greenhouse repairs

Finished the fixups I started two weeks ago.

It needed more work than I realized. When I took off all the plastic panels- only left the roof piece on- found that some wood pieces across the bottom were rotted. So I pulled them out, cut and painted new pieces to go in. Again from scrap wood, so probably this won't last long either. But I cut one piece too short, so had to patch in another alongside it, and it's a super weak point now, so I added triangular pieces and um, heavy duty zip ties. No closeups of that corner, it's embarrassing. 

Also how much the door slumps. The piece I cut to go underneath it- threshold- has an angle now. And I probably should cut a wedge to attach up top, or I will have to keep stopping up this gap with old cloths. Just makes me realize I'm not actually that great at building things.

It was nice to get all the cracked and discolored panels off, though a lot of work to remove all the old nails and tiny rusted screws. Much easier to pull staples with pliers, and I'm not going to mess around with my old quick fix anymore- packing tape. It all shreds into a mess. Having a wrap that goes all the way around from door post to door post on the other side, means no gaps where the panels or walls meet. So I have no drafts to block, except that door edge.

So this is my preference, after trying it both ways- to continue wrapping in plastic. But not plastic sheeting anymore- this time I went out and bought another shower liner, new just for this use. (All of five dollars). I know it won't last forever- the older piece on the opposide side- which is not clear anymore, you can see here- is already tearing a bit- but that piece had got many years of use indoors already.

I dithered about getting shower liners, but then found where people deliberately buy it to winterize their porches! So if they use it for that more or less successfully, I figure it will last long enough for this. If two or three years, still better than what I had before. 

The back wall. Just a bit uneven where it comes down off the roof, but all clear!

Most of the structure still felt sturdy, and dry inside, except down where it rests on the decking. At least one of the main posts is starting to rot on the bottom edge. So -sigh- this thing is going to have a limited lifespan. I hope to still get at least five years out of it, though. It's lasted almost four, now.

View of the greenhouse from my dining room window:

more butternut squash

Ate the second one! I made a soup. It was pretty good- and very filling. I used a recipe that also added potato, celery, onion and carrot. I also added some thyme and sage. With just biscuits on the side, this was a great meal.

new growth

No water change this week, but I did dose plant ferts (Leaf Zone). Since the circulation is more gentle now, I poured the ferts into a few cups of water in a clean bucket, mixed well, and poured back slowly into the tank while sweeping that sideways, to try and distribute it evenly. There's more melt still, but also lots of new leaves unfurling! I'm especially pleased with the crypt moehlmanii, I'd thought it was getting pale lately- new leaf is a healthier-looking, slightly darker green color:

Crypt beckettii-petchii

Buce 'wavy green' and unknown.

I thought this was a crypt beckettii-petchii also, but it's got broader leaves with a kind of rounder tip. Another variety I forgot I had? maybe it's the 'undulata'. Or natural variation due to conditions.

shrimp and snail jars

Tidied up my shrimp jar again. Overhead shot. Once again, all my floaters have gradually died off. I really thought the frogbit was going to make it this time around. Nope. Maybe it's something about the substrate I use. Or lack of nutrients, as there's so few shrimps now . . . 

Just two amanos. 

Removed most of the algae-marked anubias leaves.

Mermaid weed was all bare on the lower stems. So I cut them both back and replanted. Quite short now.

It might be my imagination, but I think the twisty vals are doing better.

Ramshorn snail.

Still not thrilled with the other jar. I think if the crypt undulata grows out enough in my 33, I'll transfer some into here. It might give more plant height.

restart

My little pilea has been um, looking awful. All the stems full of dead dried-up leaves to the last few inches. So I cut the good ends off to restart in water jars, and cut back, threw away all the rest of the stems. Probably going to start in a new pot again. Not sure if it was pests, or just dried out because I hadn't watered often enough.

There's lots of cuttings. Maybe I will restart two pots.

The smallest were two short for even those tiny jars, I should have just tossed 'em, but had this little string-of-hearts cutting too, so I put together in a medicine dosing cup.

That pot still looks very sparse, even though this is the second time I've taken cuttings to root and multiple. (It started as just one piece).

some moved indoors

Tidied up my stevia plant. Lots of browned leaf tips. I thought at first from cold, but it's uneven- not all the foliage affected, not even every leaf on each stem. Plus curling, so I suspect an insect, tiny can't see it. Aphids maybe. I sprayed with soapy water a few days ago.

This morning found more of the leaves that hadn't been damaged before, dried up and curled. Trimmed those off and this time dunked all the stems and leaves entire in a bowl of soapy water held potside. Hope that does the trick. If not, of course I'm facing my yearly problem of bringing unseen pests inside to my resident houseplants. Stevia is now sitting by the glass sliding door, next to the jade and aloe.

Scented geranium here too. Looking fuller already.

Other geraniums are still outside. I put them under the edge of the table when several days of rainstorms expected, didn't want them to get hit with too much deluge. (The rain has tapered off now).

My chives are very happy with the extra rainfall though!

Chocolate mint next to the chives pot is looking better now, too.

window tank stuff

I put coleus cuttings across the back of my fish tank. Hoping the roots will make Tucker feet more sheltered, as I took off the background panel. We have over a week of rain predicted, the overcast skies already here. His colors are definitely less bold when the tank is brighter lit. But I don't want it so dim the plants lack enough light.

I also took more cuttings for the windowsill of my two favorites, just because.

This one has been looking great in its new spot (for the summer) just in front of the porch under those shrubs I cut back. Even though when I brought some pieces in, found tiny leafhoppers on them. Hope I didn't miss one or it will be an issue for my indoor plants.

There is more melt, all across the tank. I tested water parameters- ammonia is zero, nitrates between five and ten. I'm not going to do a water change this week- after so many on disaster day- but will dose the leaf zone again.

There's this piece of plastic I've always had on the back corner of the tank, to keep water splash from the sponge filter from dripping out and down the back of the tank. And getting all over the lip of the rim under the glass lid. It's not perfect, but it helps. This is the old one- really gunky. Usually I wipe it off periodically and replace after a few months when it gets too gross.

Today I cut a new piece of plastic to shield the corner, and held it just under the rim lip, with plastic bread bag clips. Should have done this long ago- it works so much better! I checked after ten, fifteen minutes and there was hardly any water creep.

But it was still coming up droplets and condensation through the hole for the filter tubing- so I just stuck a bit of (dry) filter sponge over that. Perfect now- hours later and the corner is still dry.

It's dry on the opposite end of tank because I turned the second filter off. I'd been watching a film clip of someone else's paradise fishes, how gorgeous and healthy they looked, and his tank has no tech at all. More plants than mine, though. And went back to my readings about paradise fishes, remembered that really they like very still water. No flow at all is often recommended. After seeing how much better my fish fared without companions, I wondered if I ought to follow this as well. 

I'm not quite bold enough to turn off both sponge filters, yet. Maybe after there's more plants grown out, and the water stays good quality. Should, with just one fish in here now. I bought a new mini siphon too, one that's a better size fit for this tank.

And I have these crypt balansae (with maybe a few spiralis or retrospiralis among them, can't recall) saved from the last angelfish tank. I couldn't bear to throw them in the compost with the rest of the discarded plants. They're in my taller vase- but of course cramped for space.

Looks like they're surviving okay, though. I want to plant them in the 33L, but worried about giving Tucker whatever disease the angelfishes died of. I think if I'm going to move the plants in there at all, I should wait several months to do so, hoping the pathogen will die by then.

rock edge

This is what I've been working on. Straightened out the rock edge for the side bed in the backyard. Not going to dig the rocks in to make them level in the ground until I'm satisfied with the placement. And there's still grass behind them to pull. I've also been shifting a few of the stepping stones, and dug in to lie level some of long ones that go up the smaller sideyard, and clipped back some of the wild chrysanthemum to even it out, stuck the stems in the ground other side of that yellowish dwarf cypress, but I don't know if they'll take, Might be better to do that kind of thing in spring. The two paler gashes going out into the lawn, is where my husband helped me remove some of the old tree roots that were aboveground.

And then I started with the rest of the rocks. Been wanting to do this for a long time. My husband collects rocks and fossils, often going out to locations himself, so he brings home a lot that get broken open or chiseled apart and then discarded if the find isn't as great as he'd hoped. So, we've had piles of those rocks in crates all around under our deck. 

I was tired of looking at them. And of leaves gathering in those corners in the fall, hard to clean out. Decided to try and make a little mow strip out of the rocks, so I don't have to trim grass against the edging by hand after mowing the lawn. I actually got one side of the first bed done today. 

It needs a little filling in still. There's lots of much smaller rock bits in the gravel under our deck- some of those are on the edging in the above pic- which I wedge in between the larger ones, where they didn't meet flush as I'd like.

This might not be permanent. All the bigger rocks I dug into the ground so they're pretty stable - and holding the bed edge from slumping again perhaps. Some go several inches down. But the smaller ones on top, some are quite thin or fragile and will eventually get broken from being stepped on. Well, I'll just replace if that happens. It's like putting together a puzzle with nature- and one with no guide!

in other areas-

Because even though the plants in back parts of the yard, where we have an easement so I'm reluctant to plant anything large or permanent- mostly shallow-rooted things that spread easy and if they have to get dug up by work crew someday for the storm drain pipes, well at least they're easily replaced. The pictures look pretty much the same year after year, but still I take note and try to put in new things, spread around the ones that are doing well, etc. Such as the 'chocolate' joe pye weed. This is the parent plant. There's well a dozen younger ones scattered around the easement now. I dug and moved a few to better locations. And cut off all the flowers, because much as I admire it, I don't need more 'chocolate' joe pye babies right now.

Still somewhat disappointed that my inkberry, bayberry, persimmon, and three of the redbuds, are dead and gone. This one hellebore in the rear perennial bed still looks yellowed. Either it's always sick, or there's soemthing off in the soil in that one spot. I'm going to dig it out and throw away. Let some of the babies grow in, see if they also turn yellow . . .

While all the regular hostas got eaten up completely by the deer (except the blue one in the corner by the garden, and the two buried in the perennial beds), and the sensitive ferns died back from the heat, I still have my stinkin' hellebore babies! In their second year now, not much bigger.

This one was smaller than the other two, I had planted it under the holly by the lady ferns (which also disappeared in the heat)- maybe it was too shaded so grew slower. I moved it closer to the front of that area, when transplanted the younger beautyberry into that spot.

Found quite a few of this plant along edges of the lawn down near the row of liriope. I thought it was strawberry begonia at first- and surprised if that plant had done well enough to produce and scatter itself, since I hardly notice it behind the joe pye 'chocolate' (plus don't they propagate by runners, not seed?)

So I went and cleared away leaf litter and stiltgrass in the area where the stawberry begonia is. Still there. Much smaller leaves than I recall, but seem to be more individual plants. No, it's not the same plant. I think the one pictured above is that weed I favor, that often has a blue-green look and then grows taller later in the season . . .