'Tis The Season For Flowers And Mulch

It's Spring and flowers are popping up everywhere!

Our youngest daughter gave me these beautiful white Hydrangeas for Mother's Day last week. 

They are still looking fresh.

I learned something new about hydrangeas last week. 

I didn't know that sometimes if they are kept out of water too long...such as a car ride home... that they can wilt. 

I don't ever think I've bought hydrangeas; I've always cut them out of my neighbor's yard (with her permission of course). 

You can see more of my neighbor's hydrangeas  in one of my tablescapes HERE

A quick search on Mr. Google told me how to fix that....just cut off about an inch of the stems under water and immediately dip the newly cut stems  in 2-3" of hot (just boiled) water for about 30 seconds.

Seems that if they are out of water for awhile, a sticky substance forms and clogs up the stem so that they can't soak up  water. 

After putting  put them in hot water, put the hydrangeas in some fresh water in a vase. 

They perk up in about 30 minutes.

Mr. DIY gave me 3 blue hydrangea plants for Mother's Day.

We planted them and they look great. I can't wait to cut flowers from these beauties!

The black tubing is the irrigation and will be buried underneath the mulch.

Speaking of beautiful hydrangeas, I propagated a new plant from  a cutting of this gorgeous hydrangea outside my doctors office. 

I sure hope I can keep it alive during the hot summer!

My peonies are currently blooming in the garden and I had to cut a few and bring them in. 

I love cutting fresh flowers in the garden. 

If you've been following me on Instagram, you know that I've been working hard in the garden spreading mulch. We had 300 bags of dyed mulch delivered and we bought 19 bags of regular hardwood mulch to spread around our raised beds. 

These were 4 full pallets of 75 bags. Our daughter's boyfriend spread the mulch in the front yard. 

I'm so glad he could help us out. 

Fresh mulch each Spring makes the whole yard look pretty.

I took this photo late yesterday  of the backyard garden path as some clouds were coming in. Mr. DIY was able to stop at the landscaping supply  before they closed and picked up a yard of Cypress chips for the garden path. 

We still have about 114 bags to spread this weekend. It's going to be gorgeous and perfect weather here ~ sunny and warm, but cool enough to work in the garden.

Will you be spending some time in your garden this weekend to plant your favorite flowers?

Pam

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Ryobi Pole Saw Review

We're making good progress now at the Mountain Cottage and our goal is to finish the bathroom by the end of May. 

Last weekend the trees and the grass were turning green and I was so glad we were able to get a lot of yard work finished during Winter.

One of the projects I accomplished all by myself :) was cutting down a 30 foot section of pine trees ranging in size from 3 ft  to about 15 feet tall.  We wanted to keep the pine trees from reproducing in this area. 

Did I mention I did this all by myself?

Let's back up a bit...

I was pretty excited to get a Ryobi One+ 18v cordless electric pole saw. We have quite a few gas power tools, but they are all so heavy and I get tired just carrying them around. This doesn't leave me with any energy to get the job done.  

I thought a lighter weight electric pole saw  would be perfect for cutting down a whole bunch of little pine trees at the mountain cottage, plus trimming the trees at our home.

Here's what it came with:

I bought the pole saw that came with the battery and purchased an additional battery, as well.
As a side note...now that I have the batteries, I can purchase additional Ryobi tools that take the same 18 volt battery and the cost will be much lower. (I'm still thinking of the Ryobi impact driver I tried last year at Haven and would love the 18v  hybrid leaf blower because it's lightweight and will be easier to carry around than a gas one and I could think of a hundred uses for the Ryobi One+ 18v JobPlus with multitool attachment...ah, but I digress)

Back to the review...
The fourth item down in the photo is a strap, which really helped me to hold up the saw as I was extending it to cut the little trunks.

Here's a closeup of the chain saw at the end of the pole. 

I had a little trouble with the handle as my hand didn't seem to fit and it was difficult for me to press the safety switch and down the trigger. It was a little  awkward for me even though I have pretty big hands for a girl.  

Other than that, it was pretty easy to use and the 18 volt battery gives it  a good amount of  power to cut through branches and little tree trunks. 

The battery charged pretty quickly and the indicator light turns green to let you know when it's fully charged. 
Love that!

The pole saw looks like this when it's ready to go. It's not complicated to put together and everything fits together nicely.

There's also an additional extension if you'd like to cut higher branches. (I will be using it this weekend at home to cut some higher branches)

The battery lasted about 30 minutes with continuous use, but since we purchased a second battery, I just charged the other battery while I was using the first one and switched them out when the power ran out. 

I highly recommend having a second battery.

It took me several hours, but I was able to cut down all the trees with the Ryobi Pole Saw. 

I'm so glad I was able to do this project by myself.  

Having a lighter electric pole saw allowed me to get this job finished, while Mr. DIY  was working on the upstairs bathroom. 

I did have a little problem with the pole saw. The oil reservoir leaked profusely and I had to keep refilling it. 

The pole saw manual says that the reservoir will leak a little (and to empty it when storing if you're not going to use it for awhile), but the amount it was leaking didn't seem right. 

I wasn't worried though...

I knew that both The Home Depot and Ryobi stand by their products and had no problem exchanging it.

The new pole saw works great and I used it to trim up the trees in our front yard. Previously, I've used a manual pole saw/pruner, but the Ryobi Pole saw made the work so much easier. 
If you'd like more information on the Ryobi One+ 18v system, you can go to ryobitools.com

Hope you have a fun weekend.

Mr. DIY and I are celebrating our 28th wedding anniversary today.

My how time flies!

Pam

ps: Ryobi did not compensate me in any way for this blog post and I purchased the pole saw myself. 

these are affiliate links and I'll make a small commission if you purchase through them. These items are available at The Home Depot, as well. I LOVE the 40 Volt Hedge Sweep hedge trimmer and LOVE the 40 Volt Jet Fan Blower.