Okay, this and the next couple dozen posts are total cheats. That is, the dates are made up. I’m posting these in February 2016 but dating them back in last summer. The dates in the post titles correspond to the dates of the photos.
The whole point of this blog was supposed to be a journal to keep track of daily chores and events in my garden, but during the gardening season I was always too tired at night to update my journal. So now I’m going back to my trusty iPhone, with its handy date-stamps, posting the photos, and writing notes on whatever I can recall about what the photo was supposed to document.
(Maybe this year I’ll do better.)
I bought a cork stopper for my rain barrel from Hearts & Crafts online store. For several weeks it leaked so much it was useless, but by summer’s end the cork had swollen to fit, and the rain barrel was nice and tight.
For a second rain barrel, I came up with a good hack to keep breeding mosquitoes out. (I’m sure someone else came up with this before.) I used a plastic garbage can with a lid. With a utility knife, I cut around the rim of the lid, threw away the center piece, and replaced it with a piece of window screen (trimmed to fit with wire cutters).
Rain in, mosquitoes out.
The black plastic rain barrel was ugly, but I hid it behind a giant hydrangea and a cimicifuga.
The Bee-Loud Glade 