lawn and garden

 

Our weed-whacker had a heart attack and died a couple of months ago; my attempts to resuscitate it were futile.  I think it's little motor burnt out, but my technical knowledge of what's beneath the hood of a weed-whacker if pretty limited.  I should take it apart and look at it and see what I can learn, but my track record for fixing motorized contraptions is practically non-existent.  Therefore, I'm sure I'll be searching for a new (or used) trimmer to purchase sometime soon.

This one that broke arrived to us second hand; Chris and Helga gave it to us when we got our house.  It worked quite well for me for seven years, and I don't know how old it was when we got it.

I've tried to keep the worst of the yard-edge in check with little hand clippers, but that's a lot of work for one wrist.

There are at least two pumpkins growing on the vines in my garden.  There might be more that I haven't spotted yet.  I don't know what the odds are of them maturing before Halloween, but they are growing quickly, so I have hope.

The fennel has all gone to seed.  I harvested some to use in baking (I've discovered that the immature seeds are a great addition to bread), and I'll keep some to give away, and I'll try to get the rest out of the garden because the self-seeding is excessive and tough to manage.

Over the past couple of years, when the chrysanthemums that we've had in front have died back, I've transplanted them to a back yard sunny spot.  They've flourished there, and are about to bloom again.  I'm always much more excited about my own flowers than about other peoples'.