#WeekendCoffeeShare: Lush Planter No More

Published on by Yinglan

Good morning or afternoon and welcome.

Coffee? Hot or cold? Pickles? Would it surprise you I have made 3 jars of pickles since August 13th and have already consumed one of the jars? What can I say? I-heart-pickles.

If we were having coffee, I would tell you I am nervous this morning. I am giving my first live-in-person speech for Toastmaster this morning. This means, I won’t have a second screen to read the speech off of and I will really need to move instead of standing in one place for the duration of the speech.

This will be the first live meeting we’ve had in over a year. I didn’t found out I was giving a speech until Monday but once again, I procrastinated and ended up pulling one of the old stories written on this blog for my speech.

I am sometimes glad I wrote so many posts on this blog. Many old posts are potential speeches and this story just so happens to fit the objectives. All I had to do was do a little bit of rewrite, slash a few hundred words, add in some descriptors, and voila, speech done.

If we were having coffee, I would tell you I finally re-did the drip irrigation system this week. I believe this would be my third redo and I believe this time is a success compare to the last two times and I swear it’s the most beautiful thing in my eyes right now because I did it singlehandedly, without any physical help, only the help from YouTube.

Well, if you can count my uncle coming to help me fix a cracked PVC pipe in my drip irrigation, then that’s only physical help I got.

As of July 24, 2021

If we were having coffee, I would tell you the lush 5-tier planter is no more. In my post, Monday Thoughts, I wrote how the 70-mile-per-hour wind moved this planter from one end of the patio into the tomato bed at the other end. It was such a painful experience to watch. I almost screamed as it fell.

I ended up having to reconstruct it from the bottom tier last Sunday. Though most plants came out unscathed, I had to spend a long time untangling cucumber vines and ended up cutting a lot back. I suppose the plants benefited as I now have 8 cucumbers pending for harvest in the 5-tier planter and as the storm raged on Saturday, I had to harvest the sweet peppers before it damaged it. I believe I ended up with around 10 green bell peppers. I have been slicing it and putting it in sandwiches this week.

If we were having coffee, I would tell you I planted mums in my backyard yesterday. I should’ve taken pictures but I was too exhausted and I had to work on my speech. I had to amend most of the soil in my backyard as it’s got horrible clay soil that not even a shovel can get through.

I hope they survive because I’ve tried so many times to plant flowers in my backyard but they always die on me. I hope with the new knowledge I acquired in my gardening classes and YouTube, I corrected my past mistakes and these mums will survive and thrive for seasons to come.

I would thank you for joining me in this edition of #weekendcoffeeshare and hope we’ll both return next week.

25 thoughts on “#WeekendCoffeeShare: Lush Planter No More”

  1. Pingback: #WeekendCoffeeShare: Lush Planter No More – Nelsapy

    1. I think it was partly my fault. I forgot to put water in the planter to weigh it down and forgot to lock the wheels. I should’ve also moved it instead of left it so out in the open.

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    1. Thank you. I had to yank a cucumber plant out the other day but otherwise, everything is still doing well and producing. I have been trying different recipes but one is tasting better than next. It’s so hard to decide.

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  4. Congrats on the irrigation! Sorry to hear about your tiers. We have very clay heavy soil here, too. No way to plant anything and have it live. My solution for the wee bit outside my door was to moisten the soil (easy to do with as much rain as we had this year) and remove it. Left a huge hole about a foot and a half deep. Then, I bought a bag of peet, and a few bags of potting soil. I like to use “Miracle Grow” brand for that. Mixed it together with a bucket of Horse manure (it smells a little at first, but it really works well as a natural fetilizer.). Then, I just sprinkled my marigold seed on top. They’re almost two feet tall, and I’ve had soooo many blooms. I love them. They’re simple and pretty…oh, and they deter flys and such, too. Anyway, just an idea. It’s a lot of work, but it always made my roses the best around. Next spring, I’m going to add a little to the soil and plant a rosebush. Since it looks like we’ll be staying. This year, I didn’t want to plant one and then move.

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    1. I had been planting this weekend and for every hole I dug, I had to replace half the soil with compost and add vermiculite, plant food, and soil acidifier because otherwise, water would just pool instead of seeping into the ground. So much will need to be added before the soil is usable again. I don’t typically use Miracle Gro as I hadn’t had any luck with getting my plants to grow using these products. I find the Dr. Earth and Epsoma brands work the best. Good luck with your planting. 🙂

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      1. My marigolds are a good 2ft high… highest I’ve ever had them grow. I’m pretty sure that’s due to all the rain we’ve had.

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  6. I am an old Toastmaster and have only given live speeches. I can’t even image giving a speech over zoom or similar platform as I use the audience to bounce off. I agree about using blog posts as a great base to meet objectives. Good luck with your speech.

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    1. I agree, live is definitely not the same. With live, you can see and hear the audience react in real time instead of total silence as everyone is muted. It felt great to see that again.

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  7. Hi Ying-Lan,

    I used to do both speech coaching for our teenagers speech team and some very fun sermon coaching for some pastors who wanted to improve. I’d love to share my method but that’ more that should be in a comment. Plus – I doubt that I could improve much on what Toastmasters has taught you They have a great reputation for good reason.

    I hope you find a mental place of comfort with the speech and that it goes very well.

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    1. Thank you. I think I would had felt better about this speech if I was more prepared. Unfortunately, there are other things taking precedent (like work) that prevented me to truly dedicate my life to this public speaking thing. I wanted to quit a few times but the club has been struggling for years and I feel bad for leaving. *sigh*

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  9. Good luck with your in-person speech. I remembered those jitters too. I did Toastmaster too for a couple of years until I no longer had the time to do it. I learned with Toastmasters and with any opportunity where you have to speak in public, you always have to come prepared. Don’t “wing it!”

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    1. Thank you. Unfortunately, work and life keep me too occupied these days to allow me the time to really practice for my speech. I ended up winging my speech on Saturday but somehow, it went alright.

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    1. These has been more and more windstorm lately and they are supposed to be rare with me being in the intermountain region (surrounded by mountains). The speech went well, thank you.

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