The Old Guy's Garden Record

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Monday, August 10, 2026

It's hot here in west central Indiana, but about ten degrees cooler than the poor folks out west. Amongst everything here that seems to be breaking, our air conditioning is holding up well.

Our mower quit working over the weekend. Sloan Implement says it will cost about a thousand dollars to fix everything that is wrong with the machine. A new machine to replace the old John Deere X570 runs about $8,000, so I'll go with the repair. Also, our 570 is set up to mount a pull-type rototiller we use for our East Garden plot, if we get to garden that area again.

Our very expensive Maytag washer has been down for a month now. Annie has washed clothes at the laundromat and a daughter's house while also fighting the Home Depot's warranty service. It took two weeks to get a repairman out. He said the washer was fixed, but it wasn't. (Note: Don't trust the Allstate repair service the Home Depot jobs out its warranty service to.) Another repair was scheduled another two weeks later. The repairman never showed or called. Now, we have a local repair service scheduled with Allstate/Home Depot supposedly picking up the cost. We'll see. And of course, I'll never buy another appliance again from the Home Depot.

When pushing the mower into the garage, I did something to my ankle. It remained swelled up for almost four days! Getting old is a bitch.

Oh yeah, this is supposed to be a gardening site.

The hummingbirds keep me filling two 32 ounce feeders once a day. That should begin to let up this month as southern migrations begin.

I put red (purple?) and white dianthus in seven inch hanging pots that are beginning to bloom now. I also came across two more dianthus under the lights in our basement, so they'll get potted up and go outside soon.

Friday, August 7, 2026

I'm not getting any gardening done, but also keep busy filling bird feeders and such. When "our hummingbirds" have their second bunch of babies leave the nest, things get busy at the feeders. I went to two 32 ounce feeders this year that I now have to fill each day! As some of the birds will soon begin their fall migration south, I've upped the sugar in their nectar a little beyond the usual 4:1water to sugar ratio to allow them to put on weight before beginning the migration.

Things will begin to slow down at the feeders towards the end of this month. But we'll still have migrating hummingbirds at our feeders well into October.

We leave a bit of dogfood kibble on our back porch for our dog. But we now have possums visiting the porch most nights to feast on the kibble. Possums are non-aggressive and eat lots of bugs, so we don't bother them.

We still have transplants on the back porch that probably will never make their way into our garden plots. But it is what it is. I'm currently not physically able to garden. But I'm using up the flowers where I can.

Speaking of flowers, we have a beautiful Pinto Salmon geranium growing in a planter over our cistern. I keep being impressed by how hardy and productive of blooms this variety is.

Even if I'm physically able, I probably won't get to plant our East Garden plot again. Over the last decade or more, I've cared for an 80' x 80' area for melons, sweet corn, and other space hogs while keeping the field mowed. The land owners now want their farm renter to take over mowing the field. My agreement was with the farm renter whose equipment is too big to farm the small field. He's been happy to not have to mow it. I suspect the land owners have some plan of developing the barn, pond, and field.

And, we have a data center going in about a mile away. At a recent community meeting, the data center company said all the right things about potential noise, water and electrical useage. We'll see.

Wednesday, August 5, 2026

I've received a couple of notes of concern from a couple of regular readers of this site.

I simply didn't get a garden in this year due to some weather and physical issues. I'm waiting on word from a doctor on whether or not I have a serious condition.

In addition, our TV went down, then our washing machine, and the monitor I use to write this site. We now have a new TV, and I just got a used monitor online today. The washing machine is still down after a month of fighting the Home Depot's warranty service.

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