Wednesday, November 12th, 2008
5 Weather Events Worth Chatting About
Usually, the weather is a subject for polite, uneventful conversation with people you don’t know very well. But sometimes the weather is weird, or even downright scary. Here are a few examples of weather events that gave neighbors more than enough to awkwardly discuss.
Greenpeace Activists Detain Palm Oil Tanker
Where Do Readers Stand on Direct Action? Yesterday, Greenpeace announced that, in order to highlight the ongoing deforestation occurring in Indonesia due to expanding oil palm cultivation, it had stopped a palm oil shipments from leaving port in Dumai, Indonesia. The activists locked themselves to the ship’s anchor chain to prevent its departure.
Princeton Scientists Discover Proteins to Control Evolution
Evolutionary changes are supposed to take place gradually and randomly, under pressure from natural selection. But a team of Princeton scientists investigating a group of proteins that help cells burn energy stumbled across evidence that this is not how evolution works.
Utilities Testing Solar Thermal At Traditional Power Plants
The Electric Power Research Institute announced yesterday that two utility companies (Dynasty Inc and NV Energy) will test out the addition of solar thermal energy to natural gas plants in Arizona and Nevada. The EPRI is conducting the project to determine if using solar thermal at fossil fuel plants will reduce fuel costs and plant emissions.
7 Environmental Executive Orders President Obama Should Sign
The Center for Progressive Reform passed on their suggestions for 7 Executive Orders for the President’s First 100 Days, and here they are for you to debate, discuss and otherwise armchair analyze.
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Wednesday, September 24th, 2008
I took a quick little trip to Home Depot the other day to see if they had and small pines. Of course, they didn’t have any. Lowe’s had them, but Home Depot didn’t…like many things.
On the way in, I passed by a bunch of popular Autumn plants, like Mums. Have you noticed that Mums are everywhere right now. As far as I understand, Mums are annuals. I don’t deal with annuals. I think they are a little short term for me. I do like the way they look and there really are some cool ones, but as far as buying them, I don’t.
At the old house, we had some funky plant that I forget the name of. I remember that it had thick, soft leaves…the kind you could squeeze. Well, when I was walking into Home Depot, I noticed a similar plant that had those same kind of thick leaves. I decided to pick up two of them.
The plant is called the “Neon Showy Stonecrop.” I am pretty sure this is not what we used to have. We should have pulled that sucker out of the ground when we moved, but it was too early in the season and we couldn’t find it.
When I was getting into my car, a lady in the parking lot told me that deer don’t like these plants, which is an extra bonus.
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Wednesday, September 10th, 2008
Even the sun is getting lower in the sky.
I just read an article about “Lipstickgate.” I am sure you know what I am talking about. Obama said, “You can put lipstick on a pig…” and McCain is allegedly crying about it. Well, this is what it’s come down to folks. While a friend of mine is waiting to see if his house will be foreclosed on, we are arguing about pigs wearing lipstick, 55 days away from the presidential election.
Now, let me first tell you that I have mixed feelings about the whole mortgage issue. I don’t feel like getting in to them here. My point is, the mortgage thing is a valid issue that we can and should be discussing instead of beautiful pigs. Catch my drift?
I remember waaaay back a few weeks ago, right after the Democratic National Convention, I told my mother that I was finally proud to be a Democrat. I wrote an email to an old colleague the same day and ended it saying, “It’s a great day to be a Democrat.” Man, it felt great to say that. After eight years of cowering in our unpatriotic caves, someone with some guts was standing up to all the nonsense in this country. Sure, I wasn’t flying one of those ridiculous little flags on my car, but I still felt proud and (finally) patriotic. We had a good ol’ fight on our hands.
Oh well, I should have known that sort of pride and confidence in politics wouldn’t last long. Now we have the tit-for-tat that will bring us all the way to another election day. Anything to stay away from the real issues, I suppose.
I have already been to the tennis club three times since I joined. I took one lesson and went to two clinics. There were about twelve people in the first clinic and four in the second. The clinics don’t give me as much individual attention as the private lessons, but they do keep me on top of my game. I also get the opportunity to meet and play against a wide variety of people, which is important. I like the clinics, but I think I prefer the private lessons more. My goal is to go to both the Wednesday and Saturday clinics and have one private lesson per week. I hope to also get some matches, or just hitting, in too. Without a doubt, I am having a good time, I just wish I was there more.
If you have been sneezing or have felt allergies more than normal lately, that may be because of our good friend, the Ragweed. Our other good friend, the Goldenrod usually gets blamed for the allergies, but it isn’t the most likely culprit, due to its heavy pollen. Both plants bloom at the same time, so it’s hard to tell which one is causing the issue.
I took this photo in the side yard this afternoon.
I have been thinking lately that I need some more clothes. I probably have enough, but they are getting kind of old looking. I was actually on the Old Navy website yesterday with my shopping cart full, when I started having second thoughts. I remembered back to my disappointment every time I buy something other than jeans from that place. The clothes really aren’t quality.
I left that website and went over to L.L. Bean’s website. I found a few things I like and then changed my mind again. I looked at a few of their models and thought I would have to stamp a big “L” on my forehead to wear some of that stuff. Why do their models look like such herbs? They need some new ones (call me).
I decided that it might be best to go out and buy some clothes in person. Maybe tomorrow we can take a trip up to the Prime Outlets in Lee, MA. Those are usually pretty good and I find good stuff up there. It’s not too far from here either. With the crisper air now, it can make for a good day.
Other than that, I am not sure anything too interesting is happening. Any questions?
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Thursday, August 21st, 2008
I am not sure how I get myself into these messes.
I had a second to spare this afternoon, so I decided to put a shovel in my hand. Then, I went outside and started looking around. I had planned on doing all the mulch beds in the Spring, so what the heck was I doing when I started digging up the grass?
Oh well, since it was already started…I decided to drag the shovel along the ground in a nice curvy line. I had a vision of how I wanted these particular mulch beds to look. By the way, here’s a tip for you; when making a mulch bed, make it three times larger than you originally planned. There is nothing worse than a small mulch bed. Trust me, when it’s done, you’ll think a professional landscaper did it. The two beds I made here already, I have to go back and make them bigger.
Before I started digging the mulch bed
Starting to dig the mulch bed
Finished digging the mulch bed
Second finished mulch bed photo
If you can see what I did, you will notice that I just dug a sharp trench, about eight inches deep, along the line where I want to see the mulch. Anything to the right of that line is going to be covered with mulch. Realistically, you just need somewhere for the mulch to butt up against. I don’t worry about the chunks of grass and the existing grass. That won’t grow through, if you put enough mulch down. I did this back at the old house and only saw small areas of grass peek through. I killed that with weed killer.
Now that the front is done, I have to do the other side, along with some more flower transplants. Once that is done, I am going to order my ten yards of mulch and go to town.
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Saturday, August 9th, 2008
It’s getting to that time of the season when I am starting to notice a bunch of tomatoes hanging from my tomato plants. I am also noticing some yellowing of the lower leaves. We have been eating a nice number of small and large tomatoes, pretty much daily. We use them for everything, but mainly salads.
I have been noticing these plants getting thicker, meaning, lots of leaves. I always knew that there comes a time to prune tomato plants, but never quite knew how, when or why.
I decided to so a search today for “pruning tomato plants” and came to a great website. They go into detail all about what I wanted to know. You can visit that website here.
After I read up on all I needed to do to my tomato plants, I went outside to prune them. I think I did a good job, but one always wonders if one took too much off. We’ll soon see, I suppose.
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Tuesday, August 5th, 2008
Do you remember back when I transplanted those shrubs from the front yard to the side of the driveway? Well, everything is going well, except for the fact that the soil I planted everything in is extremely fertile for weeds. I had a little forest growing within a few weeks.
I finally got my butt out there about a week ago and weeded the whole garden. Weeds will only stay down for a short time unless you do something about them. Also, in the garden, I noticed some small plum shrubs getting very dry leaves. That was caused by the very dry soil.
The problem is that every time I tried to water the shrubs when the ground was dry, the water would run right off the dirt. It was very frustrating. This stopped the shrub roots from receiving the much needed water. Also, the soil that the water did soak into dried very quickly from the hot sun.
There really was only one thing to do…mulch. Yesterday, I went out and bought about a yard of mulch just for this occasion. This morning, I did what I had to do.
First, let me explain the benefits of mulching a flower bed.
- Mulch keeps down weeds - prevents germination of many weed seeds
- Mulch keeps the soil moist in between rainy periods and hidden from the hot sun
- Mulch looks really good and accents your garden areas
- Mulch breaks down to add organics to your soil
- Mulch moderates the soil temperature
- Mulch protects the soil from the impact of raindrops that cause hardening
- Mulch encourages the growth of earth worms and other beneficial organisms
- Mulch keeps your plants clean by inhibiting soil splatter when it rains
- Mulch helps the rain water soak into the ground slowly so it doesn’t run off
With all these benefits of mulching, I was very eager to get started. Here are some photos of the process…
This is the before shot of the area I mulched. As you can see, I started digging the beginning of it when I remembered the I had to get the camera. Sometimes I am so excited to get going that I forget one of the reasons I am doing it…PICTURES!!!
With a pointed shovel, I edged the entire garden area. I put the shovel about half way into the soil and then just slid it under the grass to peel it up like a carpet. I then put the grass and extra soil into the wheelbarrow to dump on a rocky area that needs soil and grass. I am hoping if I spread it out, it will grow.
I dug the area to be mulched so it’s about four inches below the dirt the grass is growing in. That makes edging later on a heck of a lot easier.
Bags of mulch ready for use
I spread the bags of mulch out where I thought I would need them. When I got to each bag, I ran a knife up the side of each one. This made it a lot easier to pour where I needed the mulch. For this project, I used 27 cubic feet of mulch. I was about 15 cubic feet short.
This is the mulched garden area. As I mentioned above, I was about a half yard short of mulch. I like to put it about three inches thick. I had to spread it thin because there just wasn’t enough. I think I am going to wait until Spring to finish. It is a lot easier when all the plants aren’t in the way.
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Monday, August 4th, 2008
Laura and I have been walking quite a bit. We are up to 3.7 miles per walk now. I never really thought that walking was much exercise until recently. When I hit that three mile point, I start feeling it. The feeling has been less and less intense though, so I guess I am getting in better shape.
We see a lot of things on our walks, and landscaping is one of them. One thing I notice in particular is what people do with their mailboxes. You could have guessed that. You know, your mailbox tells a lot about you. It tells what kind of person you are…not that it’s good or bad, just what you are like. I remember one guy back in Brewster had a mailbox that was 10 feet in the air. It read “Air Mail” on the side of it. That tells me he has a sense of humor. If you have a big iron mailbox, but have never had any previous mailbox smashed, that tells me you are kind of paranoid. If you have had a mailbox smashed and you went the iron route, I can see that you are smart.
Ok, this post really isn’t about mailboxes, it’s about the landscaping around them. I really like the idea of making the first thing people see when they come to visit us nice. I like a nice mailbox, a nice post and nice landscaping. As you may know, I already made the mailbox nice.
Today, I ran out to the local hardware store to pick up another yard of pine mulch. I wanted to use some for around the mailbox and the rest for another post I will most likely write tomorrow. Today’s post is about how I spruced up the mailbox area.
Here are a few pictures of what I did:
Mailbox before picture
This is a photo of the mailbox before I did anything to its surrounding area.
Digging out grass around mailbox
The first thing I did was to dig out the existing grass around the mailbox. I used the flat side of a pick-ax. It was pretty easy to get up. Then, I used a shovel to make the edges of the area nice and sharp.
Adding ornamental grass to mailbox area
After the area was prepped and ready for some plants, I added four ornamental grass plants to it.
Adding mulch to mailbox area
When the plants were the way I wanted them, I added three cubic feet of pine mulch over the dirt. This mulch will keep the weeds down and will also keep the dirt moist in between rain showers.
I still need to get a broom up there to clean the dirt off the street, but I think the area looks better than it did. Perhaps now, when someone goes for a walk, they can get an idea or two from what I have done.
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Wednesday, July 23rd, 2008
It has been pretty dry here lately. It just rained this morning, which is good, but up until that, we haven’t had any substantial rainfall in quite some time. I have been watching many plants wilt because of the dryness. The neighbors are getting used to the guy with no shirt standing out front with a hose in his hand.
I have had a few goals. One of them was to finish the rhododendron line across the front of the property. I have been looking at Home Depot for rhododendrons, but none can be found…anywhere. I guess they are a Spring time seller. I actually had to dig up and few that were already planted on the property and the ones I planted earlier in the season to finish the row. It’s done now, so that’s good.
I also wanted to plant some sort of a perimeter around the patio area near the basement doors. I decided to go with the Blue Prince Holly that I have been buying (it’s the only thing left), along with some that I planted earlier on. Earlier in the season, I had no plan and I was just sticking these things in the dirt. Now, at least I have a plan.
I did make a nice discovery yesterday. For a few months, I have been dismayed at the price of mulch around here. I used to pay $20 per yard at the other house. Here, these crooks are charging about $50 per yard. I need to get some of what they are smoking. It’s funny because when I call somewhere for a price, I always sense a little hesitancy in their voices as they tell me how much they charge. They know what they are doing.
I called the local hardware store and found out they sold mulch by the bag. They had 3lb bags of pine mulch for $4.49 per bag. I didn’t think that was too bad, since I just paid almost $5 per bag at Home Depot for that dyed junk. I stopped by the store and picked up 10 bags. That’s 30 cubic feet (a little over a yard) for about $45. I beat the system, you see. Now, I can go back and get 10 bags at a time only when I need them.
The mulch is very important, not only to me and my mulch addiction, but for the plants as well. The whole reason for the plants wilting is because the ground wasn’t holding in any of the moisture. I kept watering them, but the sunshine was just too strong. Now, since I mulched and gave each plant a nice soaking, I think the plants will grow nicely.
Blue Prince Holly planted for a hedge line.
The holly bushes really don’t need any mulch because the grass is nice and moist in the back yard.
Speaking of grass, I don’t know how I did it, but the back and side lawns are like a nice thick green carpet. I now mow the lawn on the highest level the mower will go and I think it made a difference. I also overseeded with the Vigoro Contractor’s Mix, so there is some good warm weather seed in there. The reason I mow with the higher setting now is because the grass I planted holds most of the water it absorbs in its leaves. If you mow too low, you are actually cutting off all that water. Also, a short mow exposes the dirt so it gets baked and weeds start to grow. Mowing at a higher level will give you a greener lawn.
Here, check it out…
Hand in grass showing height of mowing.
See, I’m not making this stuff up. Now, if I could just get rid of the brown crispy grass in the front and replace it with this stuff, I will be in good shape. The seed is down, so a bit more rainfall should do it.
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Friday, July 18th, 2008
Do you know how many people search for “When to steak tomotoes?” I bet a lot. Well, I think I spelled it correctly.
I was driving down the road today and noticed that the neighbor had a bunch of tomato plants growing in buckets, just like me. His buckets may have been nicer, but mine are doing just fine. I don’t even remember where I got them, but let it be known, five gallon buckets are wonderful things.
I have been reading that staking tomato plants is mainly to keep the tomatoes off the ground to avoid fruit rot. Since I am growing the plants in 5 gallon buckets, what’s my reasoning? Well, take a look at the photo to see…
As you may have noticed, they are getting very tall. I started off with little three foot bamboo stakes, but have moved on to 7 foot posts. Every day I look out there, the plants have gotten just a little bit taller. Just to let you know, I also tied the posts to the railing on the porch. When I slid the post in to the bucket, I noticed that it was loose and could easily fall over.
A few weeks ago, before I started staking the tomato plants, one of them fell over. Not the bucket, but the plant itself. Anything can cause that…the weight of the plant, a hard rain, wind, etc… I caught it just in time and started tying them up with soft string I had in the garage. I keep it nice and loose so I don’t do any damage. I bought a new garden hose yesterday and noticed that it came wound in long twist ties. I used them just a few minutes ago as even more straps.
I think many people look into this topic way too much. They ask all sorts of questions about what to use and how to do it. How’s this…just stake your tomato plants so they don’t fall over and use something that is long enough and won’t do damage to the plant.
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Tuesday, July 8th, 2008
I was looking at one of my earlier blog posts yesterday and came across the one I wrote about getting tomato plants. I was shocked…yes shocked, at how small the plants were when I got them.
I would say these plants are between 3-4 feet tall right now. Here, take a look…
I think they all have tomatoes hanging from their branches at this point.
Some of the plants started falling over the other day. I didn’t have them tied up yet and I guess they were getting heavy. I did a little online research about when to stake tomato plants and came across a conversation all about the topic. Someone was talking about when a tomato plant gets to be four feet… I thought, “Four feet?” I am afraid that my stakes are only about three feet, so I may have to get the big guns out in a while.
You may also notice that the buckets are different now. This was an unexpected event. One day, I looked outside and noticed that the bottom leaves of the plants were getting yellow. After a bit of ridiculous research, I decided to transplant the plants in larger buckets. During the transpant, I noticed the roots at the edge of the dirt, right up against the bucket. Ever since I changed buckets, the yellow branches turned green again.
The reason I said “ridiculous” research above is because sometimes research on the internet is. I search for “yellow lower branches on tomato plants” on some search engine. I came across the most wild recommendations from all sorts of fools. They were saying that the plants had a blight, a bacteria, a fungus…all sorts of over the top things. Not one of them said anything that might actually be the problem. I guess that’s the way it is when you start looking across the internet for compex solutions to simple problems.
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