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Fun with sprinklers – not!

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Chris and I are both experimenting with lawn watering the other night. He was wiped out because he’s covering another persons shift at work for the whole month so he’s getting up at 5 a.m. every day. I’m still not feeling well, what else is new, and that’s made me pretty much useless as far as getting anything done outside goes these days.

So … we pulled out the sprinkler system that we have. We actually haven’t been very happy with lawn sprinklers as none of the ones we’ve purchased in the past have worked very well with our not very powerful water system.

Chris hooked up one of our older small sprinklers after work and the darn thing swung around pathetically and only watered perhaps a 6 foot diameter of lawn and garden. It’s going to be thrown out or perhaps if we have a garage sale it will be one of the items that we put out for that.

So, seeing how bad that sprinkler was and after calculating that it would take about 8 hours to water the front and back Chris got in the car and went to Home depot to get us a new sprinkler.

Miracles of miracles he actually found one that works! The new one has a good range and seems to work well with our low water pressure. It still took about two and a half hours to complete the job but considering that neither of use were up to standing outside in the garden, in the heat, for a minimum of an hour and a half we’re happy.

I still prefer to water my plants by hand. Well with a hose, but you know what I meant! This was better than not watering at all!

Have you found that they don’t seem to make really good sprinklers anymore?






House warming gifts

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One of my friends bought a new home and she’ll be moving into her new house in two weeks. This is their first new home so it’s a very exciting time for them.

Chris and I will be helping them with the move, and with any luck we’ll have a barbecue and relax once all the work is done that evening.

I already got them a couple of really nice house warming gifts, but while I was shopping I saw some really cute kids bedding. They have two small kids and I was thinking that getting a nice bedroom sheet set for one of the kids rooms might make a nice gift. I still have time to order it and receive the package before they move if I buy the set today.

I remember how expensive our move was, especially since we were moving into a larger space and had to buy furniture and other items.

What do you think? Is kids bedding a weird house warming gift or a nice idea?

Use your gardening downtime wisely

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How are you keeping yourself busy this month? Have you been spending time thinking about your garden? Reading gardening magazines and books? If you’re like me you probably have a number of seed and plant related catalogues to read. I think mine started being delivered in the mail from late November onward.

It’s too cold to go outside and do anything in the garden – other than shovel the snow that is.

If you want to have a great garden this season, you’ll find that thinking and planning are the two best things that you can be doing during these cold months. Use your garden downtime well.

If you’re like me you probably took some photos of your garden as the plants grew and filled in last season. You might have even made some notes- move this plant over here – it’s not getting enough sun, or it’s getting too much sun. Divide this plant and replant a cluster of them over here and so on.

Try to remember which of your plants did well and which ones didn’t last year. Have any of them been struggling for a few years? Is it time to move them or replace them?

As you flip through the gardening magazines and catalogues make notes of which plants, flowers and bulbs you’d like to try in your garden. Even if you aren’t purchasing them now, or perhaps you’d rather try them by seed rather than as a seeding – keep track of what you like. Then as the time comes to purchase the plants or seeds you’ll have a nice list that you can go over and pick from as you buy your new plants.

I’ve been using this site to keep track of which plants did well last year. Oddly enough, anytime I wrote about a plant not doing well and threatened to remove it if it didn’t start performing soon, amazingly enough it did start shaping up! Why I have no idea – did I actually give it a bit more attention since I was trying to figure out what it’s problem was, or did my threats work? Either way, I’ll be giving some of my plants some verbal threats next year – just in case.

Here’s a few great gardening books to keep you busy over the winter months:

Perennials for Every Purpose: Choose the Right Plants for Your Conditions, Your Garden, and Your Taste (A Rodale Organic Gardening Book)

This is an excellent book. I’ve got a copy of it and it keeps me busy for hours!

The Big Book of Flower Gardening: A Guide to Growing Beautiful Annuals, Perennials, Bulbs, and Rose

Another excellent book that I own. There are some great gardening tips in this book.

Annuals for Every Purpose: Choose the Right Plants for Your Conditions, Your Garden, and Your Taste (A Rodale Organic Gardening Book)

I don’t have a copy of this book … yet, but it’s on my list!

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