The forecast was for rain after noontime so here’s the red sky at morning, sailors take warning…
Thursday was a busy day with both my general helper and my helper friend here. The jobs of the day were car in for repair and more plant care.
My general helper was here at 8AM and she got the watering of the house plants finished. Then we each took an aloe vera and started removing the scale pests from them. For this we used 91% isopropyl alcohol and Q-tips.
Then we mixed up a pest killer from the Brooklyn Botanical Garden book:
1 cup vegetable oil
1 tbsp dish soap
3 gallons of water
I adapted this to my little 22 oz sprayer:
½ tsp. olive oil
Several drops of dish soap
And we sprayed the crap out of the plants. I’ve used this concoction in the past and it’s worked very well on the scale. I think these 2 plants were the sole holdouts from the last treatment of all affected plants.
The plastic sleeve for this brass pot had deteriorated so we found another one in my stores. It was a lot bigger so my helper went out and found small flat stones from making walkways that I had stored in the Tonka garage.
At 10AM we left to take the car in to be looked at again as the $$$ I had spent last week had not fixed any of the problems, and I’d developed a couple new ones. Tom met us there and brought us home.
We went back to work on the plants and at 11:30 my helper friend arrived. He went off to do some shopping and my general helper went home with an aloe vera baby.
When he got back, I’d had my lunch and we worked on the plants on this window sill.
This arrowhead didn’t need any work but the pot of cuttings above it did.
There’s 2 pots of cuttings, all philodendrons, that sit on the top of the old desk. I cleaned them up and took some of the cuttings out of the pot in the dining room to fill them out.
My helper friend left at 1:30 and I had time to rest before the contractor arrived at 3PM. Once he was set, having taken down the broken window at the barn and picked up the rest of the 2” x 4”s he needed to finish the root cellar, I sat down to watch Call the Midwife. I’ve made it to season 8 now.
Friday it’s to be 50F and both my general helper and my helper friend will be here at 8AM. I hope to be able to go out and start cleaning up the Fence gardens and the New Herb garden.
In the afternoon I go in to get the process of new glasses started, new lenses and frame repair from the fall. We never did find the missing lens.
This is the forecast for the best part of the next 2 weeks. This is what February used to look like:
This was February 2001 and was pretty typical of February here in Western Mass. There was no way I EVER worked in the gardens in February. Maybe in January if the January thaw went on long enough, and then only the gardens around the house.
This is just so bizarre to me, to be seriously working in gardens in February here…
Hello lovely lady! 😊
Wow, that's a gorgeous red sky. God really knows how to paint a stunning picture. 😊
That last picture is pretty close to our snow here right now. I really am willing to trade with you, I'd love to see our garden right now, and I'd hate for you to miss out on your typical winter when I can simply send you our snow to replace what you're missing out on this year. Of course, shipping will be difficult, but you're worth the effort. 😊
God bless you and your wonderful family. Have an awesome day my fabulous friend! 😊
LOL! Thank you for considering what I am missing out on, but I couldn't possibly put you to all that trouble! LOL
Okay, I understand and appreciate your consideration of the effort that shipping the snow to you would entail, but let me know if you change your mind. We should have plenty to share with you through until the end of April - mid May. 😊
LOL!