(no subject)

[msmemory_archive]

My portfolio is down about 30% for the year. (Not that I was looking to sell, but it's that comfy cushion against retirement or disability).

The hot water heater has decided to leak.

I guess that my scheme to hire a landscape company to overhaul the yard before winter may need to be put on hold, unless I can scare up some more freelance jobs to finance it with. Which just makes me pretty normal in this year's economy, doesn't it?

Comments

[msmemory.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the thought, but most of what needs to be done in the yard is tasks of which I'm physically capable*, just undermotivated, so hiring somebody is about saving time/energy. If I had to spend the equivalent time doing a bartered task, the benefit of trading work is lessened.

I do need to make a couple phone calls anyway - it may be that with the downturn, the landscapers will be hungry for business.

*Dispose of poison-ivy riddled mulch, spread some new mulch. Prune wegelia, grape, and bridal-wreath. Trim long hedge and small hedge. Force the pachysandra back into its bounds. Cut down the weeds in the veggie patch. Pull up weeds between patio pavers. Etc.

[jdulac.livejournal.com]

note: this is a bad time to be pruning your wegelia, grape, and spirea. The grape should be pruned in early spring (traditionally March), and if the other shrubs are pruned now you will get little/no bloom next spring (depending on how hard you prune). You would do better to prune them RIGHT after they bloom next spring.

[msmemory.livejournal.com]

Oh, that's good to know!

What about box, juniper, and those evergreens that have the little translucent red berries (not holly)? Also forsythia or lilac?

[cvirtue.livejournal.com]

Berries: Yew. The ones I've seen are sort of hollow on the end.

I suppose they must grow much, much larger to be any use for longbows.

[jdulac.livejournal.com]

same for forsythia & lilac -- you want to prune right after blooming.

as for evergreens -- the ones w/the translucent red berries are yews. You can prune evergreens almost anytime, although the birds would probably appreciate it if you waited until spring, after they've eaten what they want :)