Things bought

[ksmith]

Went to the hardware big box. Glad I took the truck.

Two hose reels. Two tool racks. Birdseed. And a cast metal birdbath, which I'd first spotted last fall but didn't buy because it had been stashed waaay up on the top shelf and I didn't feel like tracking down a clerk. Anyway, it's small, with a green over gold antiqued finish. A bird on the branch in the center of the bowl. Sufficiently solid as to be King-resistant. Much nicer than the white plastic one it's replacing, which is now sitting on the curb flashing its knees and looking for a new home.

Winding my hoses onto the new reels wore me out--pathetic but true. The 50' wasn't bad, but the 100' kept getting kinked even though I had let it sit out in the sun for a couple of hours before I tried to wind it. It there a damned hose made anywhere that doesn't stiffen into string cement when the temps drop into the 50s? Mine lost its flex because it was cold, and that's why it kinked so much. Took me an hour or more to wind it. My shoulders and hands are killing me. Ibuprofen is my new best friend.

Big box also had shrubs for sale. Next week I may return for a couple rhododendron and maybe one flowering almond.

Comments

[technomage.livejournal.com]

I've been spending way too much at Home Despot. About $120 on plastic latice work for under the porch. Another $85 on the paint and brushes for the basement wall. Now we're awaiting the arrival of the rose plants to fill in where we ripped out the boxwood hedge last fall. The Duo can't harbor the smell... I love it. Tis' life.

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

Still waiting for my astilbes to arrive. I've cleared out the area on the east side of the house, which up to this time has been bereft of plants. I would like to plant a flowering almond or another full sun shrub there. If I can find a 4' rhododendron, I know exactly where I'm going to put it...

It never ends.

[technomage.livejournal.com]

Our newest super-shrubs are star magnolias. Three for the back fence line to start a 10 year project of obscuring the backyard from direct view.

[alfreda89.livejournal.com]

Find a one or two foot one and give it time to build its roots. Feed it rhododendron food at the proper time and it will love you forever.

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

I know the soil requires acidifying.

[alfreda89.livejournal.com]

Yup. Or no blooms.

[coalboy.livejournal.com]

Warning: in our joint neck of the woods you have to shelter rhododendrons from the north wind as well as the west.

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

I knew there was some sort of caveat regarding those things.

One of the areas I have in mind is hard by the east side of my house. Well-sheltered from the west, but open to the north unless larger trees count as a windbreak.

My house faces north--anything planted in the backyard is either open to the west or gets too much shade.

Must think about this...

[alfreda89.livejournal.com]

My mom's faced north, and they did all right. There were more houses across the street from us, so the wind never got a steamrolling chance at the bushes. Masses of pink in the spring.