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Eight and Done!
Jul. 22nd, 2007 06:17 pmPlanted the last eight plants - all ferns - so that task is now done.
Actually had a great Sunday all around - started out blasting out some choral music and continued listening to it during breaks throughout the day: Arvo Part's Te Deum
and some other works, Carl Orff's Catulli Carmina, Trionfo Di Afrodite
, and - currently playing - Carmina Burana
, and, coming up next, Janacek's Glagolitic Mass
, Dvorak's Te Deum, Op. 103, and wrapping it up (of course!) with Mozart's Requiem
.
Did a few morning chores - cat food, cleaned out the bird bath, watered the six plants that went in the ground yesterday and made sure the eight in a holding pattern hadn't dried out in their containers - and then zipped out to Marzen's for some expanding foam and steel wool ("Mouseproofing?", asked - I think - the owner, and he got that right). Also found a nicer pair of grass shears. The prior pair was maybe a little too cheap, and it's given me trouble - Justin uses it more and when I asked him about it he complained up and down about them. This pair seems a bit more sturdy.
Went to the Giant for a couple meals worth of food - some Boars Head hot dogs (one of the best rated by CR, also one of the least sodium), some tilapia, an asian pear, mango, peppino melon, grapes, and a couple of yellow peppers - as well as a few snacks for the week, all organic trail mix type stuff (no salt, no sulphur; pineapples, papaya, ginger slices, and a cranberry trail mix). Ran into one of the neighbors on the way in and chatted for a bit. Filled up the 5 gallon gas tank and a little more than 12 gallons into the car's tank. I should be able to mow on the first rainless evening this coming week.
Got home and polished off a handful of grapes, then sealed off all the outside corner openings. I've seen mice, chipmunks, and snakes use those little doorways into the walls before, so who knows what else might be using them, but they'll have to eat foam and steel wool to do so now! I actually used a lot less foam then I thought I would - went around and sealed up a bunch of other openings inside and out, down cellar, in the garage, and so on. Some night next week - or next weekend - I'll trim the excess off so it doesn't have the off-white blob look. I knocked on a couple of neighboring doors until I found someone at home - the new folks across the street - and handed off the can to them to get what use they could out of it. After a few hours the whole can will be solidified, so it's kind of a use-it-or-lose-it thing. I got my money's worth, and if someone else can make use of the rest, that's even better.
After that, I planted the second Christmas fern and the first of three Matteuccia struthiopteris (Pteretis pensylvanica) (ostrich fern). The Christmas fern - evergreen - is on the other side of the stepping stones and the false cypress from the one planted yesterday. The ostrich fern - smallest of the trio - went in a little further along, just beyond the electrical access and before the serviceberry.
Grabbed a quick drink of ice tea and some grapes, and then put one of the larger ostrich ferns in along the "hook" at the top of Stone Stream, in the middle of the triangle formed by the crepe myrtle, American fringe tree, and variegated cherry laurel. Over by the kitchen corner, I put in an Osmunda cinnamomea (cinnamon fern) and an Osmunda claytoniana (interrupted fern). I've been wanting to get a cinnamon fern since - well, probably since I was planning out the yard in Watertown eleven or twelve years ago. This particular location, however, was selected from day one that I saw it. I held off to allow the foundation backbone shrubs to grow, but the native ferns are filling the area in. I wanted to get one of these in - also, technically, a native to the area - while there's a chance.
Along the family room wall, between the oakleaf hydrangea and the Japanese pieris on the corner, there was a bit of space not filled with fern or this as-yet-unidentified-creeper, and the second cinnamon fern went in there. The last ostrich fern will stand tall - about three to five feet or so - right at the corner of the driveway, next to the columnar English yew. Before I put it in the ground, I hauled the grill out and started it warming up. Once it was in the ground, I started a few dogs and then put the last plant in the ground while the food was cooking. The last fern went in under the kiwi, near the driveway, and is the evergreen Dryopteris marginalis (marginal woodfern). After that was done, I cleaned off the tools and went inside to eat.
Now that's all done, I need to stretch a bit after this relaxation time, and then go back out to put everything away!
Actually had a great Sunday all around - started out blasting out some choral music and continued listening to it during breaks throughout the day: Arvo Part's Te Deum
and some other works, Carl Orff's Catulli Carmina, Trionfo Di Afrodite, and - currently playing - Carmina Burana, and, coming up next, Janacek's Glagolitic Mass, Dvorak's Te Deum, Op. 103, and wrapping it up (of course!) with Mozart's Requiem.Did a few morning chores - cat food, cleaned out the bird bath, watered the six plants that went in the ground yesterday and made sure the eight in a holding pattern hadn't dried out in their containers - and then zipped out to Marzen's for some expanding foam and steel wool ("Mouseproofing?", asked - I think - the owner, and he got that right). Also found a nicer pair of grass shears. The prior pair was maybe a little too cheap, and it's given me trouble - Justin uses it more and when I asked him about it he complained up and down about them. This pair seems a bit more sturdy.
Went to the Giant for a couple meals worth of food - some Boars Head hot dogs (one of the best rated by CR, also one of the least sodium), some tilapia, an asian pear, mango, peppino melon, grapes, and a couple of yellow peppers - as well as a few snacks for the week, all organic trail mix type stuff (no salt, no sulphur; pineapples, papaya, ginger slices, and a cranberry trail mix). Ran into one of the neighbors on the way in and chatted for a bit. Filled up the 5 gallon gas tank and a little more than 12 gallons into the car's tank. I should be able to mow on the first rainless evening this coming week.
Got home and polished off a handful of grapes, then sealed off all the outside corner openings. I've seen mice, chipmunks, and snakes use those little doorways into the walls before, so who knows what else might be using them, but they'll have to eat foam and steel wool to do so now! I actually used a lot less foam then I thought I would - went around and sealed up a bunch of other openings inside and out, down cellar, in the garage, and so on. Some night next week - or next weekend - I'll trim the excess off so it doesn't have the off-white blob look. I knocked on a couple of neighboring doors until I found someone at home - the new folks across the street - and handed off the can to them to get what use they could out of it. After a few hours the whole can will be solidified, so it's kind of a use-it-or-lose-it thing. I got my money's worth, and if someone else can make use of the rest, that's even better.
After that, I planted the second Christmas fern and the first of three Matteuccia struthiopteris (Pteretis pensylvanica) (ostrich fern). The Christmas fern - evergreen - is on the other side of the stepping stones and the false cypress from the one planted yesterday. The ostrich fern - smallest of the trio - went in a little further along, just beyond the electrical access and before the serviceberry.
Grabbed a quick drink of ice tea and some grapes, and then put one of the larger ostrich ferns in along the "hook" at the top of Stone Stream, in the middle of the triangle formed by the crepe myrtle, American fringe tree, and variegated cherry laurel. Over by the kitchen corner, I put in an Osmunda cinnamomea (cinnamon fern) and an Osmunda claytoniana (interrupted fern). I've been wanting to get a cinnamon fern since - well, probably since I was planning out the yard in Watertown eleven or twelve years ago. This particular location, however, was selected from day one that I saw it. I held off to allow the foundation backbone shrubs to grow, but the native ferns are filling the area in. I wanted to get one of these in - also, technically, a native to the area - while there's a chance.
Along the family room wall, between the oakleaf hydrangea and the Japanese pieris on the corner, there was a bit of space not filled with fern or this as-yet-unidentified-creeper, and the second cinnamon fern went in there. The last ostrich fern will stand tall - about three to five feet or so - right at the corner of the driveway, next to the columnar English yew. Before I put it in the ground, I hauled the grill out and started it warming up. Once it was in the ground, I started a few dogs and then put the last plant in the ground while the food was cooking. The last fern went in under the kiwi, near the driveway, and is the evergreen Dryopteris marginalis (marginal woodfern). After that was done, I cleaned off the tools and went inside to eat.
Now that's all done, I need to stretch a bit after this relaxation time, and then go back out to put everything away!
