Almostgotit’s birthday present:  One humongous heap of steaming, stinking black mulch plus two indentured slaves with shovels for a day.

The three of us planted the things I bought WITH A COUPON the other day, plus the stuff I’d divided or moved from elsewhere (more about that in tomorrow’s post)

 Here’s the scoop on the new guys in the yard:

Encore Azalea, “Autumn Ruby”

Light shade – sun

• Mature height: 2.5 feet Spread: 3 feet
• Blooms spring AND summer, deep ruby single flowers
• Click here for more about Encore Azaleas http://www.encoreazalea.com/encore/index.cfm

Juniper, “Gold Coast

• Evergreen, yellow foliage
• Cold hardiness zones: 3-9
• Light needs: full sun
• Mature height: 3 ft tall, 4 ft wide

Physocarpus, “Summer Wine”

• Light Needs: Sun
• Cold hardiness zone: 4-9
• Height: 5-6 feet; Spread 5-6 feet
• Wine red foliage ; white-pink flowers mid-summer

Weigela, “Midnight Wine”

• Light Needs: Sun
• Cold hardiness zone: 5-9
• Height: 12-18 inches; spread 18-24 inches
• Purple foliage, bright pink flowers

Abelia, “Rose Creek”

• Evergreen: leaves become purplish in cold weather.
• Light needs: Full to partial sun
• Cold Hardiness Zone: 6-9
• Light needs: Full to partial sun
• Mature size: Low mounding shrub 2 to 3 ft. tall, 3 to 4 ft. wide.
• Flower Color: White
• Blooms: Fragrant white flowers spring through summer.

But lots of them were on sale, PLUS I had a coupon!!

I’m so excited! 

The Wells Fargo Wagon came down the street yesterday, finally, with my brand new Weed Wrench!

Making me a weed wench today, obviously.

We borrowed weed wrenches from some Americorps volunteers over the summer to remove some invasives in our neighborhood park, and were instantly smitten.  These pups really work, too!

Can’t stop to chat.  The sun is shining and the husband is looking covetous; therefore on a couple counts I’ve got some mighty weed wenching to do…

After harvesting naught but a single mutant cucumber, the Almostgotits have decided to deed the entire northern half of their garden to Sweden.

My daughter has her own version of my life, however. . .

Good news!  The utility company has given us a couple months off its billing cycle.  The poor thing still can’t decide how to bill the Almostgotits, as our low meter readings always make it suspicious (we heat with wood).   

The only thing is, we got our woodstove a couple years too early to qualify for Obama’s 30% tax credit for energy efficiency.    Ah well, we ALMOST got it!!

Saving money and saving the planet make wonderful bedfellows, so here’s six ways you can do both, just for today:

1. Hang your laundry out to dry.  If you don’t have a clothes line, buy one or just tie a rope between a couple of trees.  Clothes dryers are one of the biggest consumers of a home’s total energy use.  And yes, you can even hang your clothes up indoors!
2. Skip Starbucks for a day and find an Earth Day event to do instead  (or)
3. Do a fun Earth Day project with your kids at home.
4. Plant a vegetable garden!  Tomatoes and beans are the easiest of all, grow practically anywhere, and your own, home-grown vegetable plants are so gorgeous and satisfying.  Plus also, you’ll have great tasting food for much less than what you’d pay at the store!
5. Stock your freezer.  You’ll save money and energy by reducing your trips to the grocery store.  You’ll also reduce the temptation to eat out (more car trips, more money spent) because you’ll have things to eat at home.  And finally, freezers use less energy when they’re full, too. 
6. Plug your TV into a power bar.  Many appliances draw electricity even when they are turned off, so using a power bar can make a real difference in energy savings.

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Related posts:

5 Ways to work greener & cheaper 

11 Ways to be cheap in honor of Earth Day

Laundry and spring break and blogging: oh my!

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So I got my check from Blogher yesterday — $29.28 for three months worth of ads, which makes it all worthwhile when those pop-up ones come up and bug the heck out of you, doesn’t it? 

(I’m so sorry.  I forgot to sign in and go do the thing that nixes those kinds of ads…)

Anyway, with all that money to spend, I felt a trip to the nursery was finally justified, so I went to Stanley’s Greenhouses and spent $149.47.

Welcome to my sick little world.

I bet Heather Armstrong never feels bad when *she* goes and spends $150 at one of her Salt Lake City nurseries.  She reportedly makes $40,000 a month on advertising for Dooce.com.   Yeah sure, go ahead and click through…  buy her another sagebrush or whatever she can actually grow in Salt Lake City. 

$40K vs. a chance to grow dahlias?  Oh yeah, I’m sure glad *I* didn’t move to Utah. 

Since it was the middle of a weekday when I went to Stanley’s, there weren’t many other people there except retirees and SAHM’s with kids in tow. 

And mostly-unemployed me.  

Most of the time, I’m glad I no longer have kids in tow everywhere I go, as I now can spend all the time I want agonizing over which color of astilbe I want.  But there was one very cute little girl trailing behind as her mother asked around and  hunted in vain for the part of the store that stocked wysteria vines. 

“Mommy,” the little girl called out, growing impatient.  “MOMMY!  So, WHERE’S THAT POSSTERIA?!?”

Right next to the asters, is my bet.