Random 5 for April 19, 2026 – Plants, rain, beach, DIY, renewal

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Just starting to leaf out — Bloodgood Japanese Maple

Plant bargains – Several years ago, I was walking through the Home Depot nursery (strictly for therapy – cheaper than Xanax but only if you don’t buy anything!). It was late June. Home Depot plants are best if you buy them soon after they arrive. Their watering schedule doesn’t always match what the plants need and things get knocked around. There were two little (and I mean little) red Japanese maples on clearance sale. No warranty, take your chances! They were mostly sticks with some broken branches. The price was right (Japanese maples are $$$$ around here for anything taller than a foot!). Here is my clearance Japanese Bloodgood maple after four years of love. Pretty awesome. It’s over six feet. I also bought a few other plants for peanuts that have done well. It’s always worth a look.

I love a rainy day! –We are in a drought here. Today is rainy and it’s a slow rain. Hopefully we will get enough to make the plants happy. I watered some of my young trees yesterday to keep them growing. Rain was predicted but rain has been elusive. Sometimes it rains 10 miles away but not at my house. I was sure that it would rain if I watered. Isn’t that the way things go?

Speaking of things that are off schedule – My neighbor is going to the beach today for three days. Last week our temperature bumped around 90 degrees (32 C). Today will be maybe 50 degrees (10 C) with a possible freeze frost Monday night. Her timing was off by a week. “Our” beaches are about 3 hours drive from here and have more moderate temperatures so maybe she won’t need her snow suit! 😊Still, lucky! A bad day at the beach is not really a bad day.

A wonky DIY – I wanted to make window treatments for the cat room. I bought the fabric years ago when I saw something I liked. I bought enough for what I had in mind at the time. That has changed. I switched up plans and last week proceeded to cut the fabric for another concept. I ran short. Fabric is out of stock. I have some pieces left over so I’m going to try to “MacGyver” this by strategically sewing together scraps. Will it work? We’ll see. I hate when I do this, but a DIY is guaranteed to bring surprises.

A busy season – Spring is always busy here. Yard cleanup. Replacement of plants that died. Scrubbing down decks and flowerpots. Bring out summer items and put winter things away. The weather is warming up and this week I tried to take the time to philosophically “smell the roses” (which are not blooming here yet). Breathe in some fresh air and let go of old stuff. It’s a great time for renewal however that looks for you.

So how was your week?

 

 

57 thoughts on “Random 5 for April 19, 2026 – Plants, rain, beach, DIY, renewal”

  1. Your maple tree is so lovely. I love the burgundy color. I’d like to have something like that in my front yard but it probably wouldn’t do well in our climate. Oh well… I’ll just enjoy yours.

    Good luck with your curtain project. The good news is that – with enough catnip – your kitties won’t notice that it was scrapped together.

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  2. So basically you bought a Charlie Brown Christmas tree that has grown beyond its original look. Well done, you. It looks beautiful! Your buying it at Home Depot reminds me of a time we bought a spider plant there, brought it home, and within an hour we were swatting an infestation of flies in our home. It took us probably three hours to get to all of them. No knock against Home Depot because it would have happened from any nursery probably.

    We had 80 degrees here last week, but today we woke up to sub-freezing temps again. 😩

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  9. That tree is gorgeous – such a good deal! I bought a pale pink Dream Cloud Shrub Rose that way at the end of the year – it was $1.00 and I had it for decades until the guy that laid the mulch tore it out … I was bummed as it was a prolific bloomer and I had it since 1985 and it survived the bad Polar Vortex of 2013-2014 when I lost my butterfly garden. I went for a walk around the neighborhood with the camera today – we had low 80s temps for six days and tonight we have a freeze advisory as it’s going to 23 degrees. I figured all the Tulips that just opened a couple of days ago, not to mention the Magnolia trees, may be gone tomorrow. For sure the pink Bleeding Heart I saw at the volunteer garden will be shot.

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    • Sometimes tulips can weather well but the magnolia blossoms will brown. I have a star magnolia. It’s beautiful and fragrant and very early. It has already bloomed. Most years it gets hit by a frost and the beautiful white flowers are all brown. I won’t plant early magnolias any more.

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      • I didn’t realize Magnolias came in white – I Googled to see one. That is what happened with my neighbor’s pink Magnolia. This morning it was withered and brown and most of the petals had scattered from the 30 mph winds we had yesterday. That’s a real shame for both of you.

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  12. Your Home Depot tree looks lovely. Japanese maples are expensive here too. They’re worth it, though. My neighbor across the street has a beautiful mature one that I can enjoy from my kitchen window.

    I hope your DIY window treatments are a successful. Either way, I hope you’ll enjoy the challenge.

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    • 🙂 When you have multiple cats (and I had 4 at one time), you need a place to isolate a sick one or a new addition. I was lucky to have an unused small bedroom. I set it up with water bowl, cat tree and fleecy blankets all the time. All the necessary stuff from food, litter and cleaning supplies were in the closet. Easy peasy. It was used many times for isolation but mostly the door is open and they sit on the cat tree to look out the windows. There is a tree with birds (no, I didn’t plan that) right outside.

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  16. Spring is springing here too – it’s the time of year when it’s hotter than heck one day and coat weather the next. People have colds OR their allergies are bugging them like mad. It’s a no win situation. I’m going to Home Depot for my Spring plant shopping this week so I’ll see if my store has an “orphans” department – your tree is gorgeous that you found there! I like rescuing…..maybe I’ll score a winner like you did. Make sure and share those cat room drapes you’re making…..I wanna see!

    Hugs, Pam

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  18. Yay, I’m glad you received some rain. A slow rain is the absolute best thing for a spring garden. Be prepared…you’ll like need to mow the grass by Wednesday. 😉 That maple tree is gorgeous. What a bargain that has totally paid off. Bravo, Kate! Happy Sunday.

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  20. Haha! I call it “priming” the rain. I don’t know if you are familiar with old hand pumps, but the leather in the plunger would dry out and you would have to dump in some water to soak it up before it would provide enough suction to bring the water up out of the well.

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  23. Good find on the Japanese Maple. Such pretty trees. And hooray for the rain. It isn’t a huge amount but I’ll take what we can get. Our neighborhood is doing a yard sale in a couple weeks, so we need to get busy here pulling together all the stuff we no longer need.

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