My kitchen table has been turned into a "lobster trap factory" as I'm busy making props for our trip to the Maritimes. I googled lobster traps for reference, but nothing beats the real thing, so I hauled in the souvenir trap from some long past trip, and am making 1/4 scale replicas - with a little help from Jan, of course. Actually, with a LOT of help.
I soaked 1/4" reed for the bent-wood part- yes, I own every manner of craft material ever invented - and the next step is to make the net entrance for the lobsters. From crochet thread. Then I get to glue on all the slats - and paint the little simulated nail-heads. Seems like a lot of work, especially considering there will probably be souvenir miniature traps for sale in the gift shops. But who says they'd be the right size, and most of the miniature souvenir ones I've seen online have starfish and other nautical bric-a-brac glued all over them. Plus, who knows how expensive they'd be, and I want a bunch. So better just make them myself. Oh, and those styrofoam balls are destined to become floats.
We also took care of our impatiens issue today. It was very depressing at first, pulling out all those diseased plants, but I'd rather deal with them now, than when they are all mush in mid July, and there's no plants left in the nurseries. I figured better to be ruthless now, so tossed every plant with even the slightest hint of mildew. Of the six flats - totaling 288 plants - there were just 11 plants that had no sign of infestation (yet). We went to the nursery to buy a few new replacement plants - some New Guinea impatiens, which aren't susceptible to the mildew - and mentioned the downey mildew again. This time they did acknowledge the problem existed, but blamed it on the fact that it was airborne and in everyone's soil now, and added that it will take at least four years before the spores disappeared from the soil. The brush-off sounded oddly familiar! Does no one take responsibility for their faulty products anymore? Anyway, my garden is neat again, albeit very green and noticeably lacking in colour. But neat is a good thing.
We also took care of our impatiens issue today. It was very depressing at first, pulling out all those diseased plants, but I'd rather deal with them now, than when they are all mush in mid July, and there's no plants left in the nurseries. I figured better to be ruthless now, so tossed every plant with even the slightest hint of mildew. Of the six flats - totaling 288 plants - there were just 11 plants that had no sign of infestation (yet). We went to the nursery to buy a few new replacement plants - some New Guinea impatiens, which aren't susceptible to the mildew - and mentioned the downey mildew again. This time they did acknowledge the problem existed, but blamed it on the fact that it was airborne and in everyone's soil now, and added that it will take at least four years before the spores disappeared from the soil. The brush-off sounded oddly familiar! Does no one take responsibility for their faulty products anymore? Anyway, my garden is neat again, albeit very green and noticeably lacking in colour. But neat is a good thing.
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