Yesterday
hotpantsgalore & I planted. Buying the veggie seedlings early & putting them in the grow tent was not a successful strategy - over half of them (both carrots, the cauliflower, one of the broccoli, cauliflower, pak choi, & spinach) died. We planted the two tomatoes, the two peppers, & the surviving broccoli in our raised bed. HPG bought a watermelon seedling & four strawberry seedlings, which also went in the box. HPG also bought a third tomato - a big Beefsteak. We planted it in a five-gallon container. I bought a "Pink Icing" blueberry bush, which also got planted in a container.
Last weekend (May 7th), HPG picked up the native plants I had pre-ordered from the Colorado Native Plant Society. She put them in the grow tent & they did great. We put them in the ground yesterday, in the planter box built along the western side of the house. Going left to right, I planted: Rocky Mountain Columbine, Small Erigeron, Monarda, Pearly Pussytoes, [some volunteer thingie with serrated dark green leaves], Golden Aster, [another volunteer, same as previous], Swampy Milkweed, [volunteer decorative grass], Desert 4 O'clock, & Western Yarrow.

Hopefully, the native plants won't require a lot of care or water. The western end of the house is only barely in range of the hose. Also, I think the plants I bought are a bunch of butterfly supporters.
Lawn notes: I hired a service to mow the lawn once a week. I think I'm paying $23/week, which totally seems worth it to me. Shadeaux has already learned to cower indoors on Wednesdays when the nasty loud machine comes around. The guy rakes all the clippings & puts them in my two compost bins. I have pretty much lost the war against the weeds in the lawn, so HPG bought some Roundup & did a bunch of "targeted strikes" on the dandelions & mallows. Shadeaux's dog door is locked closed & will be for at least 24 hours so she won't get another chance at being poisoned. Our dog walker will come get her for a couple of walks tomorrow during the work day.
Pond notes: I have now put 18 trapdoor snails in the pond for algae control. 12 of them only arrived yesterday, but so far they haven't made a dent in the underwater tropical jungle. Yesterday I also bought 4 tilapia fry - they are supposed to eat both algae & koi fry. One of them was instantly sucked into the pond's submersible pump & churned into chum, so that was money poorly spent. I can't see the other ones in the pond. Hopefully they haven't been chummed too.
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Last weekend (May 7th), HPG picked up the native plants I had pre-ordered from the Colorado Native Plant Society. She put them in the grow tent & they did great. We put them in the ground yesterday, in the planter box built along the western side of the house. Going left to right, I planted: Rocky Mountain Columbine, Small Erigeron, Monarda, Pearly Pussytoes, [some volunteer thingie with serrated dark green leaves], Golden Aster, [another volunteer, same as previous], Swampy Milkweed, [volunteer decorative grass], Desert 4 O'clock, & Western Yarrow.








Hopefully, the native plants won't require a lot of care or water. The western end of the house is only barely in range of the hose. Also, I think the plants I bought are a bunch of butterfly supporters.
Lawn notes: I hired a service to mow the lawn once a week. I think I'm paying $23/week, which totally seems worth it to me. Shadeaux has already learned to cower indoors on Wednesdays when the nasty loud machine comes around. The guy rakes all the clippings & puts them in my two compost bins. I have pretty much lost the war against the weeds in the lawn, so HPG bought some Roundup & did a bunch of "targeted strikes" on the dandelions & mallows. Shadeaux's dog door is locked closed & will be for at least 24 hours so she won't get another chance at being poisoned. Our dog walker will come get her for a couple of walks tomorrow during the work day.
Pond notes: I have now put 18 trapdoor snails in the pond for algae control. 12 of them only arrived yesterday, but so far they haven't made a dent in the underwater tropical jungle. Yesterday I also bought 4 tilapia fry - they are supposed to eat both algae & koi fry. One of them was instantly sucked into the pond's submersible pump & churned into chum, so that was money poorly spent. I can't see the other ones in the pond. Hopefully they haven't been chummed too.