Dirt, Mostly

If I could sum up today with one word, it would be dirt. Some of which (feels like most of which) I'm still wearing, on my clothes, under my fingernails, on my skin (aggravated by the fact that I covered myself in sunscreen this afternoon before going out. Because, y'all, melanoma is real). But I finished making my vertical pallet garden! And then I filled it with potting soil and got all my seedlings planted. Honestly, the entire process was way, way more complicated, difficult, and time consuming than I thought it would be. Everyone on Pinterest makes it look so easy! I'm already thinking about how to make it easier/better, but for this year, I'm so done lol.


The pallet garden contains watermelon (lowest levels, so the fruit can rest on the ground!), squash, pickles, and tomatoes, and the top shelf has my herb pots. Since I have two empty spaces, and since I seem to have gotten the hang of keeping already-grown herb plants alive (don't laugh - two plants died while I was learning), I'm thinking the logical next step would be to try raising some herbs from seeds - maybe oregano and more dill?

I also attacked my big planter - I bought it last year for a steal from Ross because I loved the shape and color (a metallic copper-gray), and even though it was advertised for indoor/outdoor use, the thing has given me absolutely no end of grief. First, I realized as I was filling it that it didn't have drainage holes, and I was in a hurry, so I didn't take the time to fix it, meaning that for most of this past year, the thing has been full of water, despite my frequent tipping it over on it's side, killing anything I planted. Then it rusted almost immediately. :( So today I gave it a quick rinse, quickly scrubbed off the rust, and hit it with a blast of boring black spray-paint. Boring, but effective! So much better.

I also spent some time stripping the heat tape and insulation off of my white water hose and storing them for next year, and cleaning up my yard in general. I still need to use the weedwacker tomorrow, which I'm kind of dreading, but at least now everything seasonal is stashed and out of the way.