Happy Monday everyone. Hope you had an industrious weekend.
I... did not — well, at least not as far as the garden went. I did a little bit, but not as much as I felt I should accomplish outside.
Instead, I spent a lovely afternoon with Land of Enchantment — looking through my lace patterns, visiting the WPA-era Post Office across the street so she could get pictures (although the Post Office was closing up, when one of the postal service workers saw that LoE wanted pictures of the mural indoors, she unlocked the door for us). We then wandered up the street to my local knitting/crafts store to browse their beautiful yarns.
Then yesterday... well, the Mister was in the way, getting our swamp cooler ready for summer business. We really could have used it on Saturday, as the high was in the upper 80s, but the winds were strong, and he really didn’t want to be up on a ladder, handling the large, sail-like filters that attach to the cooler.
The wind is back today — I hope it doesn’t flatten the tree peonies. The buds are just opening — this photo was taken late yesterday afternoon. I’m always astounded by just how HUGE the buds are on tree peonies. I did loosely stake the plant — in this wind, though, I fear that the stem may be snapped where it’s tied to the stake.
I really wasn’t in the groove for working in the garden yesterday, in any event — the Mister just provided a handy excuse. I farted around a little with some minor chores, such as getting the autumn clematis and tree peony staked, and giving the new Texas Red honeysuckle I planted next to the front porch something to climb on.
As the tomatoes aren’t quite ready to take a full day’s sun in the veggie patch, I used that as my excuse to delay finishing laying out and burying the soaker hose in that area of the garden. Which was fortunate, because I had a face-palm right before I went to sleep about an easier method than putting on a new hose end to have the soaker hose cut to the proper length for that side of the veggie patch. The configuration has changed since last year, since the compost bin has been moved. Now the 25’ soaker hose is no longer adequate, but a 50’ is too long. In any event, I had forgotten that have these nice little coupler-doohickies that have some sort of plumbing application (or perhaps they're for ponds? I just remember picking up a handful at the local hardware store a couple-three years back because they looked useful) — they just slip inside a 1/2" to 5/8" hose. Because the soaker hoses don’t put pressure on them, the little ridges on them will keep them in place — although a bit of Barge Cement will ensure that they stay where I want them (do you know about Barge Cement? That stuff is like duct tape, it’s so damned handy. I use it to seal the cork on my Birkenstocks, repair hoses — and join soaker hoses; a great adhesive where a good, waterproof cement is needed). So, when I get home — if the wind isn’t to strong — I’ll whip out and cut the excess 10’ or so from the middle of the soaker hose, whap in a coupler, and by tomorrow it will be good to go.
But, for now it's back to work.