My planting pizza party

Well, the weather man was right. It was considerably cooler on Wednesday. I went to Home Depot at lunch and bought one more bag of garden soil, one more bag of potting soil, some squirrel repellent, some outdoor bleach that’s supposed to be safe to use on siding and two peony rings.

Then I stopped at CVS to get my prescription refills and give them $90.00 US (and that’s with insurance)! Finally I went home and ate two brats for lunch. When I pulled out of the garage to go back to work, I saw my neighbor, standing up on top my roof, blowing the maple leaves out of my gutters. I waved at him and he waved back and then I drove away.

My supervisor gave his notice today, so most of the afternoon was spent by speculating on who our new boss might be.

I got stopped by a train on Inkster going home after work. There were two locomotives and 103 cars (I counted them, having nothing better to do). Luckily, I was only about four cars back from the tracks, as the line of stopped cars stretched back at least a mile by the time the train had finally passed.

So, I missed a call from Jake, who had called at 5:20 PM. I tried calling back, but just got his voicemail. I left a message I was going outside, so we didn’t end up playing phone tag.

I dumped the garden soil and half the potting soil in the wheel barrow at my car trunk and mixed it together. Just as I was turning the wheel barrow around, the front wheel came off! I have GOT to put that wagon together!!

So, I carefully tipped the wheel barrow back on its handles (spilling just a little of the dirt), got a hammer and some tools and put the wheel back on (at least for now).

I went to the back garden and dug two deep and wide holes. I kept hitting broken concrete from the two times the wall had been knocked down by trucks in years past. I put that dirt in the compost heap and piled more of last year’s leaves on top of it. I also had to keep pulling out the runners from that damn Virginia creeper (kudzu) I stupidly planted on the back wall as well.

Then I carried two full buckets (one at a time) and dumped one bucket in each hole. I used the pots to gauge how much dirt I’d need to get the plants at the right height and filled them back up to that depth (this will allow the roots to grow in good dirt). I took the peonies out of the pots and set them in the middle of the wide holes. The peony to the north is called a Karl Rosenfield Double Peony (deep red) and the south one is a Cora Stubs Peony (white and pink). Then I filled in the outsides with the good dirt for the roots, too.

I used the last bag I had of mulch to cover the dirt and then took two more buckets in back to water the dirt I’d filled in the holes with. Finally, I set the plant rings in.

It was too cloudy and getting dark by the time I finished, so I couldn’t take any photos for you yet. I did take my little Buddha out and set him in his spot. When I was getting him, I noticed the turtle that was always in the old herb garden so I set him in the raised bed planter, after I picked out all the maple seeds, lol. I’ll have to deal with the ones left in the other gardens, the reflecting pool, both patios and the garage apron, I suppose. But, at least they aren’t up on the roof and gutters!

I put away all the tools and made myself a cup of coffee. I responded to my Brother Carl’s Blog comment with some pictures and then filled in the Blog entry to date.

I was hungry, but really didn’t feel like more brats. So, I dug out a Red Baron pan pizza (it was on sale and this is the first time I’ll try it) from the chest freezer and made that for my dinner. I had one more tomato left that was heading south, so I sliced that and put it on top. Then I added more mozzarella cheese. The “pan” it comes in and cooks in is cardboard, BTW.

As you may remember, I am not a big fan of thick crust on my pizza. I like them thin and crispy. But, while the crust was thick, the bottom was crispy and this pizza tasted pretty good! I ate three pieces to prove it!

I watched some TV and then the evening news until the weather came on. After that, I turned off the TV and went to bed.