12 Oakdale

 I am attempting to grow potatoes in boxes, an idea from YouTube. Cost: $2.20 of white seed potatoes from Winter Garden Feed.  January 29th  I’d cut several potatoes in half, so I will have enough pieces to place them 6” apart in my 5 boxes. Then I let them dry to get a hard edge which might avoid any fungus or other disease.  January 31st:  I put several inches of leaves (Japanese blueberry tree, Elaeocarpus decipiens  ) in the bottom of each box, then 4-5” of my homemade compost. I watered that, added my potatoes, and covered them with more compost. Watered again.

The delightful palm warblers have returned. Groups of 10 or so flit through the yard, eating bugs from the shrubs and trees. The phoebes have also come, sitting on the telephone wires and singing their names, so they are easy to identify. With them came wind, cooler weather, and lots of rain. Our south side yard was flooded. When we have the roof redone and new gutters hung, I’m investigating adding a rain barrel. I also want a rain gauge. With two days of rain, I abandoned weeding and yard work. We went to Lowe’s and bought a closet system to install in the guest bedroom. We put double rods on the right with a tower of shelves and drawers in the middle. On the left, we have a narrow slot, with a single high rod. I hung my long dresses and coat on that rod and realized its left end was about an inch lower than the right. Too bad; it’s not being reinstalled. As Grant said, were we to go into the closet biz, we’d have to bid by time not by the job. We are both slow, yet incompetent. Stil...