Why can't I fix lawn mowers?

It seems all my life, I been at the mercy of mechanics. All this week I have tried to get the 2 and one half acres of grass mowed. I have both a lawn tractor and a small push mower. I messed up one of the pulleys on the tractor. The mechanic repaired it with a plastic pulley. It lasted about 15 minutes before the plastic unraveled, or whatever plastic does. This morning I had to make another 25 minute drive, and hopefully he can replace the idler pulley with a metal one. On the push mower, I bent the blade on pine tree roots.
I let about 1 and one half acres have a meadow in the spring until the clovers stop blooming, or until I can take the growth no longer. It's time to mow. I have to mow it twice to get it all.

Finally I ordered by Leatherleaf Viburnums

I ordered two leatherleaf viburnums from lazyssfarms.com. Hope they make the trip down to the deep south fine. It is unseasonably cool today. But it will be hot before they get in the mail.

Do you have a Shade Garden?

I am presently re-reading George Schenk's "The Complete Shade Gardener". Of course I had forgotten almost everything. I did know of what few shade perennials I had, I
had to be on the lookout for snails and slugs. If I see them I go buy some beer and let them get drunk. I figure it's a humane way to get rid of them. And it doesn't
hurt any beneficial insects. If some gets spilled on the hostas, no harm done. Anyway I plan to be planting more shade loving perennials soon. I think I may even
do a squidoo lens on the
Shade Garden.

According to Schenk, the shade garden got it's start in the desert as an oasis. In Greco-Roman times, it became and atrium.
Any way I enjoy my shade garden, even without much color, perhap I'll enjoy it more
with some color.

Tomatoes in Pots

I must get to work on my vegetable garden this weekend. We should have no more frosts. Right now it is filled with clover. I must dig up the soil once again.
This year I plan to have corn and zucchini, plus squash, bellpeppers, okra, and English cucumbers. Also I will plant some marigolds and zinnias. This year
I am planting my tomatoes in pots and putting them on the patio. Where I have
been growing them, they do not seem to be happy. Hope it works out with pot culture.

Visit to Petals from the Past

I went to Petals from the Past in Jemison, Alabama near I-65 last thursday. It was a nice cool day. I got vegetable and flower seeds, tomatoes plant, bell pepper plants,
and a couple of shade perennials. My cousins in Decatur, Alabama have just redone their home, and plan to have someone change the landscape. They live on a wooded lot
on a small mountain. They wanted color, so I suggested doing a woodland garden of
perennials and such. So I found that they had a great deal of choice, if they would shop at Petals from the Past.

I bought some Polemonium reptans- with a lovely blue flower, and an Astilbe 'Deutschland' - an early white low growing variety of astilbe, for my shade garden.

Why is it so hard to find leatherleaf viburnum?

When I was a student in ornamental Horticulture in the late 60's to early 70's, I became quite fond of Leatherleaf Viburnum. A fellow student whose father had a nursery in north Alabama, gave me a plant. I was so proud of it. It looks so great with the solid green Aucubas and the Mahonia bealei it was placed near. Somehow it died during the 20 years I was in Mobile.
I found a online source, http://www.lazyssfarm.com/ located in Charlottesville, Va. I plan to order one next week.

Armand's Clematis

My Armand's Clematis was beautiful all winter until a late freeze in March turned all the leaves brown and zapped the blossoms. The guy who I bought it from said it should be putting back out in about 2 weeks. Thank God for small things. I was disappointed not having the blooms, it smells so good.

Wednesday morning we had winter in spring. Of course I shouldn't complain, because there were snowstorms in the midwest.