u/DIYInHeadlights

Massachusetts, 6b, full sun, poor soil.

Right now, this garden I inherited has basically been neglected for years, so I'll be cardboard mulching to suppress the weeds/grass and making plans for next spring. And because it's 200+ ft away from a spigot, regular watering to help the plants establish themselves after a transplant is going to be a struggle.

Hence I'm looking for super strong natives that you'd have to try to kill. And that can even survive transplant shock with minimal extra care. Aggressiveness would also be good because even with cardboard mulching I imagine they'll still get pretty strong competition from the weeds. And there's this persistent oriental bittersweet hanging around too.

Right now I'm looking at Black Eyed Susans. And yarrow maybe? I also hear good things about asters and goldenrods, but any specific species recommendations?

Fixed a leaking outdoor faucet this weekend. "This is an easy DIY job. You just need to replace a couple of washers. Watch me do it in 4 minutes."

30 minutes and an entire garden bed full of wrenches later, I finally took off the bonnet so I can put on new washers. 20 more minutes was spent removing a screw so old it literally disintegrated and had to be scraped off.

Today I went and fixed a toilet shutoff valve that won't shut off. "Just buy a $3 stem repair kit, easy!"

Spent two hours trying to loosen a rusty, stripped screw holding the handle in place and preventing me from replacing the stem. Rubber bands, WD-40, drilling, boiling water, nothing worked. Add an hour at the urgent care after I stabbed my thumb with the screwdriver.

In the end I had to accept defeat. Instead of replacing the stem, I just replaced the washer at the end. And then wrapped some graphite stem packing under the packing nut and called it a day. It's fixed now but that screw is still attached and taunting me.