Re: [gardeners] Yes, having a good weekend !

pennyx1@juno.com (gardeners@globalgarden.com)
Sat, 12 Oct 2002 22:58:17 -0400

Happy to tell you that the terrible fall my hubby, Jimmie , took last 
Saturday night down in St.Louis onto a stone floor was a short-
lived catastrophe -- had to bring him home with a series of very
kind wheelchair operators at the airports who treated him like a 
movie star. On Tuesday we saw the orthopedist who removed a cupful 
of water from his knee, and then gave him a shot of novocaine and 
cortisone, and there has been no relapse from the relief!  Jim is
up and down stairs and driving a car and absolutely nobody would
believe it.

We returned to New York to find that the cool weather and intermittent
rain had turned the garden into a paradise!  The flowers were brighter
and taller, color was everywhere, and the lawn looks like a carpet...
In all these years, we've never used a hired hand to mow the lawn
before, and this was a serendipitous move, for the man uses a
mulching mower and lets the grass drop and stay, something which 
we never did. Have used no fertilizer this entire year, and the grass
grows about 4 inches a week. I watered [legally] on alternate days all
summer, and made sure that the mower was kept very high. That's
the whole formula:  water, tall lawn, mulching mower. 

One other item of great interest:  all the beds where I had scattered
Preen, the weed preventer, are clean as a whistle. All the beds where
I had NOT scattered Preen, are overgrown with weeds even tho they 
had been cleared 3 weeks ago. The Preen is safe amongst the shrubs,
the flowers, and the tomatoes -- it simply stops seeds from germinating.

Three days of rain and no water inside the basement yet -- but if the
thunderstorms come on Sunday, we'll be back to mopping. I HATE to
tear up that pretty back yard, but we have to get the curtain drains
installed, to draw the water away ...  November's job, I guess. 

Penny, NY


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