Month: July 2010

Tiny seedling in the Earthbox where I planted pumpkin seeds only four days ago.

I finished the ramps today. They work great; I used them to get Peter’s lawnmower on the truck – easy.
Each ramp will take up to 700 pounds, although I wouldn’t risk it with that wood.
I think I bought the ramps in January, around the same time that I brought home the flooring from Avon.
It’s taken that long to “psych” myself to get the 2x8s and actually mount the ramp tops. It was difficult – I estimate that each plank weighs around 50 pounds – and I had to redrill one of the holes to line up the top correctly. I had to improvise on drilling since I didn’t have a large enough bit.
It all worked out, though, and I’m very happy.
The hibiscus are spectacular this morning. We’ve had heavy wind since yesterday, but the poor things still are holding their own.
Bad news from Social Security, they want their money back for this year, or maybe not, depending on my actual earnings for 2010.

8’d the whole front yard tonight. Should be good until the end of August.
Looking at the boxes of Late July crackers in the supermarket, I had that suffocating feeling of summer sliding away. It’s already half gone.
I’ve worked very hard keeping the grounds watered and healthy. I’m tired of people and traffic.
This morning, I dropped a 50-pound board on my left foot. The foot is feeling much better now. This provided a reason to stop for a sandwich, so I picked up lunch at Dana’s Kitchen.

Watered most of the gardens that don’t have soaker hoses this morning.
Planted three beautiful Rudbeckia from Home Depot. Cut down the back garden coreopsis and Liatris yesterday. Did some cleanup in the front garden this morning.
Picked up two 12-foot pressure treated 2x8s at HD last night. Got one ramp put together, will do the other tonight.
Miracle-Gro’d the annuals, including the vegetables, but not the ones in the Earthbox. Very happy with how the tomatoes have turned around: have two tomatoes now.

The Lord Baltimores have started blooming. I planted them last mid-July, and they are certainly thriving in the garden instead of a nursery.
Very happy with the front yard at Edgewater. After all the years of work, it is looking pretty good.

Cut down the Shasta daisies, they were in tough shape. Something is eating the small yellow daisies as well. 8’d them and the hibiscus even though it’s raining lightly.
Planted pumpkin seeds yesterday in one of the EarthBoxes. Probably a waste of time, but you never know.

This excellent tutorial by Jennifer Sanborn is far superior to anything on the Earthbox site for explaining the proper setup: http://www.jennifersanborn.com/2009/02/gardening-a-phd-can-do-earthbox-tutorial/
Planted more herbs yesterday and fed with Miracle Gro. We got some rain last night.

Had a good, soaking rain last night, which we needed, and it certainly put a damper on Fair traffic, which had been insane for the two nights before.

The Fair ends today, thank goodness.

James stayed over at Tyler’s last night, the start of Tyler’s birthday bash. Emme is here.

Earlier in the week, dropped off donations to the UUFW yard sale and did some early shopping, bought a bread making machine and a milkshake mixer as well as a “James” towel.

After Wednesday night’s false start in Monument Beach, the boys had a good youth rifle training session at Bass River on Thursday. We’re going to try to make the Thursday night sessions for the remainder of the summer.

Robert’s decided he’s had enough sailing lessons, and fortunately, I was able to cancel his August registration. He lucked out last week, had a private session since the other two students never showed.

More heat and humidity, what a miserable July.
Had a good conversation with the Master Gardeners at the Fair last Sunday. Based on their advice, I moved the Earth box with tomatoes and cukes to the outside garden and watered with Miracle Gro on Sunday and again this morning.
The hibiscus have lots of buds, the roses have a few. Very happy with the wave petunias in the flower boxes on the shed.

James and Emme did a fantastic job helping me with chores yesterday.

Emme vacuumed, mopped and washed the wood floors. James washed and vacuumed the truck and mowed the entire lawn. He was lucky, Tyler helped.

I added a plant that Emme and I picked out at Mahoney’s to the left side of the front garden.

The kids went to the fair while I picked Robert up from sailing. The plan is to go back to the fair this afternoon after transfer station run.

The gardens are doing okay but there are brown spots on the lawn.