Seed Planting & Aleve

I took two Aleve yesterday after my shower and my dinner of a ham and cheese roll up and sliced crisp radishes.  That's the last I remember.  Then I woke up on the couch and it was 2 am.  It's now close to 10 and I just finished my breakfast eggs, drinking coffee and getting ready for the day in the garden.  I have seeds to plant, tomato cages to arrange, a dog to walk.  Plus I promised to make G an actual meal.  Last night he had my "go to" easy fast solo dinner.  Marinara and cheese tortellini.  It's something he can make for himself.  I got home from work at about 7:40.  Tonight, Chicken Marsala.

I wish I could have had the time (back) I wasted at work yesterday.  Customers were few and far between and everyone was stretching and trying to ease sore back muscles.  Standing around on cement is a back killer.  I also want to find an hour to return to my exercises.  The days seem to go by so quickly when you have a list of "enjoyable" things to do.  Tedious things and the day just drags as it does at work.

I wish to correct impressions as to the "inexpensive" tree removal.  I AM spending thousands of dollars. The amount of money I am spending amazes me.  I am reluctant to part with $20 or $40 dollars but get the number into the thousands and it seems easy enough for me to write a check.  THAT is how MUCH I want those trees GONE!!!!  The trees behind these ugly pines are very thin and light deprived.  Some maples and oaks.  A few birch.  Nothing I would call a "nice" tree.  No specimen trees like horse chestnut.  In the front yard, I have several delightful crab trees and an assortment of flowering shrubs like Viburnum, Beauty Bush, lilac and rhododendrons.  In back I have roses, hydrangea, weigelia, forsythia, and a few Christmas tree type pines G found in the woods and moved into the yard.  I like those.  I think having more "good" maples would be nice, especially in the fall when they change color.  No sugar maples, sad to say, as this land has never been lived on in all the years it has existed.  Until now.  Always a woodland.

A new Juddii viburnum I purchased (flowering and very fragrant) is nearly dead.  It has only 6 viable leaves at this time and date.  All the flowers dried up and died.  The root ball was solid, hard packed clay.  A coworker thinks it's from the same nursery that her dogwood came from.  Solid clay and as soon as she planted it in good soil, it died.  This is what we are selling at work.  We each bought these specific items because they were NOT the ordinary stuff we always have for sale.  They were different and when we did research (yes, we looked them up) the varieties were considered to be excellent choices.  Still are.  Just not from the nursery we got them from.  Is it any wonder sales are down in the nursery part of the business???

The greenhouse/business down the road is closing on July 3rd.  Their prices have always been high.  They never had a sale.  And in the end, they lost business to anyone with a sale.  I am thinking of going over and asking if they plan to sell any of their smaller greenhouses.  They are old fashioned wood and glass affairs and those are the kind I like.  When we first moved here, I would visit two or three times in the season and usually spend $100 each time.  Once I started working at my own greenhouse, I stopped shopping there.  They had terrible perennials but lovely zinnias.  Every rose I bought there, died.  I don't remember the seedlings doing very well in the vegetable garden, as they are usually overtall. (buy the short stocky seedlings!) I always wanted a hanging basket, but at close to $60 each, they were too expensive.  I enjoyed wandering around with a Radio Flyer wagon to carry my purchases, looking at everything, visiting the old glass houses in early Spring. I often wish we had wagons where I work. Their mulch was good, I think.  Anyway, they, like most Mainers, think their land and business is worth more than anyone wants to pay.  So, it will sit.  Vacant and decaying as the months and years go by.  The property has been for sale for over a year.

The coworker who bought the (dead) dogwood asked me to consider buying the business and she would come work for me.  I asked HER to buy the business and G & I would come work for HER.  Both of us would entirely change the business to more of a "boutique" service oriented greenhouse.  Buy it and we would install it (taking the best of the guys from our present employer).  My town has more people over the age of 60 living here than any other age group.  And they retired from lucrative careers.  There is money here.  Lots of it.  And people with money want SERVICE.  Original, creative, service.  Why else would they ask ME to fill their window boxes.   AND, we have people over the age of 60 who never left the state of Maine, never saved  money for retirement and want everything "on sale" as cheap as possible.  Those seniors can continue to shop at Walmart.

As a side note:  G has been enjoying a good laugh on the People of Walmart website.  And the other day he had an actual Person of Walmart sitting in his restaurant.  In low cut pants and a skimpy tee, with the wide expanse of her entire naked,  rear end exposed.  I have heavy, female, coworkers who wear these low rider jeans and everytime they bend over we all see their butt crack.  Worse than any plumber.  The  loader boys wear low slung pants but their rears are covered with boxers.  So, when their pants slip off their hips, we only get to see plaid.

 G's favorite on the website was the 500 pound (or more) guy on a motorized scooter, dressed in several red plastic bags shopping in a Walmart.  The best states are Texas and Georgia.  The worst was a woman in shorts with her urine bag taped to her leg.  Really.