Tag: southerngardens

Hardy Hibiscus Returns

With baited breath I closely watched my hibiscus plants for any signs of life. They spent the winter outdoors under a tent. I was fairly certain that the variegated tropical hibiscus I grew from starter plants bought on Etsy in 2021, Snow Queen and Rose Queen, met an untimely demise due to the cold.

Excited to see the Summer Carnival making a comeback.

Hose Reel Repair

I finally got around to repairing my Eley Hose Reel. I purchased the Eley Portable Garden Hose Reel Cart back in 2020 after I got weary of storing my garden hoses and needed a better way to keep them stashed. The previous cheap “plastic” storage reel kept leaking and proved hard to roll up with each passing year.

Apparently a common point of failure on the original Eley hose reels was the brass swivel. Extreme cold temperatures would cause the fittings to expand and contract, which basically caused leaks starting in 2022. The fitting finally broke off in 2023, which rendered the reel rather useless. I was able to troubleshoot my swivel issues and determined that it had been subjected to that expansion, whereby the swivel fittings had broken loose.

The new brass swivel took about 15 minutes to install; instructions on how to replace the part were clearly printed on the box. A YouTube video also helped clarify the replacement process. Once I swapped out the parts, the swivel worked perfectly with no leaks and I was back in business again.

Instructions on the box, the old swivel
Some disassembly required
The new swivel
Repair complete!

Bulb-tastic

My Brent and Becky’s bulb order has arrived! 450 tulip and narcissus bulbs just in time for north Texas winter planting.

Now digging up places to plant them! In the end we expanded the northern border bed by another foot, weeding out the bermuda and re-installing the stone edge as we went along.

Looking forward to seeing the spring flower show!