Catching Up

Wow, 2 weeks since I posted here!  Well, I've been busy. 

1.  My lettuce trays on the deck "bolted" in the August heat.  Time to replant.  I have a large shallow plastic tub I use for mixing potting soil for Spring plantings.  Fine for dumping the soil in the trays and mixing it around to add new slow-release fertilizer, too.  

I did that on the deck.  No rain forecast for 2 days, so time to let it dry a bit for easier mixing.  Naturally, it rained.  And then more forecast for the next day, so I covered it wit a piece of plywood that almost reached the edges so I added a a big trask bag to reached over the sides.

The rain got in there anyway!  So I tilted it and siphoned the water out.  Muddy water doesn't siphon well, so I had to keep fussing with the tube.  I got most of it out.  And realized I had a dry tray inside, so I added that to soak up the rest.

That's not exactly rocket science, but it does take time.  I covered it better today.  The remnants of Hurricane Ida are coming straight through here Wed and maybe dropping 2-3 inches of rain on us.  The last thing I need for the trays is mud.  It compacts as it dries and I want to replant soon.  I miss my bright red leaf lettuce in my salads!

2.  I bought a battery-powered mower in 2018.  It's pathetic.  I went by Amazon ratings (no offence to Amazon) but I sometimes forget that their ratings only apply to customer ratings about things Amazon sells.  So if they sell average stuff, the best ratings are still about average stuff.

The Greenworks mower I bought has batteries difficult to remove (I devised twine loops to pull them out),  the batteries die after 10 minutes, the power is so weak that the mower cringes at 4" grass being cut down to 3", and it is entirely push/pull.  I've hated it for 3 years!

So I went to Consumer Reports magazine website (I have a subscription) and went looking for the best self-propelled models.  Wow, what a difference!  The one I bought in 2018 was rated poor.  

The best Top 3 ones at CR were about the same.  I bought a Ryobi "40V HP Brushless 21 in. Cordless Battery Walk Behind Self-Propelled Lawn Mower with (2) 6.0 Ah Batteries and Charger", model RY401014US (if you are curious).

I used it yesterday and it worked great.  Powerful, long-lasting. cut down 16" high weeds in an old bed for renovation (with a bit of care).  I had let a tall-growing weed grow there to smother the others.  I love the self-propelled rear drive wheels.  I WAS disappointed to realize that it didn't self-propel in reverse, but apparently none of them do.  My DR brush-mower does and I made an assumption that forward also allowed back.

But I use it in tight spaces and around trees where the riding mower can't go.  It's the forward self-propel that helps the most.

3.  And speaking of the DR brush mower (brutal thing that can cut down weedy shrubs and wild saplings 1.5" thick, turns blackberry canes into mulch, and is self-propelled forwards and back), I left it with gas in the tank 2 years ago (well, I expected to use it again soon but didn't).  Won't start now.  Have to inject the fuel line with "starter fluid".  Sounds like an old boy scout joke about smoke shifters, sky hooks, and 50' of shoreline, but it is real.  

If that doesn't work, back to the repair shop and and they both slow and expensive.  One thing I hate repairing is gasoline engines.  I can fix a lot of things, but those aren't one that comes easily.  

A neighbor once climbed up on the fence and asked if I was good at repairing things.  I said "yeah, as long as it isn't a 2-stroke gasoline engine".  You should have seen the look on his face; that was exactly what he needed help with, LOL!

I am switching to almost all-battery stuff these days.  They just keep working,

4.  Time for my first car maintenance visit.  13 months and I've driven 600 miles!  Laugh if you want to; I just don't drive much.  But I'm going to have to drive 120 mile round trip sometime in September to adopt my female Tonkinese cat, so I need to make sure the car is ready for a trip.

5.  The garden is producing a meal's worth of flat italian Romano beans every other day.  Not bad for a 5' long 1' wide trellis".  My 3 cherry tomatoes have fruits and I expect to strt picking ripe one in 2 weeks.  The regular-size tomatoes were planted late and are just beginning to open blossoms.  It will be a contest between warm-weather growing and the first frost on late October.  I expect a month's worth at least.  Maybe 6 weeks.

6.  The deck Mums are starting to bloom.  Yellow, orange, and red.  That will be nice.

7.  The Black-Eyed Susans are blooming nicely.

Actually, they are very numerous and spreading.  Well, they are native here. so no threat.  I encourage them.  They bloom for a few months.  My plan is to transplant the Susans in the garden paths to the meadow bed and add purple coneflower transplants (from places I don't want them).  Yellow and purple together look good to me.