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Kelly has been wanting to buy new patio furniture for a while, but I haven’t prioritized it on the spending list. It’s expensive, and generally doesn’t last. I contemplated spending more for a set made with aluminum and Sunbrella, in the interest of longevity, but decided with proper care and maintenance (repainting at the first sign of rust) I could probably make an inexpensive set last quite a while. I did look online and almost bought an aluminum/Sunbrella set anyway, until I saw that the shipping time was close to a month. In the end, we picked up a 7pc dining set and 4pc sitting set from Home Depot, that they keep in stock at our local store.
On the way to the store, a lady rear-ended my truck at a stop light. She’ll need a new bumper, bumper supports, and maybe a few things behind it, but her car was still driveable. My truck didn’t have a scratch.
A broad overview of the new seating areas.The two pots at the right end of the table contain our banana plants.Chives on the left in the fish pot, various ferns, palms, and succulents around the seating area, and a large rosemary plant in the back.The two pots on this side of the table contain pineapple transplants.Note, the picnic table that used to be in the garden area has been modified and placed near the shed, to act as a planting/garden table.We moved the Adirondack chairs I built when we moved in to the garden area, as well as the chiminea and a few potted plants. We buried the umbrella stand so it can withstand winds without the support the table used to offer.I don’t like the soil we bought from the garden center for potted plants, and I think it’s part of the reason we haven’t seen much recent growth in the greenhouse. Things aren’t doing badly, they just seemingly stopped progressing a couple weeks ago. Along with trimming the trees over the greenhouse and removing the shade-cloth, for more sunlight, and extending the watering time an extra five minutes, I decided to swap out soil when I transplant to the 5gal containers I purchased with potting soil from the big box store. It’s not the ideal soil mixture for me, but it’s quick, easy, and fairly proven. Fourteen 50qt bags filled all fifty pots and a few pots we added to the patio. I’m going to buy a few more bags to move the plants staying in smaller containers to. I ran out of time to actually transplant, through.
