Lang Gardens

2.1.09

Very satisfying end to the weekend, even with the schedule derailment. Spent the morning raking up the leaf mould matting the backyard. Saved it for my SFG mix. A little bit of shredded leaves or grass left on the lawn is beneficial. However, when I mowed my fall leaf bounty and left it on the ground, it formed an impenetrable barrier and did more harm than good to the lawn, which was already suffering from aggressive mowing. Trent and I were keeping the grass very short because it makes it easier to clean up after the dogs. I didn’t realize until too late that we were doing a lot of damage. I think that we also have take-all patch, so after I raked up the nice mulchy leaves, I sprayed the yard with a treatment to try to get it back on track. We’ll see how it goes… That’s a mighty trifecta of lawn damage to try to recover from!

After doing that, it was off to the garden shop. I won’t name which one, because I got kind of frustrated today but in the big picture, I really like this store and don’t want to give them a bad review. Last weekend, I went to this nursery and asked for vermiculite. One of the team members went and got it and put it at the front desk for me so that I could go shop. I picked up a few other things and checked out and loaded my product, never really taking a good look at it. I went to work with it this weekend and found that it was perlite, not vermiculite, so I had to take it back. When I did, instead of refunding my money for the perlite and applying it to the cost of my vermiculite ( and other items) they charged me a second time for the perlite. Which I left with them, because I didn’t want it. So I had paid for it twice, but didn’t actually own any of it after doing so. I didn’t notice because I get euphoric when I’m at that garden shop, all excited about my projects and stuff, and I enjoy chatting with the staff.

I leave, hit the grocery store on my way home. Returning to reality via the mundane task of grocery shopping brought the transaction at the nursery back to the forefront of my mind. Wait, HOW much did I just spend? Sure enough, I check the receipt and see that they did what I described above. So I called and they were quick to fix it and are mailing me the refund receipts, but that sort of chapped my hide. I checked my bank account online this morning to see the refund (not posted yet since it took place on a Sunday) and noticed that they had charged me twice on Saturday for a single coffee. Which they caught at the time, and the barista swears that they did a refund, but I didn’t take the receipt for that one, and I’m just ticked. It’s a couple bucks, but that’s twice in a row.

Anywhooo…So after working on the backyard for a bit, and completing my marathon of project related errands, I went back to my painting. And paint I did. I finished the second coat on all of the lumber. I was all pumped to start building these 5 boxes, but my second pair of hands had just left to go shoot hoops. I was too stamped to let that stop me, and managed to assemble 2 of the 5 by myself. I discovered a couple of things I’m going to need to do differently for the remaining ones that will make the assembly process take a little longer, but it will go a lot more smoothly. And it will eliminate the warping I experienced with the first two. So I need to tweak those two a bit. I also need to get more screw-driver bits for the drill. I stripped 3. ‘Cause I’m crazy like that! Even though I have to tweak those two boxes, I’ve set the complete ones in the yard, and I’m really beginning to see how it’s going to look in the end. I mean, I’ve been able to see it in my mind’s eye all of this time, but it’s finally beginning manifest itself. As I told Trent, “I’m totally high on it”.

Before I could put the boxes down, I had to move the markers a bit. The fence line nearest the sidewalk got moved closer to the house by 4", and I needed to accomodate that. I also realized that I had a 9' walkway down the middle of the yard. I could move the boxes closer to the center of the yard and give the blackberries, citrus trees, and blueberries more room to breathe. I made a little tool to help with all of the measurements. I was moving all of the beds a foot and a half in, and 4 inches up. I made a little 'L' shaped stick with the appropriate measurements so that if I positioned the stick base in the center of an existing stake, the point at the end of the "L" would show me exactly where to put the new marker. It'll need a little tweaking before I start filling the boxes, but it's good enough for now.

my magic stick

lining it up with the old markers and a string line

putting in a new marker

I think this week I’m going to have to come up with a firm schedule of completion. Not so much firm on the actual date things get done, but on the order in which they get done. If my finances dry up, I’ll have to take a break and that’s ok. But as long as that’s not the case, it will be helpful to have an outline of which pieces require others to be in place before they can be started. It seems a GANTT chart is in order here… Yay, Project Management!