Category Archives: gardening

Apr30

Taught him well…at least at some things…

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What a dreary day here! I did a little flower planting late yesterday-some snapdragons, the mini-marigolds and some chamomile in the fairy garden. It looks colorful and sweet.
Sean went to the ‘after prom’ event from 11 pm-5 am last night. He didn’t attend the prom, but the after prom event is open to all juniors and seniors. They started this about 6+ yrs ago so the kids had something ‘fun’ to do after the prom. They have door prizes, including a car. Sean didn’t win the car. I had trouble sleeping as I was wondering how he was holding up. No problem-he came right home and crashed until lunchtime.
So in my subject line I am talking about Sean-he is so neat and tidy with his clothes. His father is the opposite! I asked Brian to come back in the bedroom to pick out some shirts, etc for our trip. I dumped about 40+ shirts on the bed. He said he didn’t have that many clothes before I did this! He forgets what he has! They were stinky, like they needed a good airing out. So I washed half of them today though I wasn’t really up to it. He just wants to wear t-shirts and shorts. Surprise-he’s taking a couple of polo shirts to wear out to dinner. I folded all the shirts ‘just so’ and separated them (I am a perfectionist to some degree) by color and design. I can guarantee you that they will be all messed up in a month’s time. This is what happens when you marry someone whose mom was still washing his undies at age 27! I just inherited all the stuff she use to do for him. And he doesn’t really care if he looks clean and polished at all. Sean does. I found a steamer that gets the wrinkles out of clothes and he used it today. At least one cares, and the other is a lost cause.

Apr28

Buying garden plants

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Geez, I’m so excited about buying plants! I went to drop off the 4 bags of clothes at the Goodwill and right around the corner was Richardson’s. They have gorgeous plants mostly from $1.99 to $4.50. The more expensive ones are perennials.I bought some plants for my fairy/gnome garden. It’s really cute. It use to be the rose bed and I moved the roses and had the space. I have lots of little fairies and friends-not tacky ones but sweet ones with little chairs, a mini glazing ball and some ceramic mushrooms. I found some miniature marigolds which will be perfect for it (if they don’t get nibbled by animals). I also bought a big pot of purple Johnny jump-ups for the same garden plus a few other plants.
What else? Snapdragons, pale pink petunias, some herbs, a poppy and a few other perennials. The sales lady said I could plant everything. The lilacs are about to bloom, so that’s a good sign there won’t be a freeze again. I can’t wait to get digging and rearranging.

Apr23

Clothes sorters

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Geez Louise! Even my son and I have too many clothes. I guess we take after a certain lady who isn’t talking to me. I needed to get some things together for our Florida trip in a few weeks. I had bought a few new things, but I wanted some ‘kick around’ shorts and tees that are all ready ‘broken in’. For Christmas I bought Space bags and managed to get a big plastic bin worth of clothes into about 4 of them. I gave Sean the bin and a jumbo space bag for his stuff. He is as bad as me! His bed was piled high with clothes, mostly from his favorite store Old Navy. We decided to donate about 2 huge bags of clothes to the Goodwill (there’s another bag in the van). I am pretty happy with what I have to take. I have to try on shorts (which I hate, I found knee length polyester skirts that look so much better on me). I guess I’ll have to look through Brian’s clothes next because knowing him he will wait until the last moment.
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So we watched Sideways last night and this morning. There was a shocker ‘copulating’ scene and full frontal nudity of a couple of bit actors (just to warn you). Sean saw that and I think he was quite surprised. If you over look those few scenes, it was a pretty decent movie. I think it won the Golden Globe this year as best movie comedy. Paul Giamatti was excellent. Hard to believe he played an orangutan in the remake of ‘The Planet of the Apes’.
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I am pleased with how the yard clean up is going. I am moving a few plants around that were looking sad in their present location. The plants are Japanese iris that were in front of the driveway and some lilies that were under the Japanese maple in the front yard. They were reaching so much for the sun they were legging and not doing anything. Brian dug them up the other evening and just being placed in a pot they look more perky. Some of my lawn decorations got broken or are faded. I had a fairy garden and some of my wee folk look a wee bit pale. I want to find some miniatures for the fairy garden. Last year the impatiens took over. Maybe there are mini-impatiens! I’ll have to look around and I am getting that itch to check out some garden centers.

Apr22

Beef stew

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I have to admit, this was the best I’ve made in a while. I make stew at least twice a month in the cooler weather. No way was I going to make it in 80 degree weather yesterday. It was in the 60s today, so I made it. I swear, the turnips and parsnips make the world of different flavor-wise. I like a bit of rosemary and parsley with a splash of Worchestershire sauce. I made some ‘packaged’ lemon squares for a treat. My son Sean has a terrible sweet tooth. He’s practically eaten 4 packages of cookies in less than a week. Half the tray of lemon squares are gone too. And look ma, no cavities and he’s ‘just right’ with his build.
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I did weed whacking instead of food shopping. I have a lot of pent up anger in me from my phone conversation with mom. I did almost the entire front yard! Mom even involved my uncle in this spat. He called and was very cool with me. I don’t know when all this will end, but I really hate it because I feel like a heel and I don’t want not to like myself when I didn’t really do anything so horrific.

Apr21

Dry as punk

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My grandmom use to say this. I would get a visual of the little sticks that we would burn to ward off mosquitoes in the summer. What was the ‘punk’ part anyway? We were told it was manure and would dare each other to taste it! This is a suppressed memory and they spring into my head a lot lately. We use to do to weird stuff to lightning bugs (earrings out of their behind!). Kids can be cruel.
Anyway, I can’t really do that much in the flower beds because it is so dry. I could use the ‘weed whacker’ which I may do later, but I need some groceries too. Weed whack or grocery shop? I may choice the later because my eyes are red (see old post update).
It’s a lot cooler today anyway. I do not like warm weather in April. For one thing there is no shade and I end up sitting on the front step. All the spring flowers were wilting too.
They are telling us that the whole area is a fire hazard. There have been wildfires in New Jersey.
Hopefully we will get a little rain soon as it’s been 11 day since we had a decent rainfall (we had a wee bit last night).

Apr9

Waterfall

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Brian and I am major achy tonight. We were bailing out water from our little 50 gallon pond today. It was really muddy. Three of my water plants lived, but two really need repotting as there are about 1 foot of roots coming from the mesh containers I bought them in last year. It’s nice to hear the waterfall from the open window. I have three solar lights out there near the pond, one of which is a big sunflower and the only bright one glowing tonight.
Did I say it was a picture perfect day with clear blue skies too? So nice to get some more cleaning up done as we raked leaves out of the flowerbeds. My roses look sad and I lost a few. I feel like giving up on roses all together as they are hard for me to grow.
Bri filled in the hole mentioned in the the post below with that expanding foam stuff. “How does a redneck fill in a hole-with expanding foam stuff!!!” LOL I’m wondering if it will work. I can just imagine all the flying bug eggs under this floor where the garage floor use to be. Ugh.
I am trying to get myself in gear for weeding next. Yard work seems like so much more work than ‘fun’ as the years go by. I ask myself too why I made so many themed gardens? Man I’m getting old.


Can you see the fox in this photo? We were busy outside cleaning up debris and saw this little fella lying in the sun. He got up, grabbed something (not sure if it was another animal) and took off because he heard Brian come out to take more photos of him. Posted by Hello