The weekend of July 21-22 was almost entirely oriented to yard work. I needed to mow the overgrown grass in front (up to 18 inches high near the sidewalk), in back where the shed is going to be installed, and I needed to do edging.
It actually started while I was still in a quandry about what kind of palm tree to buy (after I had already bought a windmill palm and was thinking it wasn't the best). But online research suggested I had already bought the most appropriate palm, because it is the smallest full size palm variety.
So then I took a trip to Schulz nursery to get the moisture meter I had seen there a few weeks before. I am beginning to get very concerned about correct watering. I also took a look at other plants. They had several kinds of palms, including some not-very-large ones that nevertheless looked similar in leave design to Canaries. Those were the most curious because none had a marked price or variety. They had a kind of bamboo that looked suspiciously like the running kind. (They also did have clumping bamboo, in fact I bought mine there.) The most interesting thing they had, I was thinking, were the ornamental grasses.
Then I had dinner at a Thai restaurant. Then I went to Home Depot to get a non-B&D string trimmer. I was hoping to get a Ryobi (never had one of those) but they were battery powered and $149. The non-battery Ryobi was not in stock or I would have bought it. Instead, I bought the better of the two store brand models for $49, and got the extended warranty for $8. I need to find the extended warranty card and receipt for my $99 Black & Decker which died earlier this month. I got essential groceries at the supermarket.
That evening, I mowed the incredibly overgrown front yard. The next day, I started yard work before 12 noon. Normally I don't get started until about 7 PM, but I wanted to get a lot done and I knew it was going to be hot. I mowed the back, all around Lyndhurst, and everywhere except near the pesky weeds near the patio Crepe Myrtle tree, those need to be pulled out with special tool.
I pulled down the ivy from the back fence and filled a trash can with ivy and other weeds. I weedwacked by the back of the house and around the back patio (the sprinkler guy had asked for that specifically) where it has not been clear for years. I spread one bag of topsoil in the depression in the front lawn where the Spray Foam truck drove over my front lawn. I spread the soil with a scoop and then brushed it into place with my hands. When that was done, I hosed it with a garden hose. It seems like that one bag has done much good already, though I thought that 10 bags might be needed. I put up the two little white mini-fences at two spots in my lawn to deter future contractor trucks from pulling over my lawn. I've had those mini fences in Lyndhurst for 5 months but finally got around to doing that job.
While I was finally weedwacking by the north side fence, the weedwacker got stuck. I could unstick it as I have done hundreds of times before with other similar machines, but decided to stop there at take a look at the instructions first. This $49 weedwacker has nothing like the power of my $99 Black and Decker when it had been working.
I moved the flags for the 2nd shed one foot more away from the power transformer so they are separated by 10 feet to allow more room for my palm tree.
Once I had mowed the central lawn area, I turned the plastic chase lounges over and hosed them off very thoroughly. I hadn't wanted to buy these chairs at Lowes when I first saw them because they were very dirty. But I couldn't find any other chairs of the same kind online or at any other Lowes or Home Depot store. So I ended up buying two dirty chase lounges. I had initially hosed off the top last week, and now finally hosed them off underneath so I could put them on top of the nice lawn in front of Lyndhurst. Not knowing what kind of dirt (or lawn chemical) they were covered with, I did not want to hose them off in front of Lyndhurst. I hosed them on top again too. I found they were comfortable to sit on only if you sit far enough back. The lumbar support isn't very good and a pillow might help.
I picked up a lot of rocks and put them in the trash. A few rocks seemed like they could have come from my old Agate collection (which mother had spread around the yard not knowing better 18 years ago) so I saved them in the garage. (I worried at that point that some of the agates I saved in the garage might have been thrown out as trash anyway.) I dumped out one trash can full of water--and some rocks--near the power transformer. I'll need to discard those rocks later, I had picked them up on a previous weekend. There are still rocks from the two months that it took to build the foundation for Lyndhurst. I noticed that one wood slab form has not been removed from the front of Lyndhurst.
After having dinner and listening to Pipe Dreams at 9pm, I went back into the yard and installed the 4 way manifold to the back faucet. I installed the support brace after carefully drilling a hole in the back wall of the house and testing it with a nail to be sure it wouldn't go through the water pipe. The manifold was doing fine and didn't leak at all in a full pressure test. I attached one of the automatic controllers and programmed it to water the Lyndhurst crepe myrtle every two days. But since I wanted to water right then, I ran it on manual (which was a pain because it only runs 30 minutes on manual, but I ran it at least 2 1/2 times). I now could and did water the second crepe myrtle at the same time.
Thanks to being able to water both trees at the same time, I was able to take a shower and do some laundry and still get to bed by 2pm waiting for the tree installer to come at 9am on Monday Morning (see previous post for that story).
It actually started while I was still in a quandry about what kind of palm tree to buy (after I had already bought a windmill palm and was thinking it wasn't the best). But online research suggested I had already bought the most appropriate palm, because it is the smallest full size palm variety.
So then I took a trip to Schulz nursery to get the moisture meter I had seen there a few weeks before. I am beginning to get very concerned about correct watering. I also took a look at other plants. They had several kinds of palms, including some not-very-large ones that nevertheless looked similar in leave design to Canaries. Those were the most curious because none had a marked price or variety. They had a kind of bamboo that looked suspiciously like the running kind. (They also did have clumping bamboo, in fact I bought mine there.) The most interesting thing they had, I was thinking, were the ornamental grasses.
Then I had dinner at a Thai restaurant. Then I went to Home Depot to get a non-B&D string trimmer. I was hoping to get a Ryobi (never had one of those) but they were battery powered and $149. The non-battery Ryobi was not in stock or I would have bought it. Instead, I bought the better of the two store brand models for $49, and got the extended warranty for $8. I need to find the extended warranty card and receipt for my $99 Black & Decker which died earlier this month. I got essential groceries at the supermarket.
That evening, I mowed the incredibly overgrown front yard. The next day, I started yard work before 12 noon. Normally I don't get started until about 7 PM, but I wanted to get a lot done and I knew it was going to be hot. I mowed the back, all around Lyndhurst, and everywhere except near the pesky weeds near the patio Crepe Myrtle tree, those need to be pulled out with special tool.
I pulled down the ivy from the back fence and filled a trash can with ivy and other weeds. I weedwacked by the back of the house and around the back patio (the sprinkler guy had asked for that specifically) where it has not been clear for years. I spread one bag of topsoil in the depression in the front lawn where the Spray Foam truck drove over my front lawn. I spread the soil with a scoop and then brushed it into place with my hands. When that was done, I hosed it with a garden hose. It seems like that one bag has done much good already, though I thought that 10 bags might be needed. I put up the two little white mini-fences at two spots in my lawn to deter future contractor trucks from pulling over my lawn. I've had those mini fences in Lyndhurst for 5 months but finally got around to doing that job.
While I was finally weedwacking by the north side fence, the weedwacker got stuck. I could unstick it as I have done hundreds of times before with other similar machines, but decided to stop there at take a look at the instructions first. This $49 weedwacker has nothing like the power of my $99 Black and Decker when it had been working.
I moved the flags for the 2nd shed one foot more away from the power transformer so they are separated by 10 feet to allow more room for my palm tree.
Once I had mowed the central lawn area, I turned the plastic chase lounges over and hosed them off very thoroughly. I hadn't wanted to buy these chairs at Lowes when I first saw them because they were very dirty. But I couldn't find any other chairs of the same kind online or at any other Lowes or Home Depot store. So I ended up buying two dirty chase lounges. I had initially hosed off the top last week, and now finally hosed them off underneath so I could put them on top of the nice lawn in front of Lyndhurst. Not knowing what kind of dirt (or lawn chemical) they were covered with, I did not want to hose them off in front of Lyndhurst. I hosed them on top again too. I found they were comfortable to sit on only if you sit far enough back. The lumbar support isn't very good and a pillow might help.
I picked up a lot of rocks and put them in the trash. A few rocks seemed like they could have come from my old Agate collection (which mother had spread around the yard not knowing better 18 years ago) so I saved them in the garage. (I worried at that point that some of the agates I saved in the garage might have been thrown out as trash anyway.) I dumped out one trash can full of water--and some rocks--near the power transformer. I'll need to discard those rocks later, I had picked them up on a previous weekend. There are still rocks from the two months that it took to build the foundation for Lyndhurst. I noticed that one wood slab form has not been removed from the front of Lyndhurst.
After having dinner and listening to Pipe Dreams at 9pm, I went back into the yard and installed the 4 way manifold to the back faucet. I installed the support brace after carefully drilling a hole in the back wall of the house and testing it with a nail to be sure it wouldn't go through the water pipe. The manifold was doing fine and didn't leak at all in a full pressure test. I attached one of the automatic controllers and programmed it to water the Lyndhurst crepe myrtle every two days. But since I wanted to water right then, I ran it on manual (which was a pain because it only runs 30 minutes on manual, but I ran it at least 2 1/2 times). I now could and did water the second crepe myrtle at the same time.
Thanks to being able to water both trees at the same time, I was able to take a shower and do some laundry and still get to bed by 2pm waiting for the tree installer to come at 9am on Monday Morning (see previous post for that story).
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