New and Unread Tree-Mails
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Name: tfc North Central TX (Zone 8a)   tx_flower_child May 22, 2018 10:41 PM CST |
| Don't spend your money on gardening 'stuff' yet. Wait until Memorial Day weekend, May 26 - 28. It's a tax-free weekend for water-saving items like irrigation equipment, mulch, compost and native plants! See a video about it: https://youtu.be/_3zKo2GLxfE Or go to the source: www.comptroller.texas.gov/taxes (Dang it! Don't suppose I could return compost I bought last week.) |
Name: Cheryl North of Houston TX (Zone 9a)             ShadyGreenThumb May 23, 2018 9:05 AM CST |
 Life is short, Break the rules, Forgive quickly, Kiss slowly, Love Truly, Laugh uncontrollably, And never regret anything that made you Smile. |
Name: Cheryl North of Houston TX (Zone 9a) ShadyGreenThumb May 23, 2018 9:06 AM CST |
| And I just bought 2 more rain barrels! But they were half price. I doubt they would have been there til Saturday. Life is short, Break the rules, Forgive quickly, Kiss slowly, Love Truly, Laugh uncontrollably, And never regret anything that made you Smile. |
Name: tfc North Central TX (Zone 8a) tx_flower_child May 23, 2018 9:37 AM CST |
| Thanks for posting the whole list. I hadn't looked at it, only the video, so didn't know about the other stuff. And I was going to buy some lightbulbs because mine all burn out at about the same time. One of the 'can' lights just died the other day which means that more are going to follow suit. Don't think it would have helped much when I bought 1 salvia for $1 at Lowes. |
Name: Cheryl North of Houston TX (Zone 9a) ShadyGreenThumb May 23, 2018 10:12 AM CST |
| I think they should seriously look at the timing of gardening savings for Texans. Summer is here by the end of May. Most smart people have their yard work done by then. I know I put in my mulch down, drip system in, rain barrels in place, and other watering devices ready early just for the heat we are getting now. Life is short, Break the rules, Forgive quickly, Kiss slowly, Love Truly, Laugh uncontrollably, And never regret anything that made you Smile. |
Name: tfc North Central TX (Zone 8a) tx_flower_child May 23, 2018 10:24 AM CST |
| I agree. But wait! I just re-read the list and the lightbulbs are incandescent and not LED??? Dang! I do have some older fixtures that I use incandescents in and incandescent bulbs are getting hard to find, even at HD and Lowes. Does anyone know if old table lamps or old ceiling lights can use LEDs or Halogens? |
Name: Cheryl North of Houston TX (Zone 9a) ShadyGreenThumb May 23, 2018 10:30 AM CST |
| I've tried the new LED lightbulbs in older fixtures and even new fixtures. Some are not strong enough to even get a flicker. You'd think they'd make adapters or something so we don't have to replace all our fixtures? They still sell older model fixtures. I can't even tell which fixture will and won't take the new bulbs! Life is short, Break the rules, Forgive quickly, Kiss slowly, Love Truly, Laugh uncontrollably, And never regret anything that made you Smile. |
Name: tfc North Central TX (Zone 8a) tx_flower_child May 23, 2018 8:07 PM CST |
| I was doing an inventory of my various and sundry lightbulbs. I was surprised to see that I have some incandescent and some Halogen. I know I have to be careful which to use with the lights that have dimmers even tho I don't use the dimmers very often. Mostly forget that I could. It's all so confusing. And then there's the stupid fixture over my front porch. I use Christmas tree lightbulbs in it. At least I can use the yellow bulbs. |
Name: Betsy Texas (Zone 9a) In the beginning GOD created ...             piksihk May 24, 2018 9:49 AM CST |
| @tx_flower_child, for the tip. @ShadyGreenThumb, where did you find your rain barrels? My SIL just bought the last one at Costco on markdown. “For even the Son of Man/Jesus did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.”” Mark 10:45 |
Name: tfc North Central TX (Zone 8a) tx_flower_child May 24, 2018 12:02 PM CST |
| The HD is advertising them in Dallas. Haven't eyeballed tho. How much were they at Costco? So anyway, are you expecting rain? |
Name: Cheryl North of Houston TX (Zone 9a) ShadyGreenThumb May 24, 2018 1:13 PM CST |
@piksihk Found the last 2 on mark down at Costco on Richmond, too for $45.97 last Tuesday for half price. I had purchased 3 before in Humble that at regular price, $89. they are from GoodIdeasinc.com Corsican 50 model. Seriously the best price for the complete system compared to everywhere else I have shopped. BTW, here are the alstromeria you gave me. They are just so lovely! I had full intentions of cutting them an bringing them in as cut flowers inside but I don't have the heart. They look so pretty right where they are! Life is short, Break the rules, Forgive quickly, Kiss slowly, Love Truly, Laugh uncontrollably, And never regret anything that made you Smile. |
Name: tfc North Central TX (Zone 8a) tx_flower_child May 24, 2018 9:00 PM CST |
| That's a dang good price for rain barrels. Don't think I've ever seen one for less than $100. Love the flowers. Never seen them in a garden before, at least not as far as I can recall. Only seen them in bouquets. They do look lovely in the garden. |
Name: tfc North Central TX (Zone 8a) tx_flower_child May 26, 2018 11:19 PM CST |
| So I ventured out a little today. At Lowes, I had to convince the employees that this is a tax holiday. First was in the garden center where I picked up some mulch and a few other things. Aside from insisting that this really was the Memorial Day weekend, I still had to point out that mulch is definitely on the tax free list. Had to go back inside to Customer Service to get the tax credited back to me. I then asked about filters for my HVAC system. That really stumped them. And I didn't know. Finally someone did enough research and found that the filters were indeed tax free. Then I went across the street to HD. They have the best prices on mosquito dunks. The cashier said that they weren't on the tax free list and I didn't argue. I really had no idea. Kinda think they improve the yard, etc. Definitely save my personal energy level because I don't have to scratch skeeter bites. 😱 I was also going to buy something I knew was on the list but the cashier said it wasn't. It was late so I just told him I didn't want it. The whole thing is silly because you have to spend a lot of money to make 'tax free' worthwhile. For me it was the principle. I'm really still scratching my head over the clerks at Lowes. They kept insisting that 'tax free' was last weekend. It was one time that I enjoyed telling them to google it. I do need more mulch but I'll think about it tomorrow. Or Monday. Just thought that since I started this thread, I should give y'all a report. |
Name: Kristi east Texas pineywoods (Zone 8a)           pod May 27, 2018 6:39 AM CST |
It is probably the principle of it but unless it was a LARGE purchase it would not be worth the effort for me. A $5 bag of mulch will save me less than a postage stamp yet it would take me more than the price of the bag of mulch to buy gas to get to that store. Still scratching my head over this one...  Now the energy star week end for appliances, etc. might be different as the price of the product is large. Just don't need any of those appliances when that weekend arrives either. But why don't those store educate their employees any better than that?  Be content moving inch by inch because, by days end, the inches, will add up to feet and yards. Fulfilling ambitious objectives is usually done one step at a time. |
Name: Cheryl North of Houston TX (Zone 9a) ShadyGreenThumb May 27, 2018 10:30 AM CST |
| Yes, Energy Star appliances or large purchases would yield a greater tax savings But SHAME ON Lowe's for not recognizing this weekend savings. You'd think it would be a marketing ploy as it is for Energy Star appliances. I was a Lowe's Tuesday and told everyone in line at the garden dept. about the weekend savings. No one had a clue. A few years, (10?) we bought our washer and dryer set during the advertised tax sale. That was a savings to talk about since Home Depot had a sale, also added free pedestals, delivery and take away to the deal. Here, we basically save $8 on every $100 spent. I wonder if the savings applies to bulk mulch . I pay about $8 in taxes on that with each load. Life is short, Break the rules, Forgive quickly, Kiss slowly, Love Truly, Laugh uncontrollably, And never regret anything that made you Smile. |
Name: tfc North Central TX (Zone 8a) tx_flower_child May 27, 2018 1:26 PM CST |
| Tax free would apply to bulk mulch assuming it's purchased on a tax holiday. (This is the tax holiday weekend isn't it?) Wish I could buy bulk mulch. Doesn't work well with a Honda. I was also telling other shoppers. Apparently this was not well advertised. Even tho I'm not saving much moolah, I had things I needed so figured might as well save a few pennies and buy them now. Plus Lowes and HD are approximately 2 miles down the street. There was some confusing info about shipping costs etc. If I can find the name of it again I really want to order a soaker hose that's supposed to be extremely heavy duty. I think it's only sold online. |
Name: Cheryl North of Houston TX (Zone 9a) ShadyGreenThumb May 28, 2018 8:21 AM CST |
| @tx_flower_child We have bulk mulch delivered. Here, they don't charge delivery fee after 3 yards. I prefer two smaller mountains at a time. One 4 yard mountain is daunting enough! We have Texas Living Mulch company that has mulch sales 2x yr. They will sell Brown Mulch for $10 a yard as much as you can carry away, no limit. That is discounted at more than 2/3 the price from $31.90/yd. But our car is not much bigger than your Honda and I don't think she'd appreciated being filled up with mulch! Ha Though I prefer the look of Black Mulch, at that price, if I had access to a truck or trailer, I'd go go for it. Unfortunately, these sales are offered in the heat of the seasons. I much prefer the hard work in cooler weather, if not cold weather. Life is short, Break the rules, Forgive quickly, Kiss slowly, Love Truly, Laugh uncontrollably, And never regret anything that made you Smile. |
Name: tfc North Central TX (Zone 8a) tx_flower_child May 28, 2018 1:08 PM CST |
| We have places that deliver. Good companies. Reasonable prices. My problem with that is there's no place for their big trucks to dump the stuff. Can't use the alley or the parkway.Guess maybe they could use my little driveway and I would have to park on the street for awhile. I'd worry about my Magnolia because it covers my entire front yard. (driveway is in front) Oh well. Appreciate the suggestion tho. |
Name: Deb Planet Earth (Zone 8b)      Bonehead May 28, 2018 1:15 PM CST |
| My neighbor lays down a blue tarp in her driveway and has mulch delivered to that. She's pretty diligent about getting it spread into her beds quickly. Her approach is to toss wildly, then go back later to neaten it up. We have a designated area for mulch, and it always is overgrown, we never quite get to the bottom of it. So, yeah, it can be messy. I want to live in a world where the chicken can cross the road without its motives being questioned. |
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