before I got to bed. I did get some liquid plant food so I can feed my houseplants this winter. I will mix up a batch of it on Wednesday.

The really BAD news is that I noticed the toilet is leaking again. So far, the leak is confined to the little piece of wood we are going to remove when we tile, so that is good. I'm very glad we have not tiled yet but I am a bit concerned about what the problem could be. The sewer pipe leak continues as well. I called Neil today and he said he will know tomorrow if he can get out here this week. I sure hope he can.

finally started shingling

We finally started shingling the water heater hut today and got 3 rows done. I figure I have another 4-5 rows of nailed down shingles left to go. One thing we are buying is a pair of tin snips that we can use to cut the shingles and for other projects. Trying to cut the shingles with a box cutter (and a blade that turned out to be labelled "paper") is not the way to go. We are still running into problems of nails not wanting to go in and I seem to be good at getting nails to go in at an angle, which does not work. The chalk line is easy to use and does seem to be working well. I guess I will resume this project when I am off work on Sunday as I'm going to be out of town on Friday and have to work Saturday. Bad thing about winter is that it is dark when I get home from work and too cold to get a really early start in the morning on any projects (and even if it was warmer, I don't think people would like me hammering at 8 AM).

I am still waiting to hear back from Neil about the leaking sewer pipe. I hope I do hear from him this week, if only to make plans for next week. We also have Dipple Plumbing coming out tomorrow to take a look and make sure all the plumbing from the bathroom was done correctly, since the tub and sink take forever to drain and the plumbing there is only a little over a year old. I also want to find out if they did the plumbing under the sink and get them to look at it, as it has always leaked. And, we need to make sure that the old water heater connections are indeed plumbed in, as they should have been since that is where the water heater was when we closed on the house. I wish I could be off tomorrow AM to help deal with this.

water heater hut painted

I have finally gotten the water heater hut painted. It now is painted with 2 coats of Zinser 123 primer/sealer. When I was painted, I realized it had a major design flaw, because the roof did not extend past the front wall, causing water to run directly down the front wall. Initially, I thought that I would have to remove the exisiting roof, but then I realized that there was no reason I could not simply put a larger piece of plywood over the existing roof. So, the hut now has a new, larger roof that does overhang the front of the hut. I got this new roof painted with two coats of primer as well. I have hoping that I will be able to start shingling it on Wednesday. I would also like to get some outdoor white paint and put a real coat of paint on the hut as well, just to try to preserve the wood more, as it is OSB. I will say that that roof overhang did a good job on the sides, the front and roof were the only areas that showed signs of having been wet.

Speaking of wet... my new and newly primed roof got rained on last night, as did my pack of shingles. Hopefully everything is okay.

yew is dead

I took the yew I had dug up in to Underwoods today and it is dead. Since I've had it for more than 6 months, there is no money back. It looks like it is another victim of the late frost. They will have another big 30% off sale around the first of the year and I'll buy a replacement then unless I can find one cheaper at another nursery. So sad. The thinking is that it too was a victim of the Easter Freeze as there was no other obvious causes of death.

It was too cold again today to paint the water heater hut. I did get out and water a few containers in the AM, dumped a few more summer things and used the pressure washer nozzle to clean out my ceramic and terra cotta containers. This afternoon, we took all of them over to storage. My yard is a lot neater now, but I am wishing more than ever that the shack was functional. Maybe later...

I did plant the lantana from the hanging basket, basically throwing it into the ground and the front of the left hand side of the perennial bed. I then dug down a little hole and put the unplanted butterfly bush, pot and all, in that hole. Over in the shade border, I dug three holes for the three hydrangeas in 1 gallon containers that have been sitting there. Penny Mac, Marchal Foch and my propogated Endless Summer are now all sunk into the ground for the winter. I also moved the two potted hostas way back along the fence line. I am going to do some more raking in a few days, then pile some leaves in this area.

We went to Country Boys and got my Christmas presant, a wine and silver blue garden angel. I totally couldn't afford it, but I couldn't pass it up either. I also got a few other plants to add to some containers before my presentation at work on Wednesday. I also took some pictures this afternoon and I hope that some of them will work. I am hoping for a slow day at work to work on the powerpoint presentation I said I'd make. Wish I had the program on my home computer.

This evening, as it was getting dark, I moved the English Thyme I had divided into the whiskey barrel, stuck a new spruge I bought today in the center of the barrel and stuck the sage that had been growing in a small plastic pot on the back side of my whiskey barrel. I plan on sticking in a few pansies and then it should be ready for winter.

new wreaths, too cold to paint

It never got above 46 today that I saw, so it was too cold to paint. I spent the morning working on web sites. We went out and did a bit of shopping this afternoon. I got two small artificial wreaths at Country Boys and two red ribbons at Big Lots. I have hung one wreath on each front window. I think they look as nice as the ones with the bows from Country Boys, but my bows were a lot less expensive. I also hung my Christmas wreath that I got at Country Boys a few weeks ago. The house is starting to look a little bit Christmasy.


We are debating putting up the Christmas tree because of the dogs, but I think we probably will, just might not hang any ornaments down low.

Tomorrow it is supposed to be above 50, so maybe I will get my chance to paint. If not, we are looking at rain again next week.

leaves mulched, daffodils planted

This morning Mark, who works with us, came over with his mulching mowers to do something about the leaves. After the bag-a-rama last year, the much quicker and easier and more environmentally friendly mulching was worth every penny. All the leaves in the front yard mulched in really well. I just had to pick up some more catalpa leaves from the foundation beds.

The back yard went really well too. The entire area where I tried to grow grass along the side of the house is currently mulched catalpa leaves. Maybe it will help feed the dirt! I am thinking that in the spring I might put a layer of that seed starting soil down there and try again to grow grass.

Everywhere else looks great as well and as a bonus I got my grass cut as well. After Mark left, I worked getting some of the leaves off my beds where I have pansies and doing a little bit of weeding. I also decided to finally dig up the left yew and try potting it up to see if it could be saved. The roots around the outside edge seemed to not be in good shape, but the roots in the center and the bottom of the rootball look okay to me. I also cut back a few of the browned out branches to see if I could find any green wood. Not sure if I did or not. I am thinking about taking it in to Underwoods tomorrow to see if they have any suggestions or ideas.

I have been thinking a lot lately about the shack in the back yard, and my current thinking is that it might be able to be repaired. I wanted to know more about what I was really dealing with, so while I had Bobbie's crowbar, I went out to the shack and did a little demo on the inside. The wall that faces Curtis's yard and where there is a hole in the roof pretty much totally need to be replaced. A few of the framing boards might be okay, but the bottom boards are rotted. Along the front, most of the framing seems okay, but the bottom boards are rotted again. The back and side that face Norman, where the root is intact, seem to have good usable framing. I will have Neil give me a better opinion when he comes out, but now he can get a better look at what we are actually dealing with. My mom said it might be easier to just tear the whole thing down and rebuild it from scratch. I can see the advantage to that as well. If so, I might make it slightly smaller, maybe 10 X 12. And of course, Bobbie's greenhouse idea did get me thinking and I need to research that clear plastic stuff she likes. I was thinking that the small back section could be turned into a greenhouse, with the siding and roof being totally that plastic stuff, except probably the door. If wouldn't be heated, but it might work.

Since we had a little bit of rain, I figured it was time to try to plant the daffodils. I started out using the bulb hound, but at least in the area I was planting in, it was easier going with my trowel. I got all 80 (minus a few bad ones) bulbs planted, mostly along the road side of the ditch in front of the house. I would like to get some more daffodils to plant along the property line with Curtis's house.

I checked out the water heater hut and it seemed dry today, so my current plan is to paint it tomorrow morning and maybe try to get a second coat on in the afternoon. I think the OSB will probably take MANY coats to cover. We went to Big Lots today and finally got a box to put the peat moss in, so that is now under the house and out of my kitchen! I wasn't thinking about painting then, or I would have gotten a few cheap rollers to use on the water heater hut. I may need to run out to Lowes, depending on what I have in my painting box under the house.

I used my shark floor sweeper on the carpet again today and it does work well, but there are places/areas where I just really need suction, so I decided I really needed a dust buster type of thing. This evening we went to Kohls and got a Shark pet hand held power-vac. It has to charge for almost a day, but I hope it works well. As it was Black Friday and Kohls was having major sales, we also got some more things to help stay warm. Mom got a down alternative comforter for her bed and I got a microfiber throw for the papasan chair and a microfiber blanket for my bed. They also had some really neat 8 X 10 picture frames that I got for some more garden photos. Need to decide where I'm going to put them, then send the photos to Walgreens for printing.

It is currently 35 outside. BRRRR! It seemed much colder this afternoon that it was in the morning, too cold for me to do any work outside. We are supposed to get down to 29 tonight, so I hope it warms up enough that I will want to be outside to paint tomorrow. And I hope that the paint I got last year and left outside under the tarp all year is still good as well!

shopping for tile, raking leaves, cleaning

I was off work today and went shopping for tile. I found exactly what I was looking for, but it was $9.81/square foot. I found something else that was close to what I want but it was $6.35/square foot. I have decided to just but an $11 box of the tile that is already in the bathroom and not pull up the good tile that is still down. I just need to add some sort of compound to level out the floor in the bathroom and I will be ready to tile.

The water heater hut is now dry on the front, but still damp on the top. I brushed off the leaves, and if we don't get any more rain, it should be ready to paint next week. I raked up 2 bags of leaves today and raked some more into the start of some piles. I did get all the catalpa leaves out from around the front tree. They had almost buried the hellabore. The hellabore is putting out some nice new foliage and I hope that I will get some blooms this year.

I was running out of bags and raking leaves is not one of my favorite things, so I switched to cleaning the kitchen floor. I really need to break out the vacumn, as there is a lot of wood dust from the bathroom, but didn't get that far today. I did sweep it well, used some cleaner on some of the worst areas and damp swiffered the whole floor. I think it looks pretty good now. I have been trying to find another runner like the one long one I have to put in front of the sink and counter, but Target seems to have stopped making that style. They now make a somewhat similar rug, but it has a red stripe in it and I don't want that for my kitchen. I found another rug that might work, but it is light tan, now exactly my top choice what with the kitchen being the room you go through from outside.

I finished off this evening doing a little cleaning in the bathroom. Again trying to get up some of the construction dust and just a little general cleaning. I think things are looking better now. I need to water my fern again and once I do that I will have a mess to sweep up in the living room.

bathroom floor fixed

Neil came today and fixed the bathroom floor. The wood was totally rotted through, so it is good we didn't wait any longer. Only at a small section right under the toilet needed to be replaced and he checked everything from under the house to make sure that the beams and other wood was okay. Perhaps the most exciting thing was that he found duct work to the bathroom duct, that had just come undone and was able to refasten it, so we now have a heated bathroom, rather than just relying on the space heater! Progress!

The bathroom floor is still a work in progress. Since the thickness of wood has changed over the years, there is about a 1/8" difference in height between the existing floor and the new floor. The 3/4" treated plywood was not thick enough, so there is a sheet of thinner, non-treated plywood as the top layer. Hopefully that will be okay. The original floor wasn't treated wood, and it was fine until the toilet started leaking. I do need to ask at a tile store and find out what to do about the slight difference in height between the two parts of the floor. I am also going to go try to find the hex tiles I want tomorrow. Right now the toilet is sitting on a little piece of plywood that is higher than the surrounding floor. The current plan is that after Thanksgiving, Neil will come back and lift up the toilet so my mom and I can tile the floor and while we are tiling, he will do some electrical work, trying to hang the living room light, investigating the mystery box under the house and seeing about trying to add an ourdoor outlet.

I am thinking more and more about just trying to insulate the house myself. Maybe Bobbie would want to come and help feed the insulation into the hopper. I just don't feel like I'll even get all the money I'd need to have it done saved up, something else always seems to come up.

Meanwhile, on other fronts, I had taken the tarp of the water heater hut earlier this week to let it dry. I noticed yesterday that it was dry, but I didn't have time to paint it before work as I had other things I had to do yesterday morning. Overnight we got 1/2" of rain and, of course, the tarp was off the hut. We don't have any more rain forcast, so I am hoping it dries out in time for the Thanksgiving holiday and I can paint it then when I'm off work.

no work on the bathroom

I had arranged to work nights tonight so that Neil could come and fix the bathroom. Well, he called at 7 AM and said he that thrown his back out and couldn't come. So, now I am working nights and the bathroom is STILL not fixed. I have no idea when we will ever get this fixed. Next week is Thanksgiving and we simply can not take any time off that week due to vacations.

I was going to paint the water heater hut, but the sheeting on the top and front are damp, so I took the tarp off to let them dry out. We have a small chance of rain on Wednesday, but I'm currently hoping that holds off and that the sheeting will be dry by then so I can paint it Wednesday. Then, there would be an outside chance I could shingle it on Friday and that project would be done. If not, on Friday I might try to get back to working on painting the window frames outside. I really need to paint the two kitchen windows and finish up the one I had started working on on the side. Then, at some point I need to do something about the putty situation on the laundry room window.

planted up more containers, plus raked leaves

I raked up my first two bags of leaves in the back yard today. I didn't get all the leaves that I plan to rake up (I'm leaving them on the ground as mulch in some areas) but I did get most of them. I still have a lot of raking in my future as most of the leaves seem to still be on my trees. Guess most of my leaf fall is going to be a bit later this year than it was last year, since I did my major leaf raking about this time last year.

I continued to empty out some of the summer pots. I had this idea to reuse some of the potting soil in the bottom of the winter pots, so I have been dumping the soil in my wheelbarrow and pulling out the roots as best as I can. I potted up one pot of violas, several pots of pansies, both ornamental kales and put the carex and dolche peach melba coral bells in their own pots for this winter. I also got the back yard watered pretty well, but didn't get to the front. I hope to have time to do that tomorrow.

After all that, we went out to Country Boys and got a few more pansies, then Bobbie called and wanted to get the plywood for Neil to use in the bathroom tomorrow. So, we went out and got that and also a wax seal for the toilet, which I realized we left in Bobbie's van. I'll go get that tomorrow AM when I go out to get cash to pay Neil. I also got a pack of broken roofing shingles so I can finally do something about working on the water heater hut. Maybe if it does not look like rain on Wednesday I can paint it Wednesday AM, then maybe work on getting the shingles on Friday when I am off for the day. I need to look up about shingling online somewhere to see exactly what I need to do.

planted Debutante and Autumn Belle

I finally got my Debutante camellia planted today, in place of the one that got killed by the frost earlier this year. It may be a tad close to my two Miss Biloxis, they are 4 1/2' away, but I think it will look good. This one is a 3 gallon plant, so hopefully it will thrive. I dug out a large area for the planting, and dug down just a little bit in an even larger area to try to get rid of some of the surface roots. The trees in my neighbor's yard seen to send out TONS of surface roots. Not sure what they are but I hope they aren't River Birches. Hopefully my camellia bed is not doomed due to root competition.



I also got the Autumn Belle azalea planted, using the left over dirt it had been sitting on and some left over dirt from the planted Debutante. I still have a bit of nicely ammended leftover dirt, so I put it in one of the grey boxes to use when I start planting the other Encore azaleas I have. I don't have a clue where I am going to go with them, so they will have to wait a bit before I plant them. Belle turned out to be a bit drier than I thought she was, so I might set each of the others in some water for a little bit, as I am now thinking they might be a bit on the dry side as well.

I am impressed with the Autumm Amethyst that I planted earlier this year. She has quite a few blooms now, and these azaleas are great as they are the only thing in bloom in my yard right now, other than a few aging hydrangea blooms and pansies.

I am thinking about looking for a winter daphne, since I have several really nice big fiberglass pots now. I do remember them being pretty expensive last year though, so maybe I'll wait until Underwoods has another sale.

I think tomorrow will be another yard clean-up day, since I am done with most of the planting for right now. I bought 2 little cement pavers at Lowes today to try putting under some of my big pots for the winter as a sort of version of pot feet (which turn out to be unexpectedly expensive). I think they worked pretty well, so I may get some more. I thought I might be able to get away with them not being visable at all, but that is not going to happen. But, since most of my pots are behind other things, I still think they will work well, at $.59 each, they are a lot cheaper than pot feet!

bathroom repair pt 1 and cheap azaleas

Neil came out to look at the bathroom today and decided he could do the job on Monday. That is great except that mom and I had today off and we both have to work on Monday. We are now both working Monday night and I'm hoping mom will be able to go in at 5 PM, which should be enough time for him to get the job done. I hope!

That left us with a whole day off, but it is too cold to do much work outside. The cold temps are really effecting the leaves on the hydrangeas and I think most are headed toward dormancy ASAP. So, we went around and tried to find the hex tiles I remember seeing earlier this year. I think they must have been at a flooring store, as I did not see them at any of the Lowes or Home Depots we went to. While I was buying mulch at Lowes, I overheard a very interesting conversation. Seems that all the cheap 3 gallon Encore azaleas they keep getting are from a warehouse in Atlanta. Due to the watering restrictions there, they can't water the plants so they keep sending truckloads up here. Now, apparently there was problem with the last order, someone put it in the computer wrong and rather than selling at 2 for $20, they are selling at 4 for $20 or $5 a piece.

Autumn Sangria Encore azalea:


Our local Lowes was out of azaleas, so we went over to Woodruff Rd and I got 4 azaleas. One I'm going to give to Norman and the other three I'll figure out where to put at some point in time. If worse comes to worst, they will work well in the border along the fence line with Norman.

hard freeze

Last night we had temps in the low 30s, though no frost, but that was that for my summer plants. I spent part of the morning cutting down dead plants and either tossing the potting soil if there were too many roots or dumping it out to use a mulch. I still have some work left to go on the herb garden and some more pots that I need to toss the soil from. I filled up my garbage can and tomorrow is trash day, so I'll start in again working on that tomorrow afternoon.

Some sunny, warm day in the future, I'll have to work on actually washing out all the pots. I also need to take all my stakes down to the tool shed, as I won't need them again until spring.

I still have a few more pansies and the cabbages to put in pots and now I have lots of empty pots. I'm planning on only using the plastic pots this winter. The terra cotta will be stored until summer. I'm looking for pot feet to put under some of my pots that will be used all winter. I've found a few on ebay, but as they are clay, the shipping is kind of expensive. I know I had seen some earlier this year at Home Depot or Lowes and I've got to go back and see if I can find them again.

old enemies- chickweed and onions

The cooler weather has brought a return visit from two of my old enemies... chickweed and wild onions. I got up early this AM and spent a little time out in the yard. Nothing looked like it needed to be watered, so I spent some time weeding the pansies in front of the camellias and the area around the Generale and Ayesha. I am upset at how much chickweed is already growing through the mulch and I have a major patch of onions on the edge of the pansy border.

There is so much I want to/need to do on the house, but I just don't know where to start or where I will find the money to do everything. The bathroom mess is probably going to take all the money I had saved up for insulation. I had really hoped I'd be getting the house insulated next week, now I'm looking at maybe in a month, but I'll have a much bigger gas bill then, which will cut into the money I would have been able to set aside. Plus, this month I have to pay the water bill, which seems to be about the same as the previous times, so my watering doesn't seem to be making much of a difference. Still, that is money that COULD have been set aside for insulation, but instead has to go to other things.

The weather report is calling for another freeze overnight on Tuesday, so I will have to get up early tomorrow and try to harvest the last of the peppers, as some of my plants are too big to try to bring inside and it really is getting on to winter. The eggplant already is looking like it is feeling the effects of the cold. I'm off all this coming weekend, so I think I will use that time to clean up the garden, dump the rest of the summer annuals and veggies and try to finally plant the Debutante camellia. This is starting to be a repeat of the Margaret Davis situation, where I planned to plant her for months before I actually got the job done. I also need to dig a few holes to sink my remaining unplanted 1 gallon hydrangea pots into the ground for the winter. Speaking of hydrangeas, I moved Buttons N Bows over into the shade border to try to keep whatever has been digging in its pot away. I'm still thinking it is a squirrel.

washing the porch

This afternoon, after we got home from NC, I watered the yard, then worked on trying to clean the front porch. I used the new little high pressure nozzle I bought the other day and it did a pretty good job in a lot of places, I even washed off the front of the house. The water also took off some of the grey porch paint. What ever type of paint the underlying blue paint is, the grey paint was not the right type to paint over successfully.

I think a winter project might be trying to do something with the porch. I need to somehow first remove all the grey paint and then figure out what I can paint over the exisiting blue paint. I also would like to scrub at the porch some and see if I can get it cleaner. Next time, I will also get some kind of squeegy to help remove the water from the porch, as I think this will make the task easier.

I just looked out the window and thought that it was getting dark early, then realized that today was the first day of daylight savings. So long working in the yard after work, at least until late spring.

planted some more pansies

Yesterday I was out of town in NC for most of the day, but got back into town and stopped by Country Boys. I had wanted to get some more Crown Golden pansies to put in front of the Masja hydrangea and some others for the porch containers and when I had that all picked out, I was up to 5 packs and a flat is 8 packs and would have only cost $1.50 more, so I got a whole flat.

Back home, I watered all the hydrangeas. Mini Penny and Fuji were wilty again as were new Penny Mac and Marchael Foch, though to a lesser extent. I then planted the pansies in front of Masja, then set to work on the containers. I ended up planting up 5 containers, though I still have more I want to plant. So far I have 4 pots of pansies and one of violas. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with the cabbages Bobbie gave me and I would still like to get some pansies in the "shade" border which once the leaves drop will turn into a sun border!

Today I am going back to NC for the morning and should be home to do some yard work in the afternoon.

toilet don't fall...

We have been noticing that the tiles around our toilet seem to be getting more broken. Last night I decided to investigate... The toilet visually appears to be sitting a little lower than the surrounding floor and the tiles around it are all broken. I pulled one part of a broken tile away and the wood under it was soggy. This is not good. I called Bobbie and she gave me the number of a workman who was supposed to come out today. But, then my mom got sick and had to cancel that. The plan was that he would be able to come out next Thursday and actually do the work. He needs to get under the house and see how much of the subfloor in the bathroom needs to be replaced. He also does plumbing and I'm hoping that the leak in the toilet, and there must be a leak somewhere in the bowl, is just a bad wax seal that can be replaced easily and not something wrong with the pipes.

Last night we went out to Lowes and Home Depot and found matching bathroom tiles at Home Depot. If only part of the floor needs to be replaced, we can just use these tiles. If the whole floor needs to be replaced, I'm putting down hex tiles, even if it costs a bit more, as that is what I really want in the bathroom and if I'm having to re-tile it, why not put in what I really want.

The good news is that if this guy actually comes and and does the job he might be able to do some other odd jobs like finally hanging the living room light and replacing the bad subfloor where the water heater was in the kitchen.

In the meantime, I'm just crossing my fingers that the bad wood does hold and the toilet doesn't end up in the crawl space...

first frost

We had a light frost last night and this morning. I actually had to scrape the windshield of my car. I had seen the frost warning, so I brought in the smallest hydrangea cuttings, the spider plant, the fern and a coleus and also cut a bunch of basil. When I was out in the yard this AM, everything looked pretty good, I'll have to check it tomorrow.

I was out of town for 3 days this weekend and forgot to remind my mom to water on Sunday. Ami wilted again and so did Mini Penny. Mini Penny looks like she mostly recovered, even though she looked like cooked spinich when I saw her last night, but Ami did suffer some damage to her leaves. Overall, I'm sure she is okay, but not all her leaves have come fully back. I know she is supposed to get some fall color, so we shall see if that is affected at all. Only the beautyberries really seem to be thinking about dropping their leaves, besides the catalpa trees, which are already making a mess. I could still stand to have the grass mowed again too, so I may get our co-worker back out soon.

I really need to change out the porch plants and get rid of some of my other annuals that will be toast soon.

The return of the cooler weather also means that we have our heat back on. I had hoped that we would be able to get the house insulated in early November, but that has now been pushed back at least a month. I've got to get my mom trained to turn the heat down at night again or we will have a $300 gas bill. Already they are saying gas will be more expensive this year. YIKES!!

end of the rain

Today was the end of our rain, it was sunny all day and there is no rain in the forecast now. It was pretty windy this evening and is down to 61 right now. I am going to be out of town for the next three days, so I won't get anything done in the yard. I did pot up one of the small Gentian Dome cuttings today. I had to throw out one that rotted instead of rooted. The third one was doing well with little leaves opening at the top and all, but it has not seemed inclined to root yet, though this would be pretty quick. The little piece of Penny Mac that got stuck in the Park Seed box does not seem to be doing well either. I changed the water on the Blushing Bride cuttings and I swear they are starting to root. They are also very thin end stems, so I hoped they would root quickly. Still no really low temps anywhere on the horizon, so that is good!

third straight day of rain

Today is the third straight day of rain we have had. As of this morning, there had not been enough rain to register in the gauge, but it has drizzled off and on all day. Due to the light rain and fighting a cold, I didn't really do anything before work today. I think the zinnias are just about done for. I cut down some of the dead looking stalks. I still have a few flowers, but I think I will be dumping them soon too.

This weekend I will be in GA for three days and next weekend I've found something I want to do in NC on Sunday, but I am "on call" at work on Saturday, so I have to stay in the area. I think next Saturday I will work on the long overdue task of dumping the summer annuals out of their pots and getting my pots ready for winter. I will keep the veggies in as long as they are alive and have developing veggies. Anything that doesn't have a veggie on it needs to get dumped as well. I have a few peppers that are ripening, so I might get a small final pepper harvest and also may get one or two more cherry tomatoes.

I need get an ice cube tray, cut back my basil and make some more pesto, this time storing it in smaller bits so it will be easier to defrost just what can be used in a reasonable amount of time.

The really bad news from the yard today is that my one yew REALLY looks like it is dying down. For a while it was just brown in the middle of each limb, now most of the limbs are brown the entire length. I am totally at a loss for what to do and out of time right now to do anything. I am actually considering going out and digging it up when I get home from work at 9:30 PM then having my mom try to take it to Underwoods tomorrow to see if they can give any insight into the problem. I will be really sad if this plant doesn't make it. Not only is it one of the most expensive plants in my yard, it is also part of a symetrical planting. The yew on the other side of the house looks just fine, even though it does not seem to have grown at all.

playing hydrangea fairy

I have been waiting and watching and waiting for Endless Summers to get marked down. I had been hoping to find some in the $3-4 range, but today at Lowes they were 50%, $6.98. So, I bought three. One for Bobbie, who has had a terrible time with her hydrangea not blooming, one for Norman my neighbor who had to leave all his hydrangeas behind at his old house and one for Jane if she wants one for $6, if not taht one I'll keep.

I delivered Bobbie's to her this evening. I had my mom make up a little sign for the one for Norman and I'll leave it on his porch tomorrow morning. The sign says:

"Hi, I'm "Endless Summer"! The Hydrangea Fairy left me. I like morning sun and afternoon shade. My favorite thing in the whole world is WATER. I LOVE water!"

Speaking of water, we got about 1/2" of rain today and it sprinkled for most of the day. We are supposed to have a chance of rain for the next three days, hope it comes as promised! I still have not gotten Debutante planted and I won't get to it this weekend with being out of town. So, I will be November before that plant gets in the ground. I did check the upcoming weather forcast for November and currently the lowest temp they are predicting is only 36, so it looks like we could go through November without any frost. WOW, and the initial reports had been calling for an early frost this year.

new watering wand

I watered the yard today with my new watering wand, which is an improvement over the old one was far as leaking is concerned, though I am still getting some leaking where the quick connect screws into the watering wand. I wonder if a washer would help.

My old hose that is attached to the hosemobile in the back yard is beyond leaking. I actually pretty much had a sprinkler set up in my yard. I need to replace that hose, but seem to always manage to forget about it when I am at Lowes or Home Depot.

All my plants are looking pretty good, Fuji was drooping again today, which is no surprise, but perked back up after I watered it. When I was looking at it after watering, I was moving the branches around and there is one small branch, which is partially covered with mulch that seemed stuck to the ground. So, I may have accidentally layed it! I'll check back on it in the spring and if that piece is rooted, I may keep that for myself to start growing another Fuji for the other corner. Part of me says get another big Fuji from Underwoods when it is time to plant that area, as then the plants will be closer to the same size, but on the other hand it would be cheaper and more fun to say that I grew the other plant myself from a cutting off the first plant.

The Generale's new leaves are getting bigger and he is looking good. We have had no incidences of drooping since he was planted. I am also getting new leaves opening on one of the variegatas. While all this growth is nice, it is also at totally the wrong time of the year. Still no temps even in the low 40s predicted, but sooner or later we are going to get a frost. Would be nice if we started to get some rain as well.

We are currently between the top and 2nd level of drought. So far no watering restrictions, but Atlanta wants water from SC as they may or may not only have a 90 day supply left. Yikes! I remember water restrictions from CA as a child, hope we don't get that here, but it is better than running out of water.

I do need to do something about the pots on the front porch. Many of the annuals in the big ceramic pots are just looking tired. I think it is time to get rid of them, plants some pansies in plastic pots and move toward my scaled back fall/winter porch plantings.

The hollies are doing well, especially since I have skipped watering them several times on watering day. The big holly is starting to fill in just a bit, even though it is still a lighter color. When I was watering the abelia today I was thinking that as I work up the border more along the side yard, I may end up moving th abelia. I'm not sure. If I do, I contemplated putting a crepe myrtle in its place, but I think that might be too big for the area. I could always put in a knock out rose or maybe just fill in the hole and plant grass over it.

No major yard work today as we are off to Asheville to go get a shirt that I saw at Dillards last night. The one they had in my size was dirty, so off to Asheville to get it and we will also go to Laughing Seed for lunch. Yum.

planted Masja

More rain never arrived today, so this afternoon I went out and planted the baby Masja hydrangea from Park Seed. I hope it will do well in its location. It is a dwarf, so the idea is that it will grow under the arching branches of the beautyberry. I also planted 5 of the remaining pansies from the landscape pack over by the Generale. Once the frosts hit, everything in that area will either go away or be sticks, and as it is such a nice big cleared area, I thought I'd add the pansies to bring a little winter color.

Border with Norman showing the newly planted Masja hydrangea:

some rain overnight and in the AM

It was raining during the night and also this morning. So far we have had about 1/4", which is better than nothing and is enough to keep me from digging in the yard. I did do a tiny bit of weeding, trying to get bermuda grass out of my flowerbeds basically. I will still need to water on Sunday, though it has started to sprinkle again.

just a little bit of rain

The weather forcast was calling for rain and we did get some today but just a tiny sprinkling, not enough to do any good. We are supposed to get more rain tomorrow, so I hope it will be more than just enough to mess up your windshield.

I didn't get around to posting yesterday, but due to allergies and other things I just haven't been feeling too up to doing much the last few days. Yesterday I did manage to pot up the Romance hydrangea from Park Seed that arrived Tuesday night. I also got the Penny Mac on Tuesday, but it will remain it its pot and probably just get sunk in the ground for the winter. Today when I cam home from work Masja was waiting for me on the porch. The Romance is TINY, so hopefully it will survive the winter. I plan to move its pot along the side of the house next to the water heater once it gets cold.

Part of the shade border, with the potted Romance (in the brown pot), potted Lemon Balm, Endless Summer, So Sweet Hosta and perilla.



Then plan for tomorrow is to plant the Masja that I got today. It is in a 4" pot, but has growth that is almost a foot tall and multiple shoots at that. It will be planted next to the small beautyberry. I also want to get some more pansies to work in the area adjacent to the annual bed. I still have pretty blue pansies, both a 6 pack and the leftovers of the landscape pack. Not sure what pot I want to put the 6 pack in, but if we ever get some rain I am planning on planting the rest of the landscape pack over near the Generale to add some winter color to that area.

Pretty Fuji Waterfall bloom, still going in October.

rescuing hydrangeas from the post office

I've been waiting for two hydrangeas I bought on ebay and was surprised they weren't delivered either Friday or Saturday. Yesterday I finally checked the tracking number and found they had *tried* to deliver them on Friday and had left a note. I never saw any slip, but this AM when I checked the mailbox again, I found it stuck up against the side.

Off to the post office... when I asked why they had not left the package on my porch as they have done before, they first said they don't do that when it is raining (it wasn't raining on Friday) and then that they had to have prior authorization to leave packages (never stopped them before). So, who knows...

I got both plants out, Parzifal looked just fine but Nightingale was definately worse for the wear, with crunch leaves and roots that felt sort of dry. I soaked Nightingale for about 2 hours then had my mom pot her up before she left for work. She is still all green, even though the existing leaves don't look so hot, I think she'll pull through. Both babies are now outside adjusting to life.

I had hoped my Park Seed order would come today, but no package and no slip, I looked all in my mailbox. Maybe tomorrow. I did have some wilty hydrangeas when I got home this evening, so it was a good thing I went out in the yard. Ami was wilty, which is the first time I've seen her look wilty and Fuji was drooping again. Fuji seems to need a lot of water lately, I think it might in part be due to all the really large leaves and the added wind. I watered all the hydrangeas just to be on the safe side.

Something has been getting into my raised bed and two of my potted hydrangeas. I don't think it is a dog, as whatever it is is also in the potted hydrangeas which are on the small side for a dog. I'm really leaning toward cat, especially as I've seen cats in my front yard and also in my neighbors' yards.

Speaking of pots, I found a nice 16" fiberglass pot at Home Depot today that I think should work well for the Romance hydrangea, if I ever get it from Park Seed.

planting pansies again

Morning glories blooming away on the fence:

Today was once again a watering day. After working hard all day yesterday helping fence at a friend of a friend's house, I was too tired to attempt any major work. I did a bit of cutting back and did dump the cayenne pepper that had stopped producing and had very yellowed leaves.

I pulled the impatiens down by the camellias and reworked the soil in that area. I had seen some pretty blueish pansies at Lowes on Friday and had not purchased them, which I later regretted. I was at the Woodruff Lowes on Saturday night and did not see any there. This morning we went to the Poinsett Lowes and they not only had the blue pansies, but also had 3 gallon Encore azaleas for $10 and had 4 really pretty Autumn Belles. So, of course I got one. I also got several more bags of mulch and a few other pansies to start planting out.

I put some whhite pansies in the pot that has a primrose in it, the primrose is looking healthy and I guess it will bloom again this spring. I also got a pot of pansies that went straight out on the porch. Some butter yellow pansies got planted in one of the pots where bulb foliage is already coming up. I also planted the left over Crown Golden and Delta Fire pansies in the area between the annual bed and the Flying Dragon. I've got to get some more of the Delta Fire pansies and plant those around the Flying Dragon. I've got some dianthus in there now but they are not blooming and I think the frost will get them.

I made some coleus cuttings today on two of the three coleus I am going to try to keep alive over the winter. I need to get to Wal-Mart and get a few self watering pots to plant them in. I pulled all the coleus out of the camellia bed as they were well past their prime. The remaining impatiens and other annuals that are in the ground will probably stay there until the frost comes. I may cut down the dahlias as they aren't looking very good and aren't blooming.

I have been trying to think about what I'm going to do with the yard. I moved the old fencing up near my gate as I thought someone was going to pick it up. But, they might not need it. If they don't, I think I will move it back behind the shack along the side fence where it can't really be seen. The whole area by the pecan tree looks so much more open without those fence rolls sitting there. I was thinking that I would plant the weigela along the side fence between the small beautyberry and the large pieris. But, after finding out they only grow to about 2-3 feet tall, I'm rethinking that plant. I may use it as a front of the border plant between whatever I plant in the center of the space and the small beautyberry. I am also thinking about planting Night Before Christmas hosta between Striptease hosta and Gentian Dome hydrangea.

In hydrangea news... The Generale seems to be recovering from his near death experience and is putting out lots of new growth (just in time to get whacked by the frost, oh well at least he is alive). Today I potted up the tiny bit of Ami that got knocked off, as it seems to have grown one root in water. The Gentian Dome pieces that were knocked off by the dogs have not yet rooted but they are putting out new leaves at the top of the stems, even though all the exisiting leaves have falled off. All the Penny Mac cuttings except the one that was the very top piece have failed. The top piece seems to have rooted and has been living full time outside in a cup for several days now. Both Fuji cuttings are living full time outside. I think I am going to try to overwinter all these cuttings in my crawlspace. I also got some VERY bad news today when I checked on the status of a package of hydrangeas I bought on ebay. Apparently the post office tried to deliver them on Friday, but just left and note not the package and we didn't get a note. So, we didn't go get them yesterday. I'm going to go early tomorrow and see if I can get them and hopefully have time to do something with them before work. Hope they are not dead...

My plan for the week is currently looking like trying to plant Autumn Belle on Wednesday before work. On Friday, I will probably work on planting daffodil bulbs and on Sunday try to plant Debutante, as I will need help getting her out of the pot. I had planned to try to plant the weigela, but as I am once again rethinking her position, she will have to wait.

planted Daikagura & variegata

Did not get a chance to blog yesterday...

I planted my Daikagura camellia in the morning, with some help from mom to get it out of the pot. I ended up digging a very wide hole, in part because I was over too close to Margaret Davis at first. With all the roots I've encountered in this area, I don't think having a wide hole will be a bad thing at all. Again I had some left over dirt, which I dumped next to the dirt already by the Autumn Amethyst azalea. I think once I plant Debutante and have more left over dirt, I'm going to get an Autumn Belle azalea and really ammend all the left over dirt, then plant in that.

In the afternoon, I decided to finally tackle seeing if I could dig a big enough hole for the variegata hydranga in the area of the shade bed where it had been growing in a pot. I was able to get a hole dug, but there are lots of roots in the area. Hopefully it won't be so much competition that the plant doesn't thrive. I also put down some potting soil and covered the one long branch with dirt, then weighted it down with a little piece of brick and covered the whole thing with a bunch of mulch. I'll check next spring and hopefully it will have rooted.

I used up the last of my second bag of mulch and decided to go out to Lowes for more mulch. I went over to Woodruff Rd to see if they still had any of the really nice Autumn Amethyst azaleas left and the were basically sold out of almost ALL of their Encore Azaleas. I will check back later in the week as I figure they will probably get a new shipment in, since there was obviously a demand! Once there, I realized that I was just too tired to even mess with lugging bags of mulch, so that was it for my yard work yesterday.

Today I got up too late to do anything besides briefly check on a few plants. It may have been as high as the low 90s today so I wanted to make sure that everything was still okay and not getting dried out. Don't want any repeats of the Generale disaster... Still battling with the small Penny Mac cuttings. One has lost all its leaves, the very top piece seems to be doing well and two others had browning leaves so I put them back in bags and they promptly dropped some leaves. ARGHHH... I've left Fuji #2 outside all day yesterday and today. Its leaves look not nearly as thick and shiney as Fuji #1 but they seem okay. I'm hoping that moving outside will persuade its roots to grow and it is still plenty warm out there. I'm waiting to see if Ami will grow and more roots and then will pot her up. The Gentian Dome bits are still hanging out in water to see if they will root. Time will tell. Then I'll just have to panic once it starts to get cold.

Beautiful coleus basket growing away:

planting pansies

I went out to Country Boys today and got a flat of pansies. I got some really pretty pink based pansies that I decided to put at the front of the perennial bed to give it some winter interest. Then I got some yellow pansies and some red and yellow pansies called fire that I used to fill in the annual bed. I also got a bag of slow release pansy fertilizer.

It took a little longer than I expected to dig out the impatiens, dig out any weeds and any roots I had missed, then dig in the fertilizer and finally plant the pansies. I think the end results looked quite nice when I was done.

This afternoon I went to work in the camellia bed. I had planned on digging out the coleus, but it was looking better after the rain, so I left it. I did dig out the dead hydrangea, but that was more difficult than I expected. Somehow some type of roots have grown over top of the newspaper I layed down under the mulch earlier this year. I currently have a layer of mulch with basically surface layer of roots growing right under it. I don't know if they are tree roots or what. I was working on clearing a bit of that out, as this is where I am going to plant Diakagura, while I was digging out the dead hydrangea and I noticed that I was getting bitten by mosquitos. I was wearing a short sleeved shirt and this evening my arms are covered in bites. I guess the Cutter stuff wore off, so I sprayed the back yard again.

I noticed that I have bulb foliage coming up through my cilantro! I knew that some of the pots had bulbs and some didn't, so I had no idea when I planted the cilantro. I don't know how long it will last. I still need to get some more pansies to plant in my containers. I saw some nice things at the Farmer's Market this afternoon so I may send my mom there on her day off.

In hydrangea news, the Generale is putting out new growth at his tips, after losing a lot of his leaves after his run in with drying out. He seems to be staying moist in his in ground location. I think I might be in the process of losing some of the Penny Mac cuttings I made, as the leaves are starting to dry up. But, the one cutting that was the actual tip of the branch seems to be doing really well, so hopefully at least that one will make it. I took the 2nd Fuji baby outside for most of the day today. I don't know if its roots have grown at all or if it is starting to really anchor itself, but it seemed to do okay. I also have a tiny top of a branch that I found next to my Ami. I stuck it in water and I swear that it already has a root. It is just a very thin little growing tip, so I am wondering if the thin tips root faster in water (makes sense) since I am pretty sure this is quite similar to what I rooted off the Endless Summer. The Gentian Dome stems are still in water and we will see what if anything they do. I am worried that I won't be able to get any of these grown to any size or even with much root development before it is time for them to go dormant. Right now I am thinking I might put them in a box and stick it in the crawl space and hope that is cool enough but not too cool for them. I am planning on trying to winter the Fuji cutting by digging into the ground and sinking the pots.

rain!

I woke up at 2 AM to the sound of rain on the roof. While it was damp this AM no rain registered in my rain gauge. It rained off and on all day and we were up to almost 1/2" by the time I got home from work. It has continued to rain this evening and is raining as I type this, so we'll see how much more we got as of tomorrow AM. They are even calling for rain tomorrow and maybe even Saturday.

planted butterfly bush, mulched

I had planned to try to plant one camellia today, but woke up feeling horrible and not up to it at all. I watered everything in the front and back, then ended up doing some work in the back yard.

I cut back the petunias again, it is getting close to time to dump them for pansies and violas. I also dumped one of the two yellow bell peppers. It did not have any baby peppers or flowers, its leaves were very pale and starting to curl. Now I have one big plastic pot ready to clean and put away for the winter. I was going to dump the cayenne pepper as it is not looking good and its leaves are pretty much yellow, but I saw a few flowers so I left it for now. I harvested a bunch of jalapeno peppers today. I didn't even realize how many there were until I noticed them while watering. I did not get around to digging out the coleus down by the camellias, but they really need to go.

Since I wasn't going to plant any of the camellias, I decided to try to get a few smaller things in the ground. I planted the Blue Hills salvia near the variegated irises in the second half of the perennial bed. I don't know if I will get that area totally dug in until next spring or what. Then I decided to plant the variegated butterfly bush behind the yew on the full sun side. Although I didn't need a big hole, it was slow going due to all the rocks and also what looks like the remains of a terra cotta step or something. Once I got that all cleared out I was able to get the butterfly bush planted. I then mulched in that whole corner of the bed and tried to clean up the coral bells a little bit.

watering issues with Fuji

This morning I went out and checked on all my plants in the back yard and everyone seemed to be doing well. I had two porch plants I wanted my mom to water. When I got home from work today, I noticed that the pennyroyal on the front porch looks awful. I did water it yesterday (I think) and I'm not sure if it is dry or what. I'm going to water it well tomorrow and move it into the back yard in more shade. I am having similar issues in the back with Mint Julip. It looks about dead right now. We have had several days of overnight lows in the low 50s, I don't know if some of these plants are trying to go dormant already? My other mints look bad too, very leggy with almost no leaves. I will have to try to do a better job of cutting them back as they grow next year. They are currently very unattractive and as they have so few leaves, not really useful either.

I checked on the Generale this evening and he is still moist and does not look any worse than yesterday. He did lose a few leaves when I touched some of the branches. I'm guessing some of the leaves are beyond help at this point, but some of the others have pretty much opened back out. I then checked everyone else. Fuji was again droopy despite being watered and mulched yesterday. When I checked, the root ball felt a bit dry even though the surrounding soil was moist. I really tried to get the water in to the root ball tonight, which is a bit hard with all sprawling branches and leaves. I will check on it tomorrow. I just don't know what to do about the watering on this plant. Maybe back to daily watering??

planted the Generale, irises

I got up early today as I had a bunch of things to do. Problems started almost as soon as I got outside when I looked at the Generale hydrangea and realized he was very wilted. Turned out the situation was worse than it looked initially as not only was he wilted, his leaves had started to dry out. I did not water yesterday but I had watered everything on Friday. Fuji Waterfall was also quite wilty. My current thinking is that even though it is not as hot as it was in August, we are having more wind and that the wind is drying some of the hydrangeas out (though not Endless Summer or Ayesha). As if the Generale in bad shape wasn't enough, I went over by the newly planted Gentian Dome and was treated to the site of many parts of limbs lying on the ground broken. The plant is now at least 1/3 smaller than when I planted it. One of my dogs obviously got into it. I did put the broken stems in water to see if they would revive enough to try to root. We shall see.

All this called for a major change of plans. I watered everything in the back yard, then we set off for Lowes. At Lowes, I got chicken wire to fence in Gentian Dome, 2 bags of mulch, a bale of pine needles, a box of yard bags and a bag of the seed and sod starting soil. When we got home, I spread the sod soil out where the ditch had been so badly scraped by the green waste folks, then spread the last of the grass seed there and in a few other places in the front yard, covered it with straw and watered well.

I used one of my 4 foot metal stakes to form a corner post and we put up the chicken wire, attaching it to both the side and front fence. I think it will hold and hopefully the plant can grow unmolested now. If I wanted to winter protect it, all I'd have to do is fill the enclosure with leaves I guess.

With all my extra stuff done, it was time to get to the main plan for the day... clearing the area for the Generale. With my mom's help, I was able to clear away all the vines, privet and hopefully dead poison ivy remains from the area. Then, the hard work began. I dug out as many stumps of trees and vines as I could. Then, I went to check on the Generale and as he seemed perked up some, I decided to go ahead and plant him. He has lots of nice room to grow. When I had seen what bad shape he was in this morning, I had repotted him in a 3 gallon pot. After planting him in the ground, I repotted the Fatsia into the three gallon pot and placed it beside the water heater.

Generale planted, I decided to work on the area along side the house. I dug up all the coleus, as they weren't looking too hot, then set to the task of digging up and dividing the irises. I know have more irises than I know what to do with and have planted irises all over my yard. I have some growing in the nursery bed, some in dirt by the azaleas, some by the daylilies, some on both ends of the perennial bed. I really don't know what I am going to do with all of them. I did notice that the ones I planted by the loropetalum on Friday are not looking so hot. That might be a combination of full sun and dogs trampling them. If they don't make it, I will still have a bunch. Once I got everything but the coral bells along the front and the creeping phlox and lilies of the valley in the corner out, I covered the entire area with pine needles. At some point I will add a layer of Black Kow and then cover it up again for the winter. I'll try to figure out what to do with that space in the spring.

I also began work on the second half of the perennial bed. I dug up a bunch of bermuda grass and also a bunch more of the rocks. I ended up putting the variegated Japanese Iris in an area that has been dug in. The dirt where all the rocks are is very dark and rich in the top layers where I am digging out the rocks. I want to add some composted cow manure to the whole area and move a few of the coneflowers over from the other side of the bed, but I just feel like I am running out of time. I can always dig them in the spring. I do want to try and get a bit more of the bed dug in so I can plant the flowering sage that Bobbie bought for me earlier this year. I also need to get out the mostly dead verbena from the front of the other half of the perennial bed and replace it with pansies.

Speaking of pansies... Almost all of the impatiens I have, except the ones in the hanging baskets, are looking pretty bad now and need to be replaced. I am sure we are still in for another warm spell, but they are leggy and getting done in by the sun and everything. I am trying to decide what color pansies I want back in the camellia border. I may wait to plant there until I have planted Diakagura as I will be working right around them. I also need to replace the impatiens in the little flower bed along the side fence. I want to expand that bed as well. I am thinking about putting in a small hydrnagea in that area, kind under the Beautyberry, but not sure if it is too much sun or not.

planted gentian dome, pizzaz

This morning I went out to the Farmer's Market for the fall festival. One thing I saw that I could not resist was a hanging basket of creeping rosemary, it is even in bloom currently. This solves the problem of what to put on the shepherd's crook once the million bells die for the winter. I hung the basket up this afternoon to see how it looks and it reached almost to the ground. Fantastic!

After getting back from the Farmer's Market I had about 1 1/2 hours before I needed to meet Bobbie for lunch, so I decided to see how much progress I could make on digging in a hydrangea. I was able to get a big enough hole dug in to plant Gentian Dome. It was planted on the back yard side of the side fence. I also cut down two more catalpa saplings to get a little more sun in to Mini Penny and Gentian Dome. The shade border is looking good! I need to clean out the area for the Generale on Sunday.

one year of home ownership

Today marks the one year anniversary of our signing the papers for our house. I will be putting up some photos showing the transformantions that have taken place in a year.

planted Ami and So Sweet

Today is the day I work nights, so I had a little time to work in the yard this morning. I watered the back yard but decided to hold off on the front yard due to time and the fact that the pots still seemed okay. I am really going to have to get out and water the hollies tomorrow as I am currently wondering if I watered them on Sunday...



The mosquito spray did seem to have helped the bug situation, as I could actually work in the shade border. I think I will spray along the side of the house next as there were a lot of bugs in that area today. One of my co-workers suggested spraying under the house where I have seen standing water, I might try that as well. I would have NO problems with killing all the bugs under my house, just don't want the spray to drift up into the house. Maybe I'll spray and we can all go off somewhere for a few hours.

I got Ami planted in the shade border, but did run into a big root that runs along the left and front side of the planting hole. This was WAY too large to cut with the loppers, so I had to leave it. I also ended up with Ami a bit closer to the fence than ideal but also due to tree roots, I wonder if she will grow to the largest size, as there will be root competition in the area. Hope not too much root competition. I cut one catalpa branch down and it looked like she was getting a lot of filtered sun. The next hydrangea planted will be Gentian Dome, that will be to the left of Ami right up along the side fence. Again, I'll have some tree roots to deal with in the area. I also have found a spot where one variegata would look nice, but there may be too many roots. There is a second location that I could try that I think might be almost TOO shady, but that will have to wait until frost finishes off my perilla. I am hoping that I might be able to get the Generale planted this weekend, but clearing the area for him is going to be some work due to the vines, tree stumps and remains of poison ivy. I'm going to need help from my mom.

My last project for the day was to plant one of my new hostas, So Sweet. I dug up the little Julie Mross that had been planted in front of the backyard nandina and planted So Sweet there instead. I dug out a bunch of roots, so hopefully I didn't injure the nandina, but they are also pretty tough. Based on what I've read, I think the So Sweet I have is close to full size. It fits the space well right now, and has a bit of room to grow back toward the nandina, but not a ton. It looks good skirting the nandina, as I am still working on pruning it to make it fuller at the bottom and the majority of the shrub is actually in my neighbor's yard.

My mom took a bunch of rooted coleus to work for her co-workers and I still have two Silver Thymes that might be rooted and the two Julie Mross hostas to give away as well. The baby hydrangea cutting seem to be doing well inside their plastic bags. I've got to read online and see how often I should give them some air and re-mist them. I've moved the rooted baby Fuji outside full time and I think I'm going to relocate it into the nursery bed where it will spend the winter (I'm going to bury the pot in the nursery bed). I am going to try to put the other Fuji cutting into a rooting mixture as well. It has started to grow roots in the water, but just doesn't seem to be making much progress. The longest root hasn't grown in a while and a few other roots are just starting to break out of the stem. Maybe it will actually get growing in the rooting mix.

I came home to work today to quite a surprise. It seemed like the grass in my front yard had been mowed. I know my mom said one of her co-workers mows lawns for a reasonable price. Turns out he had come over after work and mowed my front and back yard. I can't believe how my back yard looked and this was in the dark. It actually looked like a real lawn or something back there. It looks great! I have got to get a lawn mower...

Shade border this AM: hydrangea Endless Summer, hosta So Sweet, impatiens (in front of hosta), perilla, ewe (behind) and a pot of pennyroyal.
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sprayed for mosquitos

Well, I finally did it. Today after watering the containers, I went out and sprayed the Cutter Bug Free Backyard stuff on the shady parts of my back yard. Last night the mosquitos were so bad they were trying to fly into my eyes and it was impossible to work out there. I am hoping that I got enough of the stuff on the ground to get rid of the mosquitos (it will get rid of good bugs too unfortunately) and that it won't damage any of my plants. I'll have my mom check on everything after work.

The hydrangeas that were wilted so badly yesterday are perked back up this morning. I am hoping to get a few of them in the ground on Friday. I know where Ami is goig for sure, I'm just trying to decide what to put next to her, Marchal Foch or Gentian Dome. I still have a bunch of clearing work to do before the Generale's home is ready. As for the variegated ones, I'm totally at a loss for what to do with them but at least one will be spending the winter in a pot.

hydrangea cuttings, pesto, camellia issues

Yesterday when I set out the two new camellias I bought I think "hum... this seems a little close...". Today after thinking some more, looking at the picture and doing a little research online I realized that I had planted my camellias WAY too close. With the two that died, I think that will fix the spacing problem to an extent. I do need to move the middle Tom over to where the dead Tom is. And, now I don't quite know where to go with Debutante. I do plan to extend the border clear across the back of the yard, so I guess Deb will be the first part of the expansion. Of course, the nursery bed is currently in the area I plan to extend into, so I guess now I will be starting at the far corner and working in from that side. I want to get someone to take a look at my plan and give me some advice. I'm afraid that the best option will also be moving the right hand Miss Biloxi, but I am concerned about how she will fair if she is moved. I don't want another dead camellia. Then, once the camellias are properly spaced for the long run, I will have HUGE holes in the border. I am toying with looking into dwarf hydrangeas to plant between the camellias. They will bloom at opposite times and as the camellias grow, the hydrangeas should skirt them. Who knows...

Speaking of hydrangeas, I did make a cutting on the Maybe Penny last night and got 4 little cuttings out of it that I tried rooting. I have them in yogurt cups with holes in the bottom, filled with a 50-50 mix of perlite and peat moss. I then have them sealed in ziploc bags. We will see if this works...

I had harvested a TON of basil on Sunday and mom plucked and cleaned most of it for me last night. I ended up making three batches of pesto, one of which I put in the freezer. I put the other two batches in the fridge, but I might break up that container and put part of it in the freezer as well.

no self-control...

It is hot again today, between 93-96 in the middle of the afternoon and currently 91. This is SO unfair! We had been having nice weather in the 80s and now to be shot back into the middle of summer... yuck. Not to mention that I had planned on planting today, but it is way to hot for that.

I started the morning by weed-eating the front yard, which was long over due. I also had to get rid of one of my containers of coleus, the one with Fishnet stocking and the green trailing coleus. It had gotten some sort of insect infestation (spiders I think) and was covered with what things that I think were eggs on the underside of the leaves. I figured it had to go before whatever hatched or it spread to other plants. I got it all bagged up, then washed out its pot with bleach. That pot is now ready for some pansies or something. I moved the fern over by the other coleus pot and tried to clean up the porch a little.

The heat pretty much halted any planting plans I had, though I did get Glowing Embers and Buttons N Bows potted up into their new pots and set in place. I think both of them are in pretty good locations. Buttons N Bows is getting more sun right now, but is also further back in, beside the pecan tree. Since it is not in a pretty pot (just a sand colored plastic pot) I'm going to work on hiding it behind other plants. Glowing Embers is in the shade bed right in front of a tree in Curtis's yard. Figured there would be no way I'd ever get anything in the ground there due to tree roots, so potted is the way to go. It is also right near Ayesha and will eventually have the Generale on the left side. I have moved the Fuji Waterfall and Mini Penny cuttings outside full time now. Fuji seems to be doing very well, while Penny is still a big question mark.

The Clemson gnome has joined the garden. He moved in with the daylilies today and seems to be settling in just fine.

This afternoon we went to Underwoods to look for perlite and peat moss, after I realized that the bags I had bought at Home Depot contained Miracle Grow fertilizer in them, and getting away from fertilizers was the whole point of getting them for the cuttings. So... I did finally find a bag of perlite at Underwoods, but they don't carry peat at all. Their 20% off sale was going on and first we found two nice hostas. Then we ran into the camellia area... My original plan for the year has been to get 2 additional camellias to finish out the part of the camellia border I had started. Then I had two camellias die (or maybe one is still alive, don't know) so suddenly I needed 4 camellias. Then I just didn't know what to do. Today I got 2 3 gallon camellias, which was actually what I had intended to purchase this fall. They will fill in the area next to Margaret Davis. I ended up getting a really nice looking Debutante (the maybe alive, maybe dead plant is a Debutante). I had been thinking that I would need to put it where the original Deb was, but I finally figured out I can put it next to Margaret. If the original Deb is dead, I can put another pink in there. If it is alive, I can either keep in where it is or move it later as I expand the bed. The other plant I got was Daikagura Variegated, which my mom says is one of the plants my dad had. It should be really pretty and as it is variegated, it will go well with Margaret.


So, I guess I did what I had planned to do all along, buy 2 more camellias. I'm looking for a 1 gallon Tom at Home Depot to replace the dead Tom. As the others are little 1 gallon plants, I don't think I really need a 3 gallon one there. So far, I haven't seen any Toms but I'm sure they will turn up later in the year. That will cost around $8. Now I REALLY need some cooler weather and actually a few days off work to get everything planted.