Successful Shopping Saturday at the Natural Gardener

Can you believe that Philo & I went to the Natural Gardener yesterday and came home without one single plant or bulb? Here's how it started - around .. I planted a rooted cutting of a passalong corkscrew willow into a big patio container, placing it under the metal trough that directs rainwater off the roof and tucking in a few starts of umbrella plant. The rain fell, the tree grew and the Cyperis alternifolia thrived so I added an amarcrinum bulb filched from one of the borders and some passalong Agapanthus from Pam/Digging. Eventually the combination was so successful we could barely squeeze past the pot to cross the patio.
Then came the summer of .. - and the willow died. (Don't worry - I have another rooted cutting and MSS of Zanthan Gardens has one, too.) I'll miss the willow but was glad to have a chance to get rid of that huge pot! I dollied it out to an empty corner of the vegetable plot - soon it will be upended and the Umbrella Plants, Amarcrinum and Agapanthus will be separated to find new homes somewhere else in the garden.

With the pot gone I could try a new idea for the space. Some normal rains have returned to Austin. I set a garden tote under the trough and watched what happened, finding out that even a light rain - say 1/4 of an inch - was enough to fill the 10 gallon tote to overflowing. Our house is small and the patio is essential space. We drove to the Natural Gardener yesterday and came home with a rainbarrel that could catch that runoff & save the rainwater for the patio plants while looking good in our Outdoor Living Room. This house was made without the usual gutter-and-downspout design, but I think the shape of this Cascata Rainbarrel will work!
Can I make May Dreams Carol jealous with my hoe story? I'd admired the Diamond hoe used by my Divas of the Dirt friend Mindy to cut off grass and weeds at ground level. Here's the hoe at work during the Divas' February project.

In September the Divas had redone my parkway - replacing mostly dead turf with waterwise plants. Then the rains arrived, sprouting a million seeds of upturned annual ryegrass. To avoid sitting in the street to weed, I need a Diamond Hoe, too!
The hoes were out of stock last time I visited the store - but this one was waiting for me yesterday...

We bought one more non-plant addition to the garden yesterday - it wouldn't fit inside, but two ingenious guys at the Natural Gardener figured out how to attach it to the car roof.

I've looked at these trellises a dozen times, knowing exactly the spot along the NE fence where we could put on someday.

Someday was Yesterday.