Sunday, 3 November 2019
at home
Skooter still sleeping after our breakfast time
We had had just a wee bit of unexpected rain.
I had quite a list of garden projects for today.
First, drag and chop the soft material from the Corridor of Spooky Plants from this pile into the compost bins.
Second, retrieve and crumble up for the compost bins some wood from the old stump next door.
Third, weed and mulch (with some of the root balls from Long Beach hanging baskets) the front driveway bed.
My results:
The soft pile is pretty much dealt with.
The stump is somewhat chopped away.
The bigger chunks went into a pile for little critters.
driveway bed is improved
I have one little stunner of a fall crocus in that bed, with no memory of where I acquired it.
Bob Nold tells me it is the saffron crocus, C. sativus, and adds, “Ever smelled fresh saffron? Give the styles a gentle tug, they’ll come off.” I will, if they are still there tomorrow (because I am writing this five days later).
Meanwhile, Allan’s project was to run all the woody debris through the Mighty Mac.
the woody pile from the Corridor of Spooky Plants
The Mighty Mac (Allan’s photo0
After awhile, I smelled and saw a cloud of smoke. Silence reigned as Allan turned the Mighty Mac off and poked about underneath.
Another lesson in how to run the thing: you should clear out underneath now and then. A belt had broken. The pile of willow in the background won’t get chopped today.
Allan’s photo
Allan turned to the electric Pencil Sharpener which takes one slim branch at a time.
Allan’s photo
This much of the woody Halloween pile still remained.
Allan’s photo
Allan’s photo
I took all the woody lily and helianthus stalks from his pile and hand chopped them into the compost bins.
There is Halloween in two bins:
The shreddings and chippings…
…went back to the bogsy wood as mulch. The Pencil Sharpener makes finer debris but takes longer.
The Halloween woody debris pile is gone.
At the very end of tidying up, I had an unfortunate encounter with my Mermaid rose….
…adding one more owie to my right hand. I had on a glove, but only a thin exam glove. (Looks worse than it is, but it sure did hurt.)
Now Allan’s task of sorting and storing the light strings is all that is left of Halloween.
Tomorrow we must seriously apply ourselves to a week of work, so that task will wait.
Standard time has come upon us with the end of Daylight Saving Time. It felt glorious to close the curtains at 5 PM and look forward to long, dark evenings with more time to read.
After dark, Allan helped Jenna move one last thing, a heavy tool cabinet, to her Mermaid Sandcastle….
with the help of Don and Jim.
…and then ran all her extra cardboard boxes to the recycling bins at the port.
Tomorrow: back to work with another week of clear weather in the forecast.
Tangly Cottage Gardening 