Let's Chat, "Mid At" ! Whatever, whoever, yak away

Ruby---

Picture the WHOLE Outdoor Garden of a HD or a Lowes.....
Everything!!!! All the tables and racks and stuff outside the gate, etc.....

It is a brutal job watering all that--it may take you all 8hrs, of your day.
besides--the hoses leak--your shoes get wet---Customers interrupt you--and you
HAVE TO tend to whatever they want--then return to watering.....

If you do not get it all done in one day--you have to make a mental note of what you DID--
and where you stopped....

The hoses we have are the 1" red, rubber ones--and they are kept rolled up on these reels
high up above. They are 50'-100' long and heavy....They kink--they twist--they knot--
and you have to undo all that to keep watering....

At our HD--there are three reels up above. You have to pull the hose down like
"there was no tomorrow"---hand over hand--till it is all pulled down. Then you have to
yank it over and over till it catches the ratchet and stops....Now you can drag it all through,
and around all the trees and shrubbery and tables watering....till it reaches no more.....

Then you have to wind it back up on the reel above--guiding it with your hands so it goes fairly evenly....

Now you go to the next reel--and pull it down so you can reach the other part of the yard...
Over and over--etc...etc...etc.....FUN????? Peaceful?????? NOPE! Exhausting!
Does NOT compare to you watering all your own Garden.....

Outside the gates--there are two similarly long hoses on a stupid hose reel that sits on the ground....
Puling these loose works haphazardly. Sometimes--it gets stuck--the whole reel moves, not just the hose,
you have to stretch it out and water all the tables outside in the front.
Then--the hardest of all jobs--you have to rewind it on that same stupid reel, with only your foot
holding it in place----watching that it does not kink as you do this....
THEN--when you are done--you have to walk back to the original outlet--and turn it off....

Walk---walk---pulll---pulll--water--water---sweat--sweat-----all the time telling yourself that
you actually LOVE working in garden!!!!

OK! Enough negatives! Ruby--you would never make it!

Big Box Stores are HARD work!!!! Gita


In the heat of the summer--like last year--this has to be done almost every day--perhaps,
every other day.....UGH!
Sadly--Often MY job to do this!!!!

Thanks Gita, I think I did a pretty good job of selling myself.
Ruby have a nice diner.

Gita, No real reason that I picked Lowes instead of HD. I guess that the workers at the store always seem so pleasant. I know that is part of the training but I always like shopping there.

This message was edited Mar 23, 2011 8:05 PM

Holly----

I have NO doubts whatsoever that you did!!!!!

Just hope they pay you what you are worth.....

G.

Ruby what a good menu. I think I'll copy you one night soon!

There is an article today for the Invasives photo contest. You can see my picture! Special thanks to my pup for hitting the right pose, I really liked the scene.

Thanks for the heads up, heading over there now. Oh BTW the strawberries came yesterday.

Great picture,

I think you pretty much talked me out of taking on watering plants as a job Gita. hahaha Yeah, maybe I can find a rich neighbor with a medium size garden to work on. NOT............the heat last summer prevented me from doing what I loved most even here at home. I am hoping the temperatures are not a repeat of last yeat. It was truly horrible.

I will try to find the photo contest Sally and take a look see. The dinner was yummy though John just had to add a comment about his mother's peppers being more tender. He has caused me to go on cooking strike on more than one occasion when he make little comments that tend to irk me. hahaha I love him but he does have a bad habit of critiquing the food too often.

Holly, I hope that things work out well job wise for you. You will do a great job.

Hope that everyone is enjoying their day today. Are you all supposed to have the snow they are calling for here? Forecasting up to five inches.

Ruby

Critiquing the cook is NOT a good way to get fed regularly! I like stuffed peppers but have not settled on a recipe that I like myself when I make them. Self evaluation is acceptable.

Today--so far--here-- is prettier than I expected. I better get out there and do something while the sun shines. Tall Sedums are sprouting and it time to free them from too much dead material.

COOL, Sally - will go over & check out the article and your photo!

Ruby, I absolutely agree with Sally, critiquing the cook is not a good move. That's a very bad habit, unless he's willing to take over the job! ;-> Self-evaluation is always acceptable, since you're doing the work. I'm at our place just down the road from you this weekend, so yes, we're "waiting" for the snow too - seems odd, with the sun shining brightly (but there are clouds around), and the temperature hovering around 45 as I type. I think up in Northern VA they're talking maybe an inch. Oh well, (she says hopefully) at least whatever falls won't hang around forever!)

Holly, as I've said more than once, Lowe's will be VERY fortunate to have you working in their garden center. Hope you can also get some great deals on plants & equipment while you work there?

Sally, congratulations on your photo for the Invasive Species contest - it's a great shot, wonderful color & composition, and it certainly does the job of telling the story with not one word necessary!

I'm certainly familiar with honeysuckle and battle it here every year, but the name Asian tear thumb was new to me, and I'm not sure I've seen that vine around. I've done my research now and will be on the lookout for that one too. "Mile a minute vine"... YIKES!

Congrats again! Barb

Should start sometime next week as soon as the drug test comes back they will bring me in for orientation and start my training. I was pleased with the $$ they offered and an looking forward to starting. The garden manger told me the best deals will be getting first look at the reduced price plants. Know it will be a change for me and the family as well. COM Call On Mom will be reduced but I know Ric will pick up the slack as he always does.

Anything above minimum wage is lucky I'd think. it'll certainly be a change of pace and interesting new setting, at least as long as it takes to pay for your dive!

Holly! Great news!! I hope you enjoy it!
Will you be full time or part time?

With all the know-nothings they hire in the Spring for the garden season--
you will shine!
I am making a prediction.........UMMMMMMMMM......You will be garden Supervisor
in no time flat!

Sally!
I too loved your picture----such a "forlorn" image.....nothing green--a bit cloudy....
a black dog going nowhere.....and that ugly heap of dead Honeysuckle----
Great--Great shot!!!!

What was the prize--if any?

So far--such a beautiful day today. Sunny and not too cold.....

I fertilized all my Roses with Espoma's "Rose Tone"---handfulls of
coffee grinds---and same of Epsom salts. The ES gets applied ONLY with the first feeding.
It (supposedly) encourages new basal shoots to grow.
This too is old, Allan Summers advice....He sure knows a lot....

I know he still has that Radio Program on WCBM #680 AM. 7AM-8AM.
BUT! I am NOT getting up at 7AM to listen to it!!!! I should....just to see
IF he has changed anything he used to preach earlier....Times change!

Gita

LOL Gita, Yes, I will get a 10% discount. I got a call late this afternoon, starting Monday. Part time no thanks supervior jobs are too much like working for me. LOL

Congratulations------May you NOT be disillusioned by working for a "Big Box" Store....

It may prove to be true......BUT--There are benefits to be had.....It is all up to how you see it.

Good luck! Keep us posted on how things go!

Gita

Yay Holly!

Thanks Gita- I was pleased with my pic and tickled to see a dmail that said You are a winner! I got a free two month extension on my subscription. Woo hoo. Now I can call myself an award winning nature photographer!

This message was edited Mar 26, 2011 9:25 PM

You gals are so much fun. I love reading about what everyone has going on.

Sally, the trick to tasty stuffed peppers is to use lots of ketchup with the ground beef mixture. My older son said he made them last weekend and they tasted bland. The ketchup gives a bit of pep to the meat it seems to me. I also spread a layer of ketchup on top of each pepper to be baked. I used basically the same ingredients I use for a meat loaf and add a can of whole kernal corn to the pepper mixture. Ground beef, lots of ketchup, chopped onion to taste, salt and pepper, at least two eggs and can of corn. I have been known to use rice instead of corn.

We grew very few green peppers in the garden last year but I found some monster size green peppers on sale at a local grocer last summer and bought what seemed to be at least a bushel of them. I froze some chopped to add to sauces and froze the half peppers to use for stuffed peppers. I hope to find the same deal this year and stock up again.

I can tell you that the potatoes John grew are some of the very tastiest I have ever eaten. We still have many of them even though most are beginning to sprout very long eyes which I pluck off and we eat anyway. I believe he can grow at least one less row of potatoes this year.


I hoe that you gals will all have a wonderful week coming up. I hope that you will enjoy your time at Lowe's Holly, let us know how it goes.

Ruby

Thanks Ruby! I'll do that ketchup. I also bought extra peppers last summer while cheaper and froze them for my sausage and peppers pasta sauce. YUM
I am planting a small crop of potatos again this year. Just so easy, and those baby potatos call out from their baskets at the co op--"Plant me!!!!"

Ruby - I made stuffed peppers recently and mine were not as tender as we would have liked. DW Pat makes more tender ones - she boils the peppers before she fills and bakes them.

Ruby, thanks for the recipe info! It sounds delicious. DH doesn't like peppers at all, but when he's not around, I enjoy them! ;-) What sort of potatoes did John grow?

Holly, good luck on your first day tomorrow - we will be thinking of you and hope it goes well.

I had heard a recipe that called for rice in the pepper filling--said to cook the rice and the peppers together first. Or maybe to blanch the peppers and use that water for the rice. then the peppers get soft and the rice gets a bit of extra flavor. My kids eat the filling and leave the pepper part, and I eat them all. the mom/scavenger thing!

Holly will have an interesting day and make lots of new friends (she such a sweetie) and come home tired from all the new things!

On the news this am
32nd anniversary of Three Mile Island and

Japanese radiation detected in Maryland, Pennsylvania and Mass.

Any one taking any precautions like covering garden areas/soil? My drinking water comes from an open reservoir but I don't think radionucleides are screened for or processed out.

Evidentally the lab in southern Maryland is one of only ten nation wide that has the capabilty of testing radiation levels in food and milk.

Unlike the typical Japanese diiet, the typical US diet leaves most Americans well below an adequate intake of iodine leaving room for the uptake of radioactive iodine to concentrate in our thyroids

Anyone else researching this or rethinking planting/ gardenproduce this year?

I'm not very worried about it, yet. But that said I live just over the 5 mile zone from TMI. I lived here back then my oldest was 8 and the twins 3. We were outside for hours not knowing anything was going on at the time. It was a beautiful day. One of the neighbors saw us and yelled for us to "Get in the house". Couldn't figure out what was going on until I came in and turned on the TV.
Not much of an exciting day just sitting in the personnel office filling out paper work. Wednesday will be training day and Thurs I will shadow someone from the garden dept. That's when the fun will start. Not sure any of my $$ will make it home, They have landscaping timbers on sale right now and I came home and talked to Ric about picking up 30 of them. I think that should cancel out todays pay. LOL

We knew it would, Holly. :))))) Let the fun begin. Happy for you.

Hi everyone, thought I'd come here to vent and chat. Some of you from another thread read that I was having a neighbor's dog problem. Coming into my yard to use it as his rest room. This is a big dog with mushy mess. (not to graphic, I hope).
Well this morning he picked up a bag from the neighbor's trash, walked up our side walk came into my yard and proceeded to bury it in my flower bed. I went out in the cold and yelled at him but he ignored me, I picked up some small slabs of wood on the deck and tried to hit him, bad aim. Then I spotted a Cool Whip container with a chunk of ice in it and threw that, the container hit the drive way and the ice block jumped out and landed near him, that got his attention.
This afternoon I paid a visit to the neighbor. Told her what had happen and that I have spent years working on my beds and do not want them dug up. I also explained that I am going through very aggressive chemo treatments and can not eat raw salads from the grocery as if they have any fecal matter that would make me very ill, so I have to grow my own raw vegetables to eat. So with her dog using my vegetable garden for a toilet is not good for me. Beside my husband stepping in piles when he mows the lawn.
I explained that I am a dog lover, and have has success training my dogs to stay in their yard by walking them on a leash around the property line, and saying No and a tug on the leash when they cross the line.
I thanked her, petted the dog and told him I knew he will learn fast, wished her a good day and left.
Hopefully that will solve the problem. Time will tell.

Sallyg and Holly, congratulations on your good news. I'll have to check out the pictures. Holly, how much fun you will have in the garden dept. I think that will be a perfect summer job for you. Just make sure it stays enjoyable.
Hard to keep up with all the news here. I'll have to stop in more often. Need to catch up with Ruby and John.

Ladyg, it is very hard not to go ballistic in the face of such rudeness. I am sure (hoping) your neighbor thinks about the talk and realizes how insensitive she's been, and makes some real changes. She owes you a big apology, which might have been hard for her to realize at the time but oughta be coming now, if she's at all decent.

Holly--ROFL, Lowe's was smart when they hired you to 'sell' in the garden dept! A steady new customer!

Holly--

I had a mental chuckle when you said they will have you "shadowing" someone
in the garden dept.....WHO will teach who?????

All you really need to learn and absorb are all the Company policies--ways of doing
things---returns and damaged goods policies....etc...
Not your call anyway! That is what ASM's (Assistant Managers) are for!
JUST PLAY DUMB UNTIL YOU KNOW BETTER.....

One of the hardest things to stomach in these BIG retail garden places is the
way all things get jammed together--and no one cares. They come in jammed---
they are displayed jammed--just the way of Big Box Stores,,,,Plants are piddly
when it comes to total $$$$$ made in any one day.

Just close your eyes and do your job. You cannot allow your feelings to take over....

Dying to hear all about your first few days! It will hurt! That's for sure!
Physically and emotionally.....

Take care! Gita

Just got my computer back from the geeks and it runs like the wind!! We all knew you'd get the job, Holly. Now you'll have a bunch of new stories to tell us about your daily happenings, which we will be anxiously waiting to hear.

Gita, it is so nice to see you putting some perspective on how these Big Box stores work. Having never worked in one it sure is interesting for me to read what you have to say.
I am very particular shopping for plants, even in nurseries, crowding and white flies are what I always check for. I not only look at the plant from above, I lift it up to eye level and inspect the stems. Sometimes I am lucky to find two plants growing in one pot that I can divide.

When I had my interview with the garden manager. He said that it is different than working in a nursery where you care for plants that you are growing and keep for a while. He said that these plants are suppose to move in and move out fast.

I was out this afternoon, It was only about 46* out there but sunny and I was working in a sheltered spot. Really I feel like I have a war to fight and I might not win it. It's my own fault as I chose this war knowing that it would be a hard one to win. Have any of you ever started a war with a quince bush? LOL Well I let it take on territory for 30 years and last year I tried to take that territory back. It's putting up a good fight to try and reclaim that space. Putting up suckers everywhere it can. Right now all I am doing is cutting them off right below ground level with my hand clippers. I don't want to spray them as I'm not sure the weed killer wouldn't hurt the main bush. Since I put in a nice shade bed around the quince I can't just dig them up unless I try to be very careful and I swear they go down into the dirt forever a hand trowel isn't going to do too much damage.

I went to my Lowes today- I could not resist the 20$ plum tree (also peaches and apples and pears) It was the Santa Rosa I wanted, and Miller's mail order charges 22 for that tree , bare root, plus shipping! This one will need pruning, maybe they are cheap because they haven't been trained well, but since it had only been in the store a short time I felt I better snatch it form their grasp!

I always look at Walmart and HD for plants that have just arrived by the truckload. Not much variety in selection, but you can't beat the price compared to the same plant at the local nurseries. A week ago I found phlox divaricata 'Blue Moon' - $4.00 at Walmart vs $8.00 - $11.00 at the nurseries.

I spent the weekend in upstate NY in a little Adirondack Mountain town near Lake George to celebrate my husband's grandmother's 100th birthday. There are 5 generations now, and I read in the newspaper article that she has 82 direct descendants. It was a wonderful party, and Mabel looks great. She still lives in her house with a daughter and son-in-law to help out. She continues to host the traditional Sunday afternoon dinner every week, and with most of the family still in the area, it is largely attended. She had 8 children - 2 sons have predeceased her, but the remaining 3 sons and 3 daughters are all within 5 miles of each other. When we visit, it is the place to go to catch up with the relatives all at once - wonderful homestyle food too LOL! One of the things she is proud of is that she knows everyone's birthdays and anniversaries, and always sends cards (to include spouses and step children) - in all these years, she has never missed. I love the lifestyle there. It is so extended family oriented and such a slower pace than my lifestyle with daily commutes to Washington DC. The area is beautiful - Hudson River and Adirondack Mountains with spruce, hemlock, and white birch - the only drawback is the long cold winters. They still had more than a foot of snow. Anyway, I really enjoyed the weekend!!!

Sounds like a wonderful weekend.

I had relatives that lived in that area. It was special to visit them often, even in winter, when we would ski and travel on the snow mobiles. Most of them are gone now, but they've left us with great memories of a beautiful place.

Oh, I'm sure you had a great time. We love the Adiondacks and always had a desire to get a place up there. We should have done it 30 years ago, since we can't touch it now - pricewise. Large families are wonderful. Sounds like she is well-loved.

I'd want to visit Holly's Lowes if only it were closer. I agree that you need to get plants soon after a shipment or rescue one on clearance. I know some don't even clearance them.

Holly, I have a quince, it is in the lawn area where hubby just mows under it and cuts down the suckers. Looks like you are destine to continue what you are doing, hand cutting. I wonder if sinking a sharp bladed shovel a few feet around the circumference would help to at least slow the suckers down?
Sallyg, Nice purchase, you can train that tree, you go girl LOL
C.Hurray for your DH grandmother, she sounds like an amazing Lady. I bet she has loads of interesting stories to tell.
A.If you can find that link, it should be an interesting read. Thank you.

Great reading this morning. So nice to see some new folks and especially good to see Chris. Smooches and big hugs to you lady. So sorry to hear about the neighbor dog. If the owner doesn't do something to change the situation, she should be punished somehow. Dang!!! You stated everything matter of factly and I am sure the lady never thought about the issues you brought up such as the chemo requiring you to eat "clean" veggies and such. I hadn't ever thought of it. Thanks for educating me, I will try to do better on my part as far as being sensitive to others.

Cole, how scary that Japan's radiation has been found too close to home. Yikes!!! No, until reading this hadn't given any thought to how we might prevent exposure if it is found here. As far as I know, John will do another vegetable garden this year. It thrills me to eat food that I didn't have to pay the grocer for.

Teri, the trip north sounds wonderful. Describing the Sunday dinners that are still done there, really took me back to some childhood times when Sunday dinner was something special. Golly, those days seem to be gone forever for most of us.

All others, enjoyed hearing what you have going on. Battle on Holly.......a winner never gives up. You can do it with that bush, I know you can.

Thanks for writing everyone.

Ruby