So this morning wound up eventful as I hurried through a few things trying to beat both the incoming storm as well as the dreaded 11am-2pm sun.
I'm actually fairly pleased with how it worked out despite the necessary hurry. I got the rain barrel at least set up under the hole in the gutter, although I'm not done with the rain chains yet, and likely won't be today before the storm anyhoo.
Compared to what it sells for on Amazon, when you buy from the town it seems like a bargain, but it is definitely a lower grade materials barrel except for the spigot and top system. Eventually, I can foresee replacing hardware in the few spots that have them (like securing the lid--the screws are very soft metal, too easily stripped to be taking it apart once a year for cleaning and storage, then back together. I'll likely put in bolts with nuts instead. The inside washer nut for the spigot was very thin, and that makes it hard to get a hold with the wrench, given the molding of the body. I also was not happy that although it has that great screen for the top, they have none for the overflow hose. I had yet to change the carbon filter on the litter box this year, so I took the opportunity to do that, and used the old one to cut a mosquito barrier to fit in the overflow hole. There may be little chance of any bugs flying or crawling up there, but I'd rather they not get into the bin in case they are a mosquito. The overflow hose was also that hard but thin molded plastic, and it had to be gently stretched with pliers to get it over the grooved edge of the connection on the barrel in order to use the hose clamp properly on the flat edge beyond the grooves. I almost got out the hair dryer because I was worried stretching would crack it. All said, it was totally worth the $25 the town charges residents. You can buy two per household. We decided since we don't (yet?) have a gutter on the south (back), we'd just see how this one did, and decide if another it worth it plus adding gutters. It's made by
EnviroWorld.
I'm also a little worried about the weight as to wind, but once it has some water in it, I'm sure it'll be ok. I'm probably more concerned about wind because of the need to fill the area under where the barrel had to go. This was due to the lack of downspout and the slope just nearby. A lot had washed away by the time we moved in, and I did stem that some before using grass clippings and rocks as a short term measure since I knew we'd get a barrel eventually.
Because the storm is supposed to have gusty winds, because I don't know how my fill in will hold up, and because there's currently no water in the barrel, I tied it to the porch in the hopes that prevents a blow over before any rain can weigh it down. I also laid down cardboard to protect the newly turned over turf I took from a new bed I'm making from getting washed away. I braced the cardboard and it's additives below with a spare brick and two small but not tiny squared stones. I also threw some leftover stone we had on top of the cardboard to help stabilize the barrel for now. I'll re-evaluate the installation after the rains stop tomorrow. If all goes well, the wind line will be removed.
I had to make room by moving some flowers, and two bushes needed to be moved anyhoo because they were not doing well where they were. So I roughshod made a bed on the west side of the porch and two things went there, the other close by on our side of the rock wall.
You can see how the "Emerald n' Gold is just burnt, the poor thing. Despite the rain, it really liked the shaded area much better. This is a bit of a different orientation (northwest side instead of north), but I think with the home next door and the trees and other plants in the rock wall between us, it will recover. I'm still waiting to trim it where it got leggy, but now I'm even more worried than before because of how burnt it got in the first spot I mistakenly chose. Lesson learned--no more transplanting until I know where best to move it!
The rhododendron was already planted in a bad site overall. I read that unlike many blooming plants, rhododendron does not like full morning sun in winter and does best when planted in dappled shade on the north side of a building. Growing rhododendrons are happiest in a location protected from the wind and not under eves of a building. The former site was 4 wrongs out of a possible 6 rights. They only thing they got right was protected from wind and north side. So hopefully it does better there. We'll see. Oh, and one thing I forgot to mention is that it was crazy root bound. I didn't even have to dig much when I took it out before I realized I could just pluck it out by hand. I think I worked the planter shaped roots loose for a good 20 minutes before it seemed like the plant could breathe. There's another mostly dead plant that looks similar in shape as to what's above the overall grade in that area, and I bet it was the same thing--they didn't break it up when they planted it, so they did poorly.
We only have five feet from our property line to the porch. So I'm thinking of extending the south part of the west porch bed the full five feet, and shifting over the Emerald n' Gold. We have a lot of stones on the property, so I'm thinking of using some as a step path nearer to the porch side to give it more room to grow. I know it may not recover from the burning, but I'm trying to do a wait and see for now. It's not really a native, so if it goes...it was pretty, but no financial loss.
What you can also see in the one image is wood siding under the asbestos. There was a broken tile, and I sort of did they "hey, it's already broken" thing to see if my suspicions were correct, and they were. I am itching to get that stuff off, but it is going to have to wait until at least fall if not next year. I might be able to make room in the budget to do just the porch rail, supply wise, but I'm not holding my breath. It could easily turn into the yak shaving problem, since I already can see certain issues that need to be addressed with the porch overall. Also in that photo is the evidence of how much turf and dirt I removed--look at the paint lines. The dirt was well above that point. I still have to regrade all around the house.
One last bit is I keep finding rocks in the beds when digging. In the bed I started today, I wasn't surprised, but all of them have them. Part of me thinks they should come out, and other says "well, nothing has been wrapped around any yet, so maybe I'll just set some of the larger ones aside here for border or bottom of indoor plants or something.
Opinions on leaving rocks small enough to fit in your half closed first or tighter in the beds versus taking them out?