Posted in Oh noes!

When the rain barrel ran out of water…

…we realized we’d never turned the outdoor spigot cutoff on because we hadn’t needed it.  That was yesterday, the 15th of August.  Because of how the rain barrel’s spigot isn’t at the dead bottom of the barrel, we did try tipping it to get at more inside, but there’s only so far you can push that to get at the last bits left–plus then there’s the sediment issue from what ever’s gathered over the season thus far.

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Posted in Progress

Watering, snipping grass, neglected compost and old foe skeletons

I did manage to get some time outside yesterday to do more than a round of watering.  Compared to last year, I’m consistently using three “can fills” per water from the rain barrel so far, where last year we barely needed just the one.  Most of that is due to the kitchen garden related plants, as well as trying to encourage some perennials that didn’t overwinter very well.  We haven’t been able to pick up the new rain barrel we paid for, but will when schedules align.  We haven’t needed it yet, so I’m not agonizing over the lack of pickup,  if it matters.

Note the two flying insect "shadows" you can see near the one cluster of fruit growing. I didn't even realize they'd made the shot.
Some of our plants have names (we’re odd). Shoobie, our northern highbush blueberry, was two years old when introduced last year, and this year’s crop is looking good for a three year old.

Continue reading “Watering, snipping grass, neglected compost and old foe skeletons”

Paid for the second rain barrel today

Here you pay for a rain barrel in one place (City Hall), and then pick up in another (transfer station).    The pick up place isn’t open as many days of the week as the pay place.

But it’s paid for, and that’s one less thing on the check box.

Second rain barrel install

I updated the countdown for the install of the rain barrel itself.  That should be easy enough as long as we can get over there to pick it up on a day the center is open.  Getting the guttering up in that corner, though…that’s a bit more iffy.