{"id":93404,"date":"2026-01-27T23:18:45","date_gmt":"2026-01-28T06:18:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lilesnet.com\/dailydiary\/?p=93404"},"modified":"2026-01-28T08:46:25","modified_gmt":"2026-01-28T15:46:25","slug":"tuesday-and-that-means-watercolor-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lilesnet.com\/dailydiary\/?p=93404","title":{"rendered":"Tuesday And That Means Watercolor Time!"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"

OK, world, here I come!\u00a0 Dressed and fed!<\/p><\/div>\n

Mary slept again until 8:30 am, as those pain pills seem to be working.\u00a0 We stayed in the office until the late morning.\u00a0 I needed some additional dirt for the garden and was planning to get it from Home Depot.\u00a0 As I signed on to their website, I noticed they deliver.\u00a0 Wow, I do not have to load the basket, wheel it to checkout, roll it to the van, and finally unload it into the back of the van!\u00a0 For $35, they will deliver to my driveway!<\/p>\n

Sure enough, within two hours, a lovely man in a pickup came calling and dropped off eighteen bags of fresh soil.\u00a0 I looked at the bags, reached into my pocket, and offered him $100 to take the pile to the back yard.\u00a0 At first, the deliveryman said, “No problem, I’ll do it!”\u00a0 \u00a0I insisted he take the money because I was thinking about me walking back and forth to the garden eighteen times, and that was not going to happen without getting tired and ending up with a sore back!<\/p>\n

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The pile was still big after I opened six bags and distributed them; twelve more to go!\u00a0 It will be there tomorrow!<\/p><\/div>\n

Tuesday means watercolor day.\u00a0 Mary was feeling pretty good, and I loaded up the car and off we went to the paint class.\u00a0 I returned home and went to work, but alas, at 2:00 pm, the iPhone whistled, and it was Mary needing to come home.\u00a0 Mary’s back had a relapse.\u00a0 I jumped in the car and raced to the class to pick her up.<\/p>\n

She painted for just under an hour, and the result was, well, let’s say, an abstract representation of her existential crisis!\u00a0 Either that, or she traded her work for that of a hard-drinking four-year-old playing nearby (after paying him a substantial amount of money plus some old cookies from her purse).<\/p>\n

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Back pain is not a pretty sight!<\/p><\/div>\n

With great care, I brought her to her favorite spot, the La-Z-Boy recliner, where she had her heating pad, book, and needlepoint work ready to go.<\/p>\n

I excused myself and headed to the garden, where I continued trimming the blackberry vines and adding new acidic soil across their bed.\u00a0 In another two hours, I will be done with the berry garden.\u00a0 I used my latest Amazon purchase, and the gloves worked great!\u00a0 I was able to reach across the bed without getting bitten by the thorns!<\/p>\n

Blackberries thrive in slightly acidic soil (\\(pH\\) \\(5.5\\)\u2013\\(6.5\\)) because this range maximizes nutrient uptake\u2014specifically iron, manganese, and zinc\u2014while supporting healthy growth and fruit production.\u00a0 Alkaline soil binds these essential nutrients, making them unavailable, which can cause poor, yellowing (chlorotic) growth and reduced yields.<\/div>\n
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COOLJOB Thorn Proof Rose Pruning Garden Gloves for Men, Long Sleeve Padded Yard Work for Bush, Blackberry, Cactus, Heavy Duty\/Puncture Resistant\/Machine Washable, Xlarge, Navy<\/p><\/div>\n

The berry bed is 20 feet long by 30 inches wide, and I managed to trim and resoil about 60% of the blackberries.\u00a0 At this rate, I’ll finish just in time for the next ice age. Every year, I promise myself I’ll remember which branches are protocanes and which are floricanes, but honestly, at this point, I’m just praying they don’t all turn brown and keel over dead!<\/span><\/p>\n

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Pruning is NOT as easy as it looks!<\/p><\/div>\n

Pruning blackberries involves two main steps: cutting back old, fruited canes (floricanes) to the ground after harvest and, during the dormant season, thinning new canes (primocanes) and shortening their laterals to 12-18 inches to encourage strong, productive growth for the next season, aiming for 4-6 strong canes per plant.\u00a0 Always prune in late winter\/early spring or immediately after harvest, removing dead, damaged, or weak wood to improve air circulation and yield.<\/div>\n

When I designed the garden, Mary asked about why the concrete was between the beds other than for the trash barrels.\u00a0 I told her it was for allowing the trimming to dry out and for us to tromp down on the cuttings, so putting the remains into the trash cans would be easier.\u00a0 \u00a0With that explanation, I present the evidence.<\/p>\n

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The trimmed plants get to lie on the concrete for a few days because then the thorns start to soften, making it easier to put them into the trash cans!<\/p><\/div>\n

The lower left are the remaining raspberries from this past summer.\u00a0 I may pull them out entirely and put in new blackberries instead as we like blackberries better!<\/p>\n

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In two more hours, this bed will be done!<\/p><\/div>\n

As it was getting dark, I came inside and fixed dinner.\u00a0 We had a can of macaroni with beef over rice, and I added a bowl of sliced peaches for dessert.\u00a0 No alcohol this evening, we went for good old H2O!<\/p>\n

Then I sat down on the La-Z-Boy with Mary, and we watched several episodes of “Suits”.\u00a0 Mary saw everything, and I saw about half, the rest of the time I was checking for light leaks!<\/p>\n

\"\"Just us!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mary slept again until 8:30 am, as those pain pills seem to be working.\u00a0 We stayed in the office until the late morning.\u00a0 I needed some additional dirt for the garden and was planning to get it from Home Depot.\u00a0 … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,184,252],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-93404","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gardening","category-just-us","category-painting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lilesnet.com\/dailydiary\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93404","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lilesnet.com\/dailydiary\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lilesnet.com\/dailydiary\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lilesnet.com\/dailydiary\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lilesnet.com\/dailydiary\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=93404"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/lilesnet.com\/dailydiary\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93404\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":93422,"href":"https:\/\/lilesnet.com\/dailydiary\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93404\/revisions\/93422"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lilesnet.com\/dailydiary\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=93404"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lilesnet.com\/dailydiary\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=93404"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lilesnet.com\/dailydiary\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=93404"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}