Wait!! Don’t Call the Plumber… yet

drain

Do you have slow drains? Who doesn’t at one point or another have a sink, tub or shower that starts to drain slow? If you are anything like me you don’t want to spend too much money fixing the problem. Drain cleaners are not only expensive, they are bad for the environment and sometimes bad for your plumbing.

Before you try anything else, I suggest you put a tea kettle or large pot full of water on the stove and get it really boiling. Remove sink or drain stoppers. Take your boiling water and slowly pour it down the drain. This may not work with the first pot of boiling water or it may. I always boil a large pot of water and repeat the process three times just in case I have a really stubborn drain.

Did that work? Don’t fret if it did not! There is another way. You will need baking soda, a rag or some sort to stop the drain, vinegar and another pot of boiling water. For this method, remove drain stoppers, pour about half a box of baking soda into the drain, follow with 1/2 cup vinegar, and IMMEDIATELY stop the drain with the rag. Leave this to work in the drain for about 30 minutes and then slowly pour your pot of boiling hot water down the drain.

These methods should work well and once you have got your drain working as normal I recommend at least using the boiling hot water method on a regular basis to prevent future problems. Once a week or once a month are both good schedules.

The Hydrangea Incident

Towards the end of last summer, on a day much too hot, I decided to move a well established hydrangea from one end of the yard to the other. When I started it seemed like an easy enough task that I could complete in about an hour…

I dug my new hole first. That was definitely easy. Then I pruned back the hydrangea, being careful to keep each and every shoot possible to make a cutting to root a new bush. I have 18 to 25 tiny hydrangeas. Next, I began to dig up the hydrangea.  Oh boy! It was starting to get hot out and this hydrangea had to be laughing at me. By this point the root ball, I’d rather call it a snarl or snag, was difficult to determine its size and whereabouts and add to that I was digging on a slope.

Ok, now after many breaks for myself and for my children I finally chopped through what I had decided was a very unnecessary portion of the root to free it from the ground and get it planted into its new home. By this time I am exhausted and when the hydrangea mocks me again by not fitting into its new hole I break off another piece of root.

If you would like information on hydrangea propagation check out www.hydrangeashydrangeas.com.  I did not use rooting hormone or tent with anything.

When my husband got home from work, immediately after I finished this project mind you, he was certain beyond a doubt that I had killed the hydrangea..

Every one of those nursery pots has a live hydrangea.

I can use them in our landscape or sell them later on!

Who’s laughing now…