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Ortho Weed B Gone Plus Crabgrass Control For Killing Weeds

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I went up to Home Depot yesterday and picked up some Ortho Weed B Gone Plus Crabgrass Control to deal with the weeds that are popping up all over the lawn. This is a selective herbicide, which means that the chemical only kills the weeds, not the actual grass.

I guess the question is, does this stuff work? The fear that every person who works on lawns has is to see their once semi-beloved lawn totally dead after they apply a selective herbicide to the entire thing. To deal with that fear, I would suggest applying some of the weed control spray to a small portion of the lawn to see what dies. After a few days, if only the weeds are dead and your grass is still alive, go ahead and finish up the rest of your lawn. This is just my suggestion; I’m sure there have been thousands of people who have used this weed control throughout the years with no trouble. Just read the directions.

I applied the Ortho Weed B Gone Plus Crabgrass Control this morning to the entire front lawn. I wanted to show you some photos of how fast this kills the weeds.

I’m not sure how long this stuff takes to work on all the weeds on the entire lawn. I already see a whole bunch of Clover curling up and dying as well. Maybe I’ll take some pictures in a few days to see how far the process has come.

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Setting Up A Lawn Hammock

This is a sweet, sweet present I have been looking forward to for many years.

About a month ago, there was a day that offered perfect weather. I would say it was about 55 degrees and sunny. Coming off a cold winter, this was just what we were looking for. I was outside just walking around, when Laura decided to join me. We talked for a little while and decided to have a seat on an area of mulch. It was warm and dry. We continued talking and after a while, we ended up laying there looking up at the sky. That’s when she said, “Wouldn’t having a hammock be really cool?” It was like a light bulb went off in my head.

Yesterday, I wrote about getting some stuff at Home Depot. What I didn’t write was about the hammock I bought. I wanted that to be a surprise. I also needed to set it up and take a picture of it before I wrote about it. Well, today was the day for that.

Pawleys 13 foot cotton rope hammock with pillow

The hammock I got was the Pawleys 13 foot cotton rope hammock with pillow. It was just the one I was looking for. There were a few more expensive hammocks, but they weren’t as large. This one is 60″x84″. That’s pretty big. I also like the rope because it’s really comfortable.

When I took this hammock out of the box, it looked kind of short. I really thought it was too small. I went out to the “hammock spot” and hooked everything up. The middle of the hammock was about 2 1/2 feet off the ground. I was very excited to try it out, so I got into position and kind of jumped on it. Well, I think I should have gone more slowly, because I landed on the ground. The hammock stretched out a good amount. I had to get up and adjust the chains; actually, I had to remove the chains. I just hooked the hammock directly to the hooks on the trees. After that, everything was cool. After the initial stretch out, it hasn’t stretched any further, even with both of us laying on it.

Is it tough to get off a hammock once you are on one? Well, not physically, but mentally it is. Once I had it all set up properly, I lay down on it, just to see how it felt. A half hour later I had to pull myself up before I fell asleep. I’m tellin’ ya, it’s a sweet feeling just laying there listening to the birds chirp.

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Brinly 40 Inch Tow-Behind Dethatcher

I have been beating myself up over this one for a few days.

I have gone back and forth, looking on the internet, trying to determine if I need to have the lawn dethatched. I know, I know…as my father would say, “Just mow the lawn and get on with your life.” Well, unfortunately, I am someone who has been sucked into the art of lawn care and really seem to enjoy it.

Some websites that I browsed said that dethatching really isn’t necessary because the thatch layer should naturally break down if the lawn is in good health. Another website said that dethatching is good, but only in the autumn because you don’t want to disturb the newly sprouting grass. The last website said that you should dethatch in the spring, autumn and everything in between. Go you.

I had a few things to do today, one of them being to start tackling the “after winter” lawn. There are ugly patches all over the place from chopped up leaves and dead crabgrass. There are also twigs like you wouldn’t believe.

This morning, I grabbed a rake from the garage and walked out to the front lawn and started raking. I did an area about fifty feet long by ten feet wide and raked up a good amount of dead grass. Then, I ran my hand through my hair, sniffled a little bit and took a look around at the rest of the lawn. I quickly said, “H*ll no. I ain’t doing all that.” Please pardon me. That’s the street talk in me. I decided that getting an inexpensive dethatcher is the way to go. After all, I do have a nice new John Deere ride-on mower with a rear bagger. I should really use it.

A dethatcher is really only a big rake. I mean, you could dethatch your whole lawn with a hand rake if you wanted to. That’s actually what people used to do in the old days, like ten years ago. Remember when you were a kid and one of your parents yelled at you to get outside and rake the lawn? Yeah, they meant with a rake, not a 40 inch tow behind dethatcher. After a few years of some kid raking the yard by hand, he or she got the bright idea of inventing a better tool.

I picked up a “Brinly 40 Inch Tow-Behind Dethatcher” from Home Depot in Glastonbury this afternoon. It was the cheapest one that had. I would have preferred buying the John Deere front mounted dethatcher because I could d-thatch and bag at the same time, but that unit and mount cost about $400. This old man isn’t paying $400 to rake the lawn. I’ll get the $79 jobber.

I put the dethatcher together when we got back. It took about 45 minutes to finish it up…just enough time to give it a dry run around the front lawn. For this little trial, I didn’t put a weight on the unit; I simply towed it around to see how it worked.

I have to say, it did a pretty good job. The dethatcher scraped along the ground and loosened up all the layered thatch (of which there is more than you realize). While towing it around, I was able to easily see the areas I already covered. When I was finished dethatching, I re-installed the rear bagger and sucked up all the dead grass clippings, dead crab grass and twigs and dumped all that waste into the woods. I got almost four full bags. Not bad for one simple dry run around the front lawn.

Here, take a look at the photos.

PS – If you want to see what a lawn looks like before dethatching, click here.

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Green Velvet Boxwood

There are two lessons I have learned about shrubs that I would like to share with you.

1. Only plant Boxwood.
2. Only plant in the spring.

There you have it. Now, let me tell you what the heck I am talking about.

I know I have probably said this before and have trouble following my own advice, but I really mean it this time. I am only going to plant Boxwood from now on. No matter how “deer resistant” you think a shrub is, it probably isn’t. Everybody says that Holly is deer resistant. Guess what? It isn’t. Deer like to nibble on the ends of the branches. It drives me up a wall. I had to go out today to pick up some of that deer netting to put over the Holly bushes. As far as I know, Boxwood is the only shrub that’s deer resistant (well, besides Juniper), and I am going on personal experience here. I have never had a deer nibble on any boxwood shrub I have ever planted. Everything else…yeah.

The next lesson has to do with when to plant your shrubs. I have planted in both spring and fall, but spring planting works out much better, in my opinion. See, if you plant in the spring, the plant has time to grow and mature its sensitive little twigs that were over-fertilized by the nursery. All that new growth has time during the growing season to harden up. If you plant in the autumn, all that new growth dies. Period. It just does. Those nights in mid-January that offer us those wonderfully chilly sub-zero temperatures do a wonder on new shrubs. I have about six Boxwood shrubs sitting outside in the dirt right now with dead top halves. It’s pretty funny to look at. Top half brown, bottom half green. The good thing is that I expect these plants to take off this year and will most likely grown right through the dead areas.

Okay, since Home Depot had Boxwood shrubs in stock and it’s spring, I decided to grab a few today. Actually, I grabbed eight of them. I am going to plant three of them in that new mulch area next to the driveway and five of them in a row almost under the porch in the back yard. They are going to look really cool when they grow larger.

Oh, and just in case you were wondering, the Green Velvet Boxwood is “a hybrid of Korean Boxwood (for hardiness and compactness) and Common Boxwood (for excellent leaf color in both summer and winter).” You can read the rest of the description here.

Here is what I bought today.

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Eternalite Long Life LED Bulbs

This is so cool. I bought my first LED house light this afternoon.

I had a small Home Depot list going on, so I thought I would do a little shopping today. This morning, I told Laura that I was going to head up the Glastonbury to get some stuff and she informed me that the night light bulb went bad last night. We like to have a night light in the hallway to avoid falling down the stairs when it’s dark. I put that on my list and off I went.

I knew that an LED bulb was the way to go, especially for this application. Since the night light is so far away from us when we are sleeping, the light the bulb gives off doesn’t need to be necessarily “pretty.” I think LED bulbs have a long way to go in that department.

The only thing I was concerned about was whether or not the Depot had any LED night light bulbs.

When I got to the store and the bulb area, I didn’t see any of the bulbs I was interested in. I actually had a 4-pack of the regular incandescent bulbs in my hand and was ready to stand up to put them in the cart, when I saw the little LED bulbs to my right. I think the 4-pack of incandescent bulbs were $3 and change and the 2-pack of LED bulbs were about the same. When I read that the incandescent bulbs had a life of 3,000 hours each and the LED bulbs had a life of 50,000 each, the decision was a no-brainer.

The really cool thing is that each bulb only costs $.25 cents per year to use. Now, you please tell me if that’s a good deal or not. I have absolutely no idea how much it costs to run a night light. I am sure there are some hours involved here because people don’t really keep night lights on all day long. Either way, $.25 sounded good, even if it was creative marketing.

Here are some photos of the LED night light bulbs.

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Putting Wooden Sides On A Utility Trailer

I am sure you are all just thrilled about my new utility trailer. I know I am. I have been having dreams about driving around with it.

Yesterday, I went to Home Depot in Windham to pick up a bunch of supplies. The project was to put wooden sides on the new trailer, so mulch and stuff like that doesn’t fall out. I also wanted wooden sides to kind of shield anything I am towing from bad weather.

I bought a lot of stuff, including plywood, bolts, nuts, washers, drill bits, spray paint, a tarp, a ball for the lawnmower hitch, etc… I have found that purchasing the entire box of bolts is a lot better than buying them individually. I am always looking for nuts and bolts and now I might just have some.

I was confronted with a little issue while browsing for the plywood I was going to use for this project. I went in the store with every intention of getting two sheets of 3/4″ pressure treated plywood. I left with two sheets of 1/2″ non-pressure treated plywood. The reason for this? Well, I was going to seal whatever I got up with Thompson’s Water Seal anyway. I have had good luck with sealing natural wood up and it’s weathered the environment. With the 1/2″ sheets going for about $11 each, I just couldn’t pass it up. Plus, I wanted to keep things light on the trailer. It’s really not intended for heavy-duty towing.

Here, let me show you the photos and then we can talk about them.

Okay, the first thing I would like to discuss is how great the trailer looks with the John Deere lawn mower. I bought a 1 7/8″ ball with a 3/4″ shaft yesterday, just for this occasion. I am going to have fun towing stuff around the yard now.

The wooden sides came out better than I thought. I planned on drilling a bunch of holes through the steel and really anchoring the wood down to the trailer. As it ends up, once everything was framed, I didn’t need to do that. I only actually drilled two holes in the steel towards the back of the trailer. Now, all I need to do is to take those two bolts out and the whole wood unit comes right out. It’s as snug as a bug in a rug and rock solid. You really should check it out. Everything is straight too. Wait, I lied…I drilled six holes on the ramp to hold that one piece of plywood all the way at the back. Whoops.

I also picked up a nice heavy duty tarp to cover whatever I have on the trailer. You can see that it is brown. I really hate those ugly blue tarps. They are a disgrace to look at and doesn’t help out the neighborhood if I have to cover something up, like a wood pile. From now on, brown tarps it is.

Home Depot didn’t have any Thompson’s Water Seal. After building this today, I am kind of glad. I decided that I can paint the wood black and things will match much better. If I pop the wood portion out and slop on some black Rust-Oleum, it will look a lot less than some home-made trailer rolling down the road. I will cruise in style.

Just as I was finishing up, Laura pulled in the driveway. I told her I had a surprise for her and held her hand as I helped her in the trailer. She sat down and I hopped on the mower. Then, I proceeded to drive her around the yard. We looked like total idiots, but I will tell you, that stuff is fun. I guess we didn’t look any worse than when she pulled me around the yard right afterwards. Man, I have been trying to get that girl on this lawnmower ever since I got it. Strange how she hopped right on today. Maybe it has something to do with the weather.

I need to pick up that black paint. I’ll take some more pics when it’s all finished and sealed up.

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When Do I Plant Bulbs In The Spring?

Perhaps the question is…Can I plant bulbs in the spring?

I did find a few sites online that say I can. Here is one of them. I mean, places are selling bulbs all over the area now (if you haven’t noticed, it’s spring).

Yesterday, I had to run up to Home Depot to get a few things. Bulbs were on the list, but since my better half wasn’t with me, I decided only to get some that I knew she likes…Lily of the Valley. I didn’t want to get a whole variety and totally strip out the bulb buying fun we share together every year.

I picked up three bags of Lily of the Valley for $5.98 each.

Today, during our Costco trip, I came across a whole selection of bulbs. They seemed to be priced very well, so I called my lady over. I had her pick something out and we ended up with 18 Lilium bulbs for $12.98. That’s a pretty good price compared to Home Depot, I think.

Now, from what I have been reading, I pretty much need to get outside right now and plant these things. They say that if you don’t plant bulbs in the autumn, get out there and plant them in the spring when the Daffodils are coming up. That’s now.

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How Many Tons Of Wood Pellets Do I Need For Winter?

That’s a pretty good question. I thought four tons was more than enough. I think that’s 200 bags. Here’s the kicker…it’s February 22 and we only have 30 bags left.

30 bags of wood pellets

In the last house, I bought two tons per season and we had about a half of a ton left over towards the end of winter. This time, we get four tons and will run out in early March? What gives?

Well, first of all, the last house was smaller. Second of all, we didn’t run the stove all day while we weren’t there. I don’t think there is a third of all.

Since I am a man of many plans, I devised one to handle this situation. Next week some time, I am going to run out to Home Depot to get 10 bags or so of wood pellets. That should get us through most of March. Then, we’ll just burn wood in the fireplace as the temperature gets warmer outside. For next season, I am going to buy five tons of wood pellets (and not give any away to my brother).

How many tons of wood pellets do you usually use?

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Installing A Water Spigot In The Garage

Valentine’s day was here. I wanted to wash the car and have it nice and clean, so my lady and I could drive down to Foxwoods in style. It was pretty dirty and needed a good wash.

On my way back from tennis yesterday morning, I dreaded the idea of going downstairs, turning the water valve to “on” and then going back outside to hook up the hose on the water spigot at the front of the house. I think the part I hate the most is hooking up the hose outside and then having to unhook it to put it back in the garage. The reason I would have to go downstairs to turn the valve on is because of freezing in the winter. No valve downstairs, frozen and broken water spigot upstairs come spring.

I had a great idea. Why not install a water spigot inside the garage? This way, I can keep a hose hooked up all the time and not have to worry about the spigot freezing over the winter. I could use the spigots that are outside for watering and things like that over the summer, but for washing the car and things like that, I could use the inside one. I thought it would be very handy.

Since the area I wanted the spigot located in the garage was right on the other side of the washing machine hookups down in the basement, I figured it would be a pretty easy job. Somehow, I would just tap into the cold water feed for the washing machine. I really look forward to these types of projects because I have to get imaginative. I enjoy standing in the pluming aisle at Home Depot trying to figure things out. I really do.

Before I left for the Depot to get all the parts, I decided to drill a hole through the 2×10 that the floor was resting on. This 2×10 is up in the ceiling of the laundry room and down towards knee level in the garage. I would drill a 7/8 inch hole to see what I would find.

I drilled the hole from the basement and saw daylight. Lucky me. I went upstairs to the garage and saw a hole right where I wanted the spigot to be. Really lucky me. I started getting my thoughts together and made a little list. Then, I hopped in the car and drove over to Home Depot.

I am not going to give you the list of parts I bought here because I forget what they are. Hopefully you can see them in the pictures I will show you. As I post the pics, I will probably remember what they were. Take a look at the finished product.

Let me do a little explaining. I know the proper way to do this is with copper piping. I may change that some day. For this application, I used hose. Since I am aware that this is not a permanent thing, I put an on/off valve down near the splitter in the laundry room. I saw the hose in the store and couldn’t pass it up. When I am not using the spigot, I can just go downstairs to turn the valve off.

Also, the reason the spigot is mounted to 2×4s is because I wanted it really solid on the wall. I am probably going to tug on the hose as I pull it outside and I didn’t feel like having the spigot tear off the wall. It’s not the prettiest thing, but you should try to give it a wiggle. Nope. I know there is a 2×10 on the other side of the sheetrock, but the hole I drilled was a bit too big and the mounting screws weren’t sitting right.

After everything was all set up, I hooked up a nice brand new no-kink garden hose I bought last autumn to the spigot in the garage. I went downstairs to turn on the easily accessible on/off valve and then came back upstairs to drag the hose out into the driveway. I turned the spigot on and…well, that’s for the next post.

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Dewalt Reciprocating Saw Blade Kit

Yesterday, I had to run out to Home Depot to get some stuff for a little project I was working on (I’ll tell you about it in the next post). While making my list, I remembered that I needed some saw blades for my reciprocating saw. Remember me telling you about that in the “Replacing The Exhaust On A 1999 Honda Civic DX” post? If not, you should go re-read that post. It is quite fantastic.

While at the Depot, after I did all my “project” shopping, I managed to make my way over to the tool aisle. I found the reciprocating saw blades and promptly put two nice metal cutting blades in the cart. I noticed that they were priced at $3.99 each. That didn’t really bother me because I had a bunch of gift cards in my wallet. I figured that $8 wasn’t too bad. Then, I happened to look up to see a nice Dewalt reciprocating saw blade kit for $25 and change. I said to myself, “That’s too much. All I need is a few metal cutting blades.” I picked the kit up anyway. The kit has 11 blades and one handy-dandy blade carrying “tough-case.” I did the math and just couldn’t help myself. I was sold on the carrying case. I am so bad. I rationalized it by telling myself that I was saving money because I was getting all those blades at so much less than I would if I had purchased them individually. You see? I actually “saved” money by going out any buying something. Incredible.

Here, take a look.

Dewalt reciprocating saw blade kit

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