I finally dragged the tomatoes and peppers out today. It's just been too cold otherwise, but it looks like we've skipped spring and are getting into summer. Just checked the monthly forecast and i think Environment Canada is stuck on "above normal". LOL We all know how "above normal" it has been!

My hostas are coming up!!!! I divided them last year and put them in permanent planters that we have along the patio. I hadn't seen anything come up so hubby did a bit of digging around and found shoots for all six of them in there. I am really happy about that since I plan to fill those planters with the hostas. If they hadn't survived, I didn't know what kind of plant I would put in there.

The backyard is looking awesome. I am really pleased with what we have done so far. I added a few stepping stones through the beds so it is easy to get to all parts of the bed to weed and so on.

I hope I wil have time this weekend to get some annuals and get the pots that I put by the side door planted.

By the way, I really enjoy reading what you are all doing in your gardens.

Hi everyone

It was another beautiful day here today. I worked my tucus off! I even had hubs helping me *L*

I planted some more pots up, moved more plants outside, almost filled up one of the new beds with dirt, 8' x 2' x20". This is the second new bed I have filled in the past couple of days, the first one was 6' X 2' X 20" high and I planted annuals in that one. This is hard work, hubs had to help me with that one, I'm not suppose to lift heavy things, like a bale of peat moss, but I do *S* Only another 4" to go and I can start on the 24ft bed....then a 16' bed, then a 9ft one and I will be finished, and I do mean I willllll be finished....I'll need a vacation! *LOL* So far for the two new beds I have used 3 1/2 bales of peat moss, and about 14 bags of dirt and a ton of newspapers, cardboard, anything I can get my hands on. *L* I sure hope son will start bringing the dirt from the back yard as we are running out of the bagged stuff. *L* And the black flies are eating me alive! swarms of them! anybody else have lots of flies this year? It is cruel.

I found a rose that was missed so I yanked it out and I actually got more roots than son did when he used a shovel. None of the ones that were dug out have any leaves on them, so I don't know if they are dead or what. I hope not! I keep talking tot hem, but so far they aren't answering, maybe I should of yanked them all out instead of using a shovel.

Son pulled out the bullrushes for me in the pond. I have decided I don't want them in the pond anymore, they are too much of a pain. They are always trying to escape their pots. So into the compost they go. We got all the fish into their ponds and pots/ except for the two baby ones that were born last summer. It looks like there are going to be wee ones again soon.

I have ordered a new pump and hoses, plus a spill tub that I'm going to try and rig up on the patio and two tubs to put the water lily in. Gale, is it ok if I divide the lily now? Or should I do it another time? It has split the pot on the side as it is getting so big.

I see asiatic lilies starting to show in the bed the contractor pulled out, so that is good! They are very tall, maybe an inch, but at least they are alive.

I planted up a huge tub with a tomato, peas and I'll be putting a zuke in it with lettuce, as soon as the zuc hardens off a bit more. I had a friend of hubs drag it out of the porch, I used mostly peat moss but it was still heavy! The thing has to be almost 26" across *L* And I have another one like it to do tonight.

We have baby birds in about 5 places around us, goldfinches and bluebrids. One nest on our balcony, one in our carraghanas, one behind our garage and one on the other side of the fence. It is really nice to have them back. A starling tried to get the babies at the back of the garage, but the momma bird chased it away. Tonight I also saw a chipmunk run across our patio! Grrrr those stupid things! I wish they would stop coming back!

My mom is back in hospital. She has had a very bad back for years as she had fractured a couple of her vertebra about 12 years ago, due to osteoporosis. Last Monday her back started bothering her again. It has been very good for months. Tuesday she said she was having a hard time moving one of her feet forward and getting up off the couch. I wanted her to go to emerg in case she was having a stroke, but she said it was coming from her back. Well Thursday morning she had to call the amabulance using her life line button, as she couldn't get out of bed! Here she has been trying to kill the pain of two more fractured discs and her spine pushed to the side, with regular tylenol! She even wanted to go back home in the afternoon, but when two nurses couldn't help her to walk to the bathroom she knew she had to stay in the hospital. So they have her on pain pills with morphine. She was unable to walk yesterday, but today she was able to take a few baby steps. Now why they are making her walk when her back is fractured and pushed off to the side, I don't know but they are. So any prayers would be appreciated. She is in great spirits, she is eating well, she said the food tastes better this time, than it did last year when she had her heart attack. I said it was probably the pain meds *L* She said it even looked better and I told her the meds were making her hallucinate too *LOL* My sister and niece were able to visit her today, and a friend from her building brought her two cards that people in the building had signed, so that was nice. It is so hard with her being 600 miles away. Hopefully she will get better soon and be able to walk again. She was doing so well after fighting so hard to get better after her heart attack. She was walking all over with her walker, getting potting soil, buying plants, planting a garden and wham now this! But like I said she was able to take a few steps today, so that is good!

Dannie, your hostas are coming up too! Isn't it great? I have hostas popping up all over the place too! I watered them yesterday to encourage them to pop up faster *L* Of course the dandelions are taller than the hostas, but at least they are coming up *L* This is the third year for most of my hostas so they have lots of new eyes on them and look much bigger than last year! I don't usually divide my hostas as I want them big. *S* We would love to see a pic of your gardens if u have any.

Well I'm going to go and put my feet up, I'm bushed and I have to close the windows as the darn skunk is around again tonight! I even smell it during the day, this has been going on for the past week now. YUK! I sure hope it hasn't made a home under our porch!Ekkkk
Anyone else having skunk problems this year?

Take care
Debbie :-)

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Hi all!
Debbie your tulips look great! I am sorry to hear about your mom and am glad that she is slowly getting mobile again. She will be in my thoughts. I would imagine the docs are making her walk to keep her muscles from seizing and to keep everything as limber as possible. I;ve seen them keep people in bed that really wanted to move so they don't usually let people up and about if they feel it will be harmful. I am sure they will not let her do too much. If you are concerned it doesn;t hurt to call her doctor and speak to him about it.

Finally spring has arrived - feels more like summer every day. Amazing how the weather just changes over night around here.
All of my garden is planted!! Most of the root crops and salad stuffs are popping up. Soon the backyard will look like a jungle.
I've started hardening off a few of my houseplants that are going to spend the summer outside. I don't usually do this as I don't want to deal with the insects in the fall when I bring them in but this yr I figured they could use the summer in the sun.

Well, the front porch isn't done yet. Still waiting for the windows to come in. So my front perennial bed is empty as I moved all the plants from it so they don't get tramped. I have a few things waiting in pots and in other areas that will go there when it is done.

So after all the fire crap is over and done with for hte most part we had water in the basement last week. It happens sometimes when we get big rains. I went down and checked on my daughter's room and her carpet was soaked so started pulling stuff out. did some investigating and found the water was coming through the walls in a few places. More investigation and found signs of mold. so we decided this is the time now to check out all the walls. Emptied out the most of hte basement and found LOTS of mold between cement and sheetrock. It was disgusting. I bleached the heck out of the walls and let them dry for a few days to get all the mold spores.It is all gone now but still lots of work ahead patching cement, sealing, putting walls back up, etc etc. In the end we will have a dry new basement. Jasmine will have a bigger bedroom and Les will have a huge music room. Sure is fun doing demo - I pulled most of the walls down myself while Les was at work. The cleaning up - not so fun.

Here's a tip - don't wear Birks when your doing demo. Stupid stupid. I'm a gardener and my work shoes are sandals - don't quite protect the feet from demo stuff - stepped on a nail. Went right through the heel of my sandals and about half inch into my foot. YOu'd think an industrial health and safety professional would know better... So now I'll be gimped for a few days as it hurts like a bast*** to walk on. Should probably go and get a tetanus shot too - its been a while.

So lots of activity around this house. I've sent the kids off to their dads as everythign is again a mess in the house and stuff from the basement piled everywhere.

Looks like a beautiful day today - after doing some work this morning in the basement I'm going to spend the most of it outside with my kids and granddaughter. With all the work going on around here I sure have not seen my baby enough!!

Have a great day
Tina

Oh Tina! I'm sorry to hear about all your housing troubles! House torn up again! I don't know how you can live with that for so long!

I'll be over and back to normal soon enough, though. At least you've can escape into the garden this time of year!

We are getting settled into our new place now. I spend this weekend cleaning out a lot of unnecessary junk, again! You'd think after two recent moves I'd have gotten rid of it all, but I had six boxes of stuff to toss out after today. We have cut right back to the bare bones and it feels great!!! I took it all to a friend's house who is having a garage sale later this month.

My balcony is flourishing!! I have: a small 'Charles Joly' lilac, a dk pink honeysuckle bush (2 actually, if anyone wants to trade for one, lmk), three potted dahlias, about 10" tall, two pots of calla lilies, a fuschia, pink bleeding heart, tall white iris, elephant ears, taro bought at Safeway in TBay, dk red cannas, touch-me-nots (jewelweed, impatiens capansis with lg pink flowers), chives, florise gloxinia - just awakening from winter sleep, 2 hostas, 4 brugs - 2 ft tall (just got on Wed), lg purple malva - just sprouting, hespris (dame's rocket, purple) and 5 pots of various daturas planted with morning glories (both barely beginning to sprout). I would also like to add some very large ferns. Does anyone know if they will survive the winter in pots on the balcony? I will be getting a banana, white spider lilies, clivia, hellebores, and crown imperial fritillaria bulb from some trades, should arrive next week.

I managed to procure many large plastic pots at garage sales in the past few weeks. Its the dirt that I'm finding difficult!! It's so heavy!! Two of my large pots are ceramic with no drainage holes so they are bog pots. In them I have the cannas, elephant ears, taro and touch-me-nots - all bog plants. I grew these elephant ears and cannas on shelves in the pond last year.

I may get a small hose to hook up to the kitchen sink for watering the balcony. I'm going to bonsai the lilac and honeysuckle with root pruning and top pruning every spring.

I've had some disappointments. The ceiling in the entire apartment is solid poured cement. It's almost impossible to get a hood in that is secure enough to hold heavy plants, so I can't hang any up. I've given away most of my hanging houseplants - just kept a few of the good ones. Most of my African violets made the trip okay, except for my two very favourite ones, they are the only ones I lost!!

I lost an entire box of plants in the move down here. It contained some of the great stuff I got from you guys in TBay just before I left. I was very disappointed to find that it had blown off the pick up. We looked for it but never did find it. Well, I just hope some gardener found it and grows those great plants!

Gale, did the epemedium grow? As I said, I wasn't sure it would come up at all. They're pretty delicate in the severe winter, I think. I had no luck with it, anyway.

We've had some beautiful warm and sunny weather, finally, this week, after a week of rain. I haven't had much chance to get out on the trail that's nearby, though. I hope to have more time for that soon. I do spend a lot of time out on the balcony, though.

Hi everyone

Cool and wet here today. It poured all night and the 12 trays I had left outside last night had to be dumped. I thought I had holes in the trays, but obviously not enough.

I spent most of the day in the house planting up more pots, I ran out of peat moss so will have to finish the rest of the pots outside I guess as I'm not dragging a bale into the porch at this stage of the game. I sure hope the sun comes out tomorrow as my pots are soaked.

Tina, thanks for the good wishes for my mom *S* I'm sorry to hear about your mold problems, I hope u can get it all taken care of. It sounds like a big messy job, don't u have to wear masks when u are working around mold so u don't get sick? Do u have weeping tiles around your foundation on the outside? I know we sometimes get water in the basement thru the crack where the new add on porch, for the basement stairs are leaks. I never thought of mold being there though. I hope the basement work goes faster than the porch work is going for you. Don't ya just hate waiting for stuff to come in?

I'm sorry that u stepped on a nail! Ouch, that must have hurt like crazy! I hope u go get a tetnus shot.

I am glad to know I'm not the only person that doesn't like putting houseplants outside because of the bugs *L* I usually put my Christmas cactus in the porch, but that is all closed in so not many bugs in there.

Hi there Sheryl *waving* I love dame's rocket, I let my spread and it smells wonderful! Your balcony must be a fair size as it seems like u have a lot on it. *L* I hope the balcony can handle all that weight of dirt. Try sticking some stuff in the bottom of the pots, like stryfoam cups and plastic nine cell packs, to take up space but not add weight, and use a soiless potting mix to plant the things in as u are going to be giving them fertilizer anyways aren't u? So u don't really need soil for nutrients.

Well time to go here
Debbie :-)

hey

Sheryl - good to hear your balcony is thriving. I would wonder about the weight of all the dirt as well. I've heard of them collapsing under the weight of someone's plants. I would love to see pictures when it is all just the way you like it!
Can you put plant hangers on the walls - you know those metal ones that come out on the sides? You can also get those half pots that screw onto the walls for hanging plants. Or even a high shelf. There are a lot of outdoor things for hanging pots that could be used indoors as well. It would be a shame if you had to get rid of plants.

I don't see why ferns wouldn't overwinter in pots. MAybe just wrap the pots in something for an extra layer of insulation.

I got my tetanus shot yesterday. My foot isn't a sore as yesterday but still hard to walk on.
The tetanus is something I've been thinking of anyhow since I was reading sometime last yr the incidence of tetanus in gardeners. Since it is a soil bacteria us gardeners are susceptible to it with any type of cuts or slivers etc that we get outside.

Yes, I should've worn a mask when dealing with the mold. I don't have a mask that fits me properly (my face is too narrow) so my glasses fog up when I wear them. I just went and did it. Who knows how long we've already been exposed to it in the past. I've done a lot of salt water rinses and inhalations as I do when I've been exposed to any respiratory virus/bacteria.
There are no weeping tiles outside - the basement is 70 yrs old!! We will be dealing with the outside in the fall after the gardens are done.

Yesterday was a beautiful day. Didn't do much besides visit with my daughter and granddaughter in the backyard and barbecue supper. It was quite relaxing for a change. Of course I puttered a bit. Planted a hydrangea I got from my SIL cuz she is redoing her front yard and didn't want it anymore. Got one more to take to the country and plant sometime this week.

Cloudy out this morning - It is supposed to rain today - good thing cuz the gardens are drrryyy! I held of on watering yesterday because the forecast was for rain today.
So I will finally get around to repotting some of my neglected houseplants that are outgrowing their pots. And doing some cleaning! So hard to keep up with cleaning a house when there is construction stuff going on. I will be so glad when it is all done!

Talk to y'all later. Tina

Yikes! I never thought about the weight! I do have some big heavy pots full of soil. This building is pretty solid, though. The walls, ceiling and balconies are all cement. Making it hard to hang anything up, of course, but very quiet.

The soil I used is either very cheap potting soil, mostly peat, or a mix of peat, manure and sand that I mixed myself. I don't want to feed them all the time. I considered putting pop cans in the bottom of the big pots but I think the plants will need all the space there is. I have lots of big things in there. My 2' across clay (very heavy) pot has three 2' brugs in it and the next smallest clay pot has 4 cannas and 4 jewelweeds in it. They'll need all the dirt there is and maybe even more as I've crammed a lot of things in all the pots.

Tina, you're right about the tetanus. All gardeners should get a tetanus shot but they last about 5 years. Tetanus is a bacteria that grows in cow and horse manure, then infects the soil. And while you may have never had cows or horses on your property, if it was sodded, the tetanus bacteria is probably there, since most sod farms used to have animals on them. It stays in the soil for decades and can enter through any tiny scratch from anything, rocks, thorns, etc. It has nothing to do with rust or old nails, as a lot of people think, although these are possibilities. It doesn't come from animal bites, either, although it could be a possibility if that animal has been exposed to it.

HOWEVER, and this is important. The tetanus booster that you get from the doctor has no effect if you did not get the three original tetanus immunizations as a child. If you did not, then you need to tell you doctor and get that first. The tetanus shots we get as adults are just boosters for that initial immunization.

I read all this in a magazine article not long ago.

The tetanus bacterium is found in the intestines of almost all animals, including humans and can be transmitted by bites (so do a lot of other nasty bacterias!!). It is in higher concentration in manure but also in places where other animals 'go'. Also found in saliva, which is why it can be transmitted through cuts.
The rusty nail thing is important not having anything to do with the rust, but to do with the dirtiness of the nail making it more likely to have bacteria on it and to the deepness in the skin it can go through.
It is an anaerobic bacteria that will thrive inside the skin if entering through a puncture or deep scratch.

Hi everyone,
Ok, who left the furnace on? It is 32C here and we have no a/c's in yet! I'm melting! I know I said I wanted it to warm up a bit, but I only meant to 21C *L*

I planted up two tomatoes on the balcony, they were getting so tall, I had to get them in the dirt soon or they were going to break. I still have 8 siberians left to plant and 1 sungold. I didn't realize I had planted so many tomatoes this year,,maybe i could send some to your SIL Marcia.... *BWEG* And I think I must have planted one of my rose gloves in the pot too either that the cat grabbed it and dragged it off some place *LOL*

Tina, I'm glad your foot is feeling a bit better today. I think I'm going to look into my tetnus shot as I don't use gloves much in the garden as I can't feel with them on. Sheryl, I will have to find out if they had tetnus shots when I was a kid....*L* that's a long time ago, I guess I'll have to ask my mom.

I went to Walmart again today and picked up 6 more pots, 3 white and 3 black ones to plant tomatoes and cukes. I wish I could of gotten more, but I couldn't carry anymore *L* I have bought these pots a few years ago and they worked out very well. They were only 3 dollars and something and all I have to do is drill holes in the bottom of them.

We had a big thunderstorm this morning and the wind was really bad. I was worried that all my trays of plants were going to fly away, but tthey don't look in too bad of shape, a bit banged up, but looks like they are all still here. The crabapple has only been blooming a couple of days so some of the blooms flew off of that, but there is still enough to make a nice smell in the air. My hostas sure loved the rain, the ones in the hosta bed are up another 2 inches! yeah!

Hope everyone is having a good day!
Debbie :-)

Well, my day is going from bad to worse!! I had a really rough day at work and when I finally got home, I took a good look at my car. The hail from last night has totally dented the hood. I got the car brand new last September. I guess I am going to have to call the insurance company and see what they can do for me. The plants in the yard are all fine though. I did save some of the hailstones and put them in the freezer. I originally did it for fun but they might come in handy with the insurance company. Oh well, tomorrow has got to be better, I hope!

Danni

Hi everyone
I had a busy day here today. It was sunny but a bit cool today with a wind. It is suppose to down to 2C tonight so I had to go in the basement and find plastic and sheers to cover up the plants.

Today, son came over and helped a bit in the garden. I was able to get two roses back in the garden, so that was nice. A couple of the other roses we pulled out are starting to get leaves on them too, so I'm glad they are starting to come back to life. I got two shrubs trimmed back today also that were beatened up by the contractor.

My pump I bought from Canadian Tire last year stopped working, I never like that pump as it didn't work as well as the Little Giant pump I got from Moore's, so I'm hoping I can replace it.

We had the a/c guy over today but had to call the contractor to come over and take out one of the windows. The a/c upstairs wouldn't fit so the window had to come out. I really miss my old windows, they were so simple to operate and didn't need a combination lock to operate them.

Wilbur got outside again tonight and I had to run around the yard trying to get him to come to me. He even went next door on the parking lot. Why is it the animals seem to know when I'm so tired I don't have any energy? *L* I finally got him when he ran into the garage, but only because he let me catch him.

Tomorrow a friend of hub's is coming over to help me in the garden as son just isn't doing much and I would like to get this done before fall. *L*

Next door hired a guy to put weed and feed on their grass and of course the guy decided to do it on a windy day. So I went to talk to him to find out what he was spraying and to make sure it wasn't going to kill any of my planst if it blew over onto them.

Dannie, I'm sorry to hear about the hail damage to your car, i hope the insurance will cover it for you.

Well I'm tired and sore so I'm off to bed.

Debbie :-)

Hi everyone!

We had thunderstorms here tonight, but I think they have finally stopped. We don't get them very often thank goodness. Still raining but the trees really needed the rain.

Got another 24ft of raised bed filled in thanks to hubs friend on Thursday. I just have to put some worm castings on the top of it and then newspapers, landscape fabric and plant some roses and work on the next 16 ft, move a lilac tree and work on the next bed that is 9 ft long. then when that is done I get to do 60 ft of 10" tall raised beds. But that shouldn't take as long as this is, seeing as they are shorter and not as wide from front to back.

A lot of my special irises got stepped on and squished as did my hostas. *sigh* I hope I can find the roots of the hostas and dig them up and stick them in a pot until the smaller beds are done.

I have been busy planting tomatoes, cukes, zukes, peas in pots. Done a few more window boxes and pots with flowers too. And planted some flowers in amongst the hostas today. They haven't been happy being in their trays outside for weeks, having plastic put on and taken off again. I think they will be much happier now.

I recieved a huge box from Moore's with two tubs to plant my water lily in, a huge tub with a spillway so that I can put water in it and have it spill into the other contrainer on the patio. I have also ordered two pumps from them, I got one and am waiting for the other one. Hubs took the crummy pump back to Canadian Tire today and got a refund.

I went thru two garden helpers today. The first girl was scared of red ants, the second girl wasn't but she got bit by something. Don't know if it was a mosquito or black fly or an ant. I can't see them so I didn't know where they were. I put down some pesticide where she told me, but then it rained so I'll have to do it again, as she won't be back until they are gone. Which I totally understand. I was weeding there yesterday and didn't get a bite, or if I did I thought it was black flies or mosquitoes. *L*

I hope u all are keeping well and having fun in your yards! Janet, jak, tina, marcia, andrea, how are your gardens doing?

Take care
Debbie :-)

Hi all!

Been busy with the basement and the garden. The inside of the basement is sealed now (some silicone, cement slurry stuff). So this week the reconstruction will begin. Its exciting starting from scratch - but a bit difficult to let go of how it used to look and let your imagination take control. We are typically unconventional when it comes to anything - and I have to work at keeping Les in the real world when it ocmes to decorating or building. I have to keep telling him that we want to sell this house in a few yrs so have to keep things toned down a few notches lol.
He just looks at me but sometimes does not compute.

So the garden is all planted but since the nights are still fairly coolish nothing is doing spectacular - just slow and steady. The beans are all popping up, as are the things in the salad bed. The tomatoes and peppers are just showing their first signs of budding - which I will pinch soon. They sure could use a few days of sustained heat to really pick up. Spaghetti sq, cukes and zukes are slowly leafing out. I look at the garden barreness now and keep reminding myself that in a month it will look like a jungle!
Right now what really looks junglish is the dandelions that are popping up everywhere in the lawn. I love them when they are in flower - but the dreaded sparse looking seedheads don't really do much in the ways of aesthetics. Soon they will be gone for a bit.

Thankfully we have been getting a few good downpours everyday. Just enough to keep the gardens wet, but not evough to keep me indoors.Perfect gardening weather.
Most of my ws babies are planted out now, just maybe 6 more flats of pots to plant in the front bed when my front porch is done. This is supposed to happen this week!! Finally!!

I just want my house back to normal again. The kids are both sharing one small bedroom right now with A LOT of furniture crammed in it. They won't stay at their dad's even for the sake of space - drat. 2 16 yr old girls crowded in a small space is a bit much. As well, the basement was thier refuge - with computer tv, etc. Now they are on my computer all the time and in the living room watching tv!! Love my kids, but sure love my space as well.

The living room and dr are crammed as well. Hardly anywhere to walk. I've even put out some of my houseplants a little early just to make room.
The garage is crammed with a few little pathways to some tools. Hard to imagine the car ever fitting in there again!!

Back to the gardens. Not many blooms yet - a few wallflowers (smell delicious), various pansies, yellow wild violets, trilliums, mountain bluet, wild geranium, icelandic poppies, creeping phlox and dead nettle.
There are some buds on the weigalia, irises, daylillies and oriental poppies. Everyday a little more progress.
You sure have to have patience with wintersowing annuals. They are all growing, but this is the first yr I haven't bought anything for instant colour early in the yr. So I am checking all the plants obsessively (as all of us gardeners do) for any sign of blooms.

Debbie, weird about your garden helpers. Were they people you know or did you place an ad or something? Scared of ants! Now blackflies I can understand! Not scared of them but hte big bruises they leave on my when they bite.
You still are busy at it eh? I would love to see pics of your gardens when you feel like sharing.
How IS everyone else doing - been pretty quiet in this thread lately - guess everyone's busy playing outside.
Well I sure have been babbling!! I'm babysitting this morn so gotta go pic up my kid.
Have a wonderful day!
Tina

Yeah, i've been busy outside, and with other stuff, and then too tired to post when i come in. I do read every day, though, and have posted a bit over at Far Northern.

Our little town has been through the deaths of two young people over the past couple of weeks, and we're kind of in shock. The funerals are both over now, though, and i guess it's time to move on. Everything has been low-key and no one is in the mood for celebrations of any kind. I've found working in my gardens to be therapeutic. It's good to be able to concentrate on something else.

Things are coming along really well in the gardens. There aren't a lot of things blooming besides tulips, but as Tina said, they're slow and steady, and there has been a lot of foliage filling out. I guess the blooms will come later.

Here are some tulips:
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And here's my trollius that finally has more than one flower:
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Yesterday, i got all of the grass cut and even some weed-whacking done! That was my resolution this year! I also started a "hedge" using, not lavatera as i had first planned, but Adenophora and cosmos. The Adenophora was threatening to take over the bed it was in, darn thing! I also dug some out and put them in my son's beds that he's making around his trees. He wants stuff that will take over and is low-maintenance.

Anyway, that's about it for now. I'm at work, and should get going. I'll try to post more from now on!

Take care -
Marcia

Hi

It was a wet cool day here today. I went outside to put some ant stuff down to kill the ants but it rained afterwards, so I doubt if the stuff did any good. They are calling for sun tomorrow so I'll try again.

I have to go to Candian Tire tomorrow and try and find a round barrel to put the plantainer in. Moore's said they recommend putting it in a whiskey barrel or in the ground even though the pics showed it on top of a patio. It is suppose to be going down to 7c tonight and I sure hope it doesn't get any colder as I don't want to be running around at 3 a.m. covering up my plants.

Tina, glad to see the basement is coming along well and I sure hope your porch will be done soon. I hated having furniture jammed in everywhere last fall. It pretty well drove me nuts! Do u have twin girls?

Do u grow wallflowers from seeds? I have seen them in books and they look pretty and I like having fragrant flowers in the garden. I was wondering if they are hard to grow from seeds?

My garden helpers were just sisters from up the street. We know their parents. They are only 11 and 13 years old. Now they are both scared of red ants. Apparently I have tons of them here. But because I can't see that well I didn't know. This is the first summer without son living at home and he use to tell me if we had a lot of ants and I would then make up some borax and sugar traps for them. My gardens in the back are just terrible! I can't believe all the stuff the contractor left in the back corner where he just threw stuff! I am thinking of calling him up and asking him to come back and take the stuff to the dump.

I will start taking pictures when the garden is a bit more tidy. Right now there are dandelions all over the place. I'm just letting them go as I'm going to be using roundup on them as soon as I get the lilies, and hostas outta there. I just have to find a pot to put them in. Right now the roses are taking up quite a few pots. I just hope after all this butchering of my poor garden that it will look as nice as it once did.

Marcia, I'm sorry to hear about the deaths in your town. It is hard when it happens in such a small community, where everyone knows one another.

Those are nice tulips, so cheerful looking. Mine are pretty much done now as the winds took care of them. What is that tunnel structure in the back? Is that a garage? I love the trollius, I had some given to me, but I think it got hit with round up. *sigh*
Well time to go......
Take care
Debbie :-)

The "tunnel" doflicky is like a shed. Note the tarp-covered stuff in the front. That's our siding and roofing. Will that get done this year? This decade? Stay tuned...! :)

Actually, we're looking for a smaller version of that tarp-shed, one with a clear cover, to use as a greenhouse. Wouldn't that be great??!!

Here are some more tulips:
{{gwi:2100247}}
These are really pretty!

And here's my blue poppy - blooming at last!!

Hope Gale sees that!!

Edited to add that i'm only getting red x's in the preview - hope these pictures come through!

Tty all later!
Marcia

Oh its getting a bit more livelier here!
Marcia, so sorry to hear about your town's loss. Very sad.
I LOVE those pink tulips. This is my first yr planting blue poppy so I am really looking for to seeing blooms.
I think I went a bit nuts with poppies this yr - I wintersowed about 6 full flats of ~10 different kinds. Transplanted hunks of seedlings everywhere. They will be good filler this yr for the beds where the 1st yr perennials are.
The workers started on the porch yesterday. Most of it has been gutted. I had to watch them like a hawk as they didn't seem to be worried about putting their crap in my gardens. They stay away from the larger plants but see an almost bare spot - translated to tiny outplants of wintersown seedlings - and think its a good dumping space. In all fairness they don't have a lot of room to work in my tiny front yard which is all garden. I left them about 6 feet directly in front of the porch to work and otherwise they have to stick to small paths and such.

Fairly cool here yesterday as well, looks like more of the same today. Not much rain though. I would prefer rain for the gardens if it is going to be cool and cloudy.

Yes I have twin girls. Jasmine and Jesse. Also known as the evil twins. They are not purposely evil just always have been very strange by most peoples standards. Given that they constantly reinforce each others thinking and views of life, sometimes telling them anything is like talking to a brick wall. Doesn't help that they are both beautiful and extremely intelligent (though don't waste their brains on something so benign to them as school) and have so far gotten through all their ridiculous escapades with others (school, etc) by smiling and putting on their sugar sweet act. Unbelievable how most adults fall for it. The female teachers are starting to catch on but the males...this I believe will only get worse.

The Siberian wallflowers were from wildflower mix that I tossed last yr. They reseed easily so yes easy to grow from seed. I've had them at almost every house I've lived in so I am imagining that they are in a lot of different wildflower mix packages. They are fairly small plants but the orange fowers are quite cheery looking.
I will take some pics today of them and other flowers blooming now and put them in my album linked below.
Ahh - 11 and 13 yr old female helpers, now I see why the bugs were a problem. Not many tomboys out there these days.

Later y'all, Tina

Here is a link that might be useful: My photoalbum

Hi
Cool and wet here today, I was hoping the sun would come out so I could plant up those pots I worked on last night without becoming a mosquito's meal, but looks like they are out in force. I got bitten just coming from the bus down the driveway! ekkk

I have spent a hour searching for a round whiskey tub that my liner for the little pond can go into. I bought it from Moore's and didn't know it needed to go into a whiskey barrel...grrrr I thought I found one at Canadian Tire made of cedar, brought it home and nope the plastic liner doesn't fit properly as the cedar tub is too narrow at the bottom!!!! Oh man, soooooooo frustrating, I thought I had it! And it was so light to carry too. So now I will have to hope that Canadian Tire will be getting some more of the oak half whiskey barrels in or I'm never going to get this plastic thing up and running.

Marcia, love the tulips and that poppy wow! Are u sure your not playing a trick and put an artifical one in the garden? *L* I had some lovely pink and purple tulips that I got from the OHA for 2000, but when they got moved I guess they got thrown out to the dump. *sigh* None of the weeds seem to have gotten tossed to the dump though.

Gale, is having problems with her pooter and it's at the doctor's getting fixed. *S*

Tina, maybe u should rope off an spot and tell them, ok there and only there is ok for u to put stuff. *L*

One of the girls was ok around the ants until one climbed up inside her pant leg and bit her! Either that it was a mosquito or a black fly. But she was standing in amidst a whole heap of them and wasn't worrying about them crawling all over her until she got bit. The younger one wouldn't go near them at atll! I'm hoping the stuff I sprayed yesterday had a chance to kill most of them.

I ordered a mosquito inhibiter or something or other today. It's so mosquitoes won't know your there to use on the patio, works up to 100 square ft and runs on batteries. This one is solar powered and made by Coleman. I thought I'd try it as we can't afford one of the expensive mosquito magnets. It should be in next week and I sure hope it works!

Hubs has just come in with chinese food, I need the containers to put in my ant killing borax and sugar...*L*

Take care
Debbie :-)

Morning,

I have been so busy, company left on Monday morning, six adults, two kids, 2 dogs and a cat all in my little house at once had me crazy. I have been working cutting grass and weed wacking, still have beds to weed and hopefully there are still some plants left at the green house as I have some bear spots. Next year I am going to find a camp close to the city to rent when they are up. love these people but...

Anyway, lilacs are in bloom, baskets are starting to fill out, iris are just about done. My brugs doesn't look that great, neither does my hibuscus but we have had way too much rain and not enough heat. Hubby is off this weekend and supposedly only fishing on Sat. so I will get him to help me post some pics.

Off to clean finger prints on my windows etc.

Post later
Janet

Hi everyone,

Was nice here today until later tonight, then we had more thunderstorms, lots of wind, rain and a bit of hail. The temp dropped fast and I had to go out later in the down pour and try to cover everything up. It's suppose to go down to 3c tonight and it's already at 7C. It got windy again and I couldn't find enough bricks to hold down the plastic and sheers, so I hope they don't blow away on me.

My white lilac in the front yard has two blooms on it, two more blooms than last year. The lilac in the back yard has a few purple blooms on it, too many bugs back there when I walked by so i didn't stop and count them. *L*

Yesterday hubs went to Canadian Tire and picked up a whiskey tub for the pool liner and then I spent the next 3 or 4 hrs fooling with it. It didn't work right as the water would spill out the spout, but then get caught on the little rim underneath the spout and run back along the tub and drip on the patio. We lost over 3 gallons in less than a hour. So we had to take all the water out and put a piece of board under the barrel to tip it forward a bit so the water would run out faster and that seems to have helped, so far. I then had to fight with the hose to get it on the pump and that took me forever as it wouldn't go on without major fighting. I think they sold me too small of a hose. Hopefully I will be able to work the kinks out and get it working like it is suppose to. The birds seems to like it though. *S*

The mosquitoes sure are bad with all this rain we have been getting. Gee whiz, at Walmart garden center I thought I was going to get eaten alive!

I have to get some more dirt to finish off the rest of the raised beds, and also some mulch. I'm hoping to have that delivered as without having a car it is a bit difficult to get all that I need. *L*

I divided my water lily so now I have one in the tub and one in the pond. I hope they can recover and flower for me this year.

Janet, i bet you're glad to have your house back to yourselves. That is a lot of company, and pets too! wow!

Tina, I looked at your pictures and your girls are very pretty! How do u keep people or critters out of your gardens at the front with no fence around it?

Well it's late so I best me moving along. Take care and Gale, I hope your pooter is running soon!

Debbie :-)

Oh dear! 3C I hope everything survives okay for you.
Drats big mosquitos now eh? We havent been to the country in weeks with all the work going on here and I guess we missed the 'bug free' season.

I'd love to see pics of your pond when its done.

Janet - I think if I had that many people in my house I would've found a camp site for myself to sleep in!! That's just way too many people.

I put one of those little wire gates along the front yard beside the sidewalk to keep people from walking in the garden and across the lawn. A trip wire.
Not really any critters to keep out. HAd a few loose dogs run through them occasionally - what can you do? Cats are always in my gardens - but three of them are mine!! Doesn't bother me in the least - it is the dirt they love not the plants. They are all very carefull about walking around plants. Everytime I dig a new bed all the neighbourhood cats come and take their roll around - they think I am the cat playground queen. Never had anything irreversibly destroyed. Okay one of them seems to love the garlic chives and has been eating it since it sprouted!!
We're going to our first bonfire tonight - early solstice celebration. I am really looking forward to it.
Talk to you all later
Have a great weekend! Tina

Hi Buddies!

FINALLY got the 'puter back from the vet's and the beast was full of viruses from Kailee playing on the Sim's website...UGHHHHHH Cost $400.00 to wipe it out & get it back to health.Anyway..I'm finally back online, but without all my e-mail addy's again...geesh

I've been busy playing out in the yard and selling plants on the side.
I just put a sign at the end of the driveway when I'm home puttering in the yard and people drive in to take a peek in the greenhouse.
Haven't had anyone leave empty handed yet!
Not really making a big profit..but enough to buy me some soil, seeds and pots for next year...just enough to feed my addiction...lol

I've been ripping out my wild flower bed....haven't done a thing to it in 6 yrs. and it was TOOO WILD! What a job!

Got most of my edging in around the streambed as well...should have put it in at the beginning....but ya know....3 yrs. later works o.k. too...lol

My 30 yr. old lilac tree is is full of blooms and it will be it's last year. I want to rip it out as it's getting too big in front of the house and I'm tired of the suckers running through the shade bed...so it's time for it to go! I bought a white blooming weigala (sp?)to replace it. It's supposed to grow to 5-6 ft. and I wanted something the birds can hang out in as the feeders are close by and they always sat in the lilac tree.

I also ripped out the hops vine in the same bed....too aggressive there too!

We have a robin's nest right on our bathroom window sill with 3 eggs in it!
It's going to be so cool to see the babies grow up through the window! Have never had a nest on a window sill before, so we'll enjoy this experience!

The hummers are busy bickering around the feeders too...think we have at least a dozen now that live in the yard.
The downey woodpeckers are always squacking nearby and now we can hear an owl somewhere "whooooing" all the time.
Not sure where about it is, as we've never seen it but it's not too far if we hear it all day.

Had two "pigeon/dove" looking birds strolling along the driveway yesterday that I've never seen before.
Will try to identify them from my bird book.
It's becoming bird haven here!

Got the veggie garden planted 2 weeks ago and only the peas and potatoes have poked through so far.
I'm sure the bush beans will be poking this week.
Planted pole beans for the first time this year too and built a teepee for them to climb up.
My mom always grows them and when we have them for supper there..they taste so fresh, even though they have been in her freezer for some time...I love them. Hope mine grow well.

Sounds like everyone is busy in their gardens and fighting the flies..lol

Well...I have to head to town for Father's Day gifts and then I'm going to tackle that wild flower bed some more!
Just thought I'd check in...it's been awhile!

Talk to ya'll later, Gale

Hi there!

Well I was out again at 3 a.m. putting another layer of covers on everything, grrrr it was -2c with the windchill, what a pain! I had my winter coat on and gloves as my hands were freezing! Gee whiz, if we ever win the lottery I'm putting a plastic dome over the house...LOL I sure hope my water hyacynth made it as there was no way I could find it at 3 a.m. even if I was so inclined to TRY and find it,,which I was not! *L* Just my luck I would have fallen into the pond *LOL* ewwww that's not a nice thought.
I didn't cover up the impatients in the hosta bed either, so I hope they made it. I have no urge to go and look as I know I would get eaten alive. It is still cool, wet and overcast out. And we all know what that means,,,,,BUG WEATHER!

Tina, cats eating garlic? I thought garlic and onions were toxic to cats. My cat is "suppose" to be an indoor cat so I didn't know cats love to roll in the dirt. he has been sneaking outside every once in a while, so I don't know if he's rolling around in the dirt or just running after the birds...*L* All I know is when he gets out I'm running after him. *LOL*
Have fun at the bonfire, I haven't been to one of those in years!

Gale, glad your back! But sorry to hear about the viruses and yikes 400 bucks?! Wow, do u know how many plants u could buy for 400 bucks? Of course u do, silly question. Do u have a norton virus thingy? Or was it one of those viruses that hackers can put into your computer? I had a virus put in from someone accessing one of my ports; so I got a free program called zone alert and it stops that. I can try and find the addy for it and send it to you.

That's great that u are selling plants to feed your addiction. *G* That is a good idea. I don't think that would work here, but I have thought about it though.

How many suckers do lilacs get? I'm going to be moving our small white lilac to the front lawn, which is just in front of the new raised beds we just made, will the suckers grow into that and up? It will be 20" high.

Robins are still having babies this late in the year? that is kewl, I love the colour of the eggs. We had a male robin trying to make a nest in the evergreen tree, but he never had any female takers. Poor guy. *L* Sure sounds like you have tons of birds around your place.Another great thing about living in the country with lots of different trees around, so many more types of birds. Could those pidgen/doves be mourning doves? They are a greyish white if my memory is correct, sound like pidgeons too.Very pretty birds.

Crazy, where are u? How are your gardens doing? Do u have a lot of birds this year too?

Jak, are u still hiding out in your gardens and playing with your grandson or are u too busy at work.

I hope everyone is keeping well and having good gardening weather.

Take care
Debbie :-)

ops sorry I was trying to think and type something different at the same time,,,,,that was suppose to be Crafty. Crafty, I hope your garden is doing great!

HeyDeborah how is your garden doing? Dannie how is your garden doing? I know we have lots of other northern gardeners hiding out there,,,,come on and post, don't be shy, we don't bite here. We leave that up to the skitters *LOL*

Debbie :-)

HI Deb and all

I am thrilled with my garden. The irises and the bleeding hearts we transplanted this spring are blooming. I didn't expect them to. Everything else is showing signs of growth except for the Goatsbeard and the Delphiniums. I even discovered some hostas that I didn't know were still left in one area of the garden. I thought we had transplated them. My white astilbes are beautiful. I can't wait for the pink ones to bloom.

With the wind we had the other day, it blew down some of my new transplanted ostrich ferns. I just took out some old tomato cages and put those around the ferns' fronds to hold them up. Actually looks not too bad and it does support them. I had done the same for my peonies and my bleeding hearts so they didn't get knocked down by the wind.

I put the goldfish in the pond yesterday. They seem to be quite happy to be in their summer home. The water is clearing and I can see about half way down so I am pretty happy about that. I have ferns planted around three quarters of the way around the pond so it shades the water and once the ferns are fully grown, it helps control the green water.

Yesterday, I also got the benches that go with my copper firebowl. We had one area of the yard (20'x20') that was a dog pen for about 15 years and we converted it back to yard. It was full of pea gravel and we did remove most of it. The rest will provide nice drainage. I extended the flower bed from the rest of the yard into the pen and covered the rest in sod. I really should say "we" because hubby did most of the work. It is in that area that we set up the firebowl. I am pretty happy with that area considering that it was a dog pen for so many years. I still have dogs but we are just letting them roam the yard. Have to train them to stay out of the beds, they are slowly getting the idea.

I am still waiting for a willow twig arbour that is being made by Judy at Willow Springs. She is also making a couple of tables to go with the willow chairs I have. I ordered a Polestar rose to grow on that arbour. I just hope that I have enough sun to keep the rose happy and growing. The area gets sun late morning and all afternoon.

The yard was a project that was supposed to take 2 years to do but we started on it last July and we are basically done. Now hubby wants to get going on the front yard. That was supposed to be year three. Oh well, when he gets moving, he really gets moving! Whenever we find the recharger for the batteries of the digital camera, I will post pictures. I am really happy with what we have done so far.

Sorry about the long post!

Danni

Hi
Cool and wet here again today. I planted another window box and got my little pool on the patio working and looking nicer. Now I need the sun to come so my flowers will start blooming and getting bushy.

Hi Danni, I'm glad your garden is coming along so well. That is great! I'm really eager to see pics of it. I will admit that I sprayed Round up on my delphinums, I just got sick of them falling over even when I staked them. Good idea aboutt he tomato cages, I sometimes use them on my peonies, if the rings don't work out and I use them on other tall plants too.

How big and deep is your pond?

That area that u made with your firebowl and benches sounds nice. I wanted to get one of those metal fireplaces from Canadian Tire, but when I called our fire department to see what was necessary, they said they would have to come over and inspect it, I would have to get a burning license, and if any of our neighbours complained we would have to put it out. So we never bothered, as we had crummy neighbours at the time.

I sure wish I could get pea gravel up here, I'm going to have to find time to get out to the gravel pit to look at what they have and get some delivered for the gardens I'm ripping out and not replanting, as I find the wood chips break down to fast and i don't want to have to keep replacing them every two years.

Your willow furniture sounds wonderful too. I have a chat friend that makes her own trelllis and stuff from willow and does a pretty good job. I am not handy at doing stuff like that, I wish I was though *L*. Sounds like you have lots of sun to keep that rose happy.

If your hubby runs out of projects at your place u can send him here, I need all the help I can get. *LOL*

Here are some pics of my pool. It will look much better when the plants get bigger and fill in the gaps. All we need is sun.
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Take care
Debbie :-)

Hi
Weather here has been wet, with no real heat. I finally have some pictures, but I can't seem to post them They are the right size, but they won't add to message. Help.

Janet

Deb, your pond looks really cute. What a great idea to have one spill into the other. My pond is about 8 feet by 4 feet and about 2 feet deep. It isn't deep enough to over winter the fish in it but that isn't a problem since I have a 75 gallon tank in the rec room where they spend the winter.

Why are you ripping beds out and not replanting? Could you plant some kind of ground cover. If you put pea gravel in there, you will have weeds coming through and it wouldn't be easy to remove them unless you plan to do it by hand.

Janet send some of that rain this way. It is cool, dry and windy here. We need the rain to keep the sod we laid down happy. The plants need it too.

Danni

Hi
It was a nice day here today. Sunny and overcast, we did get some rain around 7pm. But at least my plants got to see a bit of sun today.

The pool on the patio is acting up again and I will have to find out where it is leaking and fix it. I put the pump in the pond in the rose garden, but when I went out to feed the fish later the filter box was floating, so I will have to put a brick on it to hold it down. Today was not a good day with the ponds. *L*

I did get the 24' bed topped off and put some newspapers and black fabric on it and planted two roses.

I am having 18 bags of soil, 14 bags of mulch delivered tomorrow too, so I can start mulching it and moving the flower pots onto the spaces between the roses, to make it look nicier until the roses fill in. I still have 4 more roses to plant, and my Alexander MacKenzie rose has not recovered from being dug out, so I guess it is not going to make it. I will plant it and see what happens, I can always plant a hosta in it's place next year. *S*

I put some round up along the fence line to keep any grass from coming into the gardens and killed a few irises too. I brought the blooms in the house. I will probably regret it next year, but I just got sick of the purple irises.

I worked on the trellis thingy over the hosta bed as it was falling apart and fixed it up and put strings leading up to it for the sweet peas and peas to grow on.

Started filling up the 9ft raised bed with cardboard that my stuff from Moore's came in and newspapers too, I'm slowly getting things done. Today son was here so he helped me a bit, so things got done faster.

I had called all around town to see if anyone sold pea gravel, but no one had it. They sell it in Timmins, but to get them to deliver it here will be a 350 dollar delivery fee! Yikes! So I will have to rethink the type of stone I want.

Janet, we are getting quite a bit of rain right now too, though it did hold off until tonight. But it sure isn't giving the ground any time to dry out or my pots.

To post pics here u have to have them loaded onto the internet somewhere to store them, u just can't post them from your computer.

Danni, I'm ripping out beds, because my whole yard is basically gardens. I will be putting down layers of newspaper, then landscaping fabric on top, then the stone or gravel. I have no grass except for the 4ft by 24ft strip in the front yard, which I have also planted wooly thyme in as the soil is so bad the grass always dries out anyways. The town planted the sod and the soil they put down is just awful. We have added peat moss and black earth to it, but to keep it green it almost has to be watered every day, so I said the heck with that. So we planted bunches of wooly thyme and hopefully that will eventully spread out.

My health is not good and now that son doesn't live here anymore it is too hard for me to get it all done myself and hubs really can't help either. So I'm cutting back to try and keep it under control. *S* I have an engleman ivy that is ground cover whether I want it to be or not. *LOL* I just spray it with round up if it goes too crazy though. I have also read that vinegar is good too so I'm trying that too.

Well have to get to bed cause delivery man is coming tomorrow and so is the guy from seeing eye to see hubs.

Take care
Debbie :-)

Just came in from the garden. I got my delivery of mulch and dirt today so I'm ready to get busy now. *L*

I put down 3 bags of mulch and planted a few sunflowers along the back of the bed and a yellow hosta that is suppose to get very big, so they will make the bed look a bit more livier as it sure looks bare out there now. I will get hubs to help move some pots there too. I was going to try it myself, but thought that wasn't such a good idea. *L*

Still having problems with that new spillway thingy. It's spilling over alright, but just not where it is suppose to! So I will have to empty it again and I guess try to put a 2" piece of wood under it, instead of the 1" piece thick I had. It worked for a day or two, but is back running along the rim again and onto the patio. If that doesn't work I guess I'll just put the pump right into the container, lower the water level and not use the rubbermaid tote thing at all.

Well back to work I go,,,,we are suppose to have thunderstorms, so I should get done as much as possible.

Hope you all are having a good day!

Debbie :-)

Evening, all! Gee, when is spring going to get here?? It was a lovely April day today, temps up to +15 (wow!), with a few April showers. Things are supposed to be much the same for the next week. I hope May is even better!

This is nuts.

Still and all, things are growing and blooming fairly nicely. The columbines are starting, and so are some of the geraniums. Peonies have buds on them, and my bleeding heart is HUGE! The little "Belllis" i bought in Thunder Bay is also blooming, and the blue poppy has three more blooms. (Gale, did you see the pics??? *BIG GRIN!*) If we'd just get a little heat, things would really take off.

Debbie, sounds like you're really busy in your yard, but i bet you're having fun! I cram all my work into the weekends, and even then not much gets done. The darn grass needs cutting again, but it has been too wet. It was not too bad on the weekend, but there were things going on both Saturday and Sunday, so i didn't have time to do it, and it has been wet ever since.

After tonight, things are winding down. Last night was grad at the school in town here, and tonight was the grad at the little school. Probably the last one they'll have from that school. It was very nice, though. Tomorrow is the last day of school for the kids, but i go for another week. Lots to get done in that space of time, but i'll be glad when it's over! It'll be great to be able to just fool around in the yard and get it looking good again! And i need time to help my daughter with her garden too - we haven't gotten anything done with that!

Anyway, i'm off for now. Tty all later!

Marcia

Hi

I think I have this figured out, with the help of my dh.

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This my herb garden, not much happening in it as I plant mostly seeds here. It is a lasange bed, which I love as we have so much rock.

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This is my little pond, it is directly across from the herb garden and is one of the 1st things you see as you walk up the front steps.

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And lastly this is the ridge in the front of the road, It has easy perinnals and I have been trying to plant native wild flowers. I want it as easy to look after as possible.

Janet

Very nice, Janet! I love the pond!

Beautiful gardens Janet! I love the all the rocks you have used. Makes me anxious to move to the country so I can have the space to be creative.

Finally the front porch is done. Yesterday I moved a lot of perennials into the space in front of the porch I had to empty out for the workers. Its a little late to be moving stuff now but we'll see what happens. Some of the plants were starting to flower, hopefully they don't abort. NOw I have to do some tidying of beds that I have neglected in the front due to the construction.

We're getting a lot of coolish weather with high winds - nasty. Not nearly enough rain to eliminate watering totally though. It is supposed to warm up over the weekend.

My garden is doing great - still not many blooms but they are finally coming. We need some more heat for sure.

Kids are gone to Toronto for a week with their dad (he's a musician and playing somewhere down there) It sure is awfully quiet around here. Even my grandaughter went with them. I really wanted to keep her here but she is not weaned yet - drats. I hate not being able to see her every day! It's weird when the kids are gone. Often they are at their dad's but phoning me constantly for something or another. Jasmine was having a minor fit last night (homesick) and phoned me to talk her through it. Nice when your 16yr old still needs Mom for comfort - you dont see it often.

Today is cloudy and wet but supposed to clear this afternoon. I have one flat of wintersown seedlings to plant so that will get done today.

DH has been sick with bronchitis all week so no work has been done on the basement. Hopefully he is feeling better today and we can start framing some walls.
Well off to start my day.
HAve a good one, Tina

Who the heck turned off the sun and left the hose on? It is only 6c here and raining like crazy! Our furnace came on and it's only set to come on when it gets to be 65F in the house! geezeeeee Was summer cancelled due to lack of interest and no one told me? This is unreal and to think I might have to cover up the plants AGAIN tonight when it's June 24th is crazy! It is June right? I haven't slept all the way thru the summer and we are now into October? Grrrrr This is frustrating! Why doesn't the rain go out to BC where it is needed?
Ok, I feel a bit better now. *L*

Yesterday I tried to work in the garden, but I would just get outside and the rain would start so I'd have to bring everything back into the porch, this went on all day. I did manage to dig out a few lilies and irises and stick them into pots. I will say that it is easier to get these things out when the ground is soaked. I also pulled out a few huge prickle weeds, I thought it was a perennial geranium until I touched it. OUCH *LOL*
I brought out a few of my statues to put in the garden too, I just have to figure out where.

My lilies in the contractor bed are still only up a few inches, I am starting to have this feeling that he replanted them waaaayyyyy too deep or even upside down. I have a hosta coming up in that bed that I am not sure which one it is,,, as it doesn't really look like the two yellow ones that were in that bed. Gee, maybe he stuck that one upside down? *L*

I just called a gravel place about stone and looks like I might be going out there tomorrow to look at what they have. If I don't order 15 yards I will have to pay a delivery charge, but I sure don't want 15 yards! It wouldn't fit on my driveway anyways. *L* I have to only get a bit at a time as it is going to take me a while to move it via toboggan *L*

Marcia, your blue poppy is so pretty! Could u take some more pics of it please? It is just lovely!

I don't know if I'm having fun, I think I'd be having fun if I was getting the help I was suppose to be getting to do all the heavy work, but son has not followed thru on his promise to help me. So I'm very frustrated as I can't get it done as fast as I'd like to, plus the darn rain is slowing me down. But it is starting to look a bit like a garden again...*G* Thank goodness as it was looking like a junk yard before with all the peat moss bags all over. I still can't get to one bed to weed it as there are still five bags of peat moss blocking my way.

Does your hubby not help u cut the grass? I know u have a lot of grass around your gardens cause u live in the country, or do u like to do it yourself? I know my mom use to love to cut the grass. Our neighbour came over on Sunday Gary said and did our tiny patch with a weed whacker. I thought Gary had pulled it out by hand when he was trying to get the long grass in front of the fence out. It looks tiday now and here I thought hubs had done it. *L*

Marcia, what kinds of things does your daughter want to do with her gardens? Is she going to grow flowers or veggies too?

janet, love your yard and your pond is great! I love all the rocks!What is the red flower in your pond, is it a impatien? The tent? sorry I don't know the right name to call it, on your patio, does that have a screen all around it? And how do u set it up to stop it from flying over when the wind is strong? It looks nice. I have seen something like it at Walmart, but without the screening on it and would like to get one, but didn't know how I would stop it from flying over in the wind. We use to have a dining tent for the backyard when we lived in the bushier part of town and the bugs were so bad, but I have lost the instructions on how to set it up. I don't even know if it would fit in our tiny yard.

In your 4th pic on the front left side, there looks like there is a raised bed there and steps going down below your pond? Do u have many different levels in your gardens? It looks very interesting. I see a lot of shade under your front patio/step area, that looks like a perfect place for some nice hostas. *BWG*

I know u said for your slope you'd like native flowers, but sweet williams multiply nicely and look pretty and dante rockets smell wonderful and multiply too, so does evening primrose. And if u don't want them u just pull them out.

Tina....yeahhhh!!! So glad the porch is done and you can start moving your plants back. If u keep them well watered they should recover ok. Do u use 10-52-10 starter fertilizer? That is suppose to help cut back on root shock when u move a plant.

Hope hubs is feeling better soon and that u can get back to working on your basement. *S*

jak, are u ok? How is your gardens coming along? Crafty how are u doing?

Take care
Debbie :-)

Debbie, what are you using the stone for? Maybe you have a neighbour that you can go halfers on a load with? I often do that with loads of dirt, manure whatever cuz I rarely can use the minimum delivery amt.
I second that this weather is horrid!! Everything was starting to perk up with the few days of heat we had - I have a slight recollection that it occured....Now all the plants are struggling to stay warm.
My furnace came on yesterday also.
I pulled the 1st flowers of the toms and peppers yesterday. Maybe should've left them, if it doesn't warm up there may not be anymore!
I put in a summer bulb bed this yr and the plants in it are sure not happy with this never ending spring weather. Planted cannas, callas, glads, elephant ears that I started indoors in March. Since I put them in almost a month ago they have maybe put out one new leaf each.
I don't use commercial fertilisers outdoors (do on my houseplants though), strictly organic with mulches, compost, other organic sources of nutrients. I watered the transplants well and with the rain in the past few days they should be fine. Only a few of them are looking a bit limp but they'll pull through.

Can someone tell me how you embed photos into posts?
Tina

Hi....*growing feathers here*

Today it was "suppose" to be sunny but it rained on and off all day and night. I was able to get a rose planted and dug out a big clump of lilies and a huge hosta. I was very "determined" to get something done!

I didn't know the hosta clump would be so heavy! I'm not suppose to lift anything heavy, but boy oh boy this thing was heavy! I picked it up and realized there was no way it was going to fit in a 16" pot. So I put it down and cut it in half, again it wouldn't fit in the pot, cut some more off it, didn't fit, so I finally just smacked it with a shovel and it fit then *LOL* Then I sat down and tried not to pass out! I figured I couldn't pass out as Gary wouldn't know I was laying on the ground, he'd just think I was outside having fun in the garden, not becoming a main meal for the mosquitoes. *L* Never ever again. And I had just planted that hosta in 2001, it sure grew fast! *LOL* I wanted to save the whole thing, but heck it can grow back from the hunk I got. *L* I think I pulled every muscle in my body. *LOL*

Son was over here today and cut down and pulled out an old hansa rose that was outta control. It looked pretty awful so I wanted it out. He also fixed the floating pond pump for me too.

This afternoon we went to a gravel place and chose which stones I wanted for the garden, so we will be getting those delivered in a couple of weeks when I am more ready to start the walkways. I think I talked to the guy outta charging me a delivery fee. *S*

I also picked up a solar power mosquito inhibitor with light. I'm hoping it will work.

Gary was outside this morning at 5 a.m. with the dog and the police came along and told him to get back in the house that a bear was loose. So he came back in the house and later heard a gun shot. It must have been very close as the windows and doors were all closed up and he was at the back of the house too. Don't like the fact they shot it but don't like the fact that bears are in the middle of town already and it is only June.

Tina, I'm going to put down newspapers, then landscaping fabric and then stone on top of that to cover walkways and to cover up existing gardens that I no longer want to use. I have a lot of garden space in the backyard that I don't want anymore so I want to put this down instead of grass. And if any weeds grow up thru it I will spray round up on it. It will also be around the picnic table in the rose garden. In previous years I have gotten dump trucks full of wood chips, but they break down after a few years and have to be reapplied, I want stone so I don't have to reapply it.

Tina, YOUR furncae came on too? wow! This is just a terrible spring/summer so far. I sure hope the sun comes out and it warms up a bit. It got up to 12C today, tomorrow hopefully it will get warmer and the sun will stay out and it won't rain! The ground is so wet it squishes when walked on.

I'm thinking of using Marcia's tip about the clear garbage bags over the tomato pots with slits cut in them, at least until it warms up again.

Tina with all this rain we are getting, the nutrients are probably being washed out of the soil. Have u ever spread out alfalfa meal over the ground? That has lots of nitrogen in it, I sometimes make an alfalfa tea in the rain barrel for my hostas, using alfalfa pellets, also manure tea. But it has been so wet I haven't watered much. I have been using the Miracle Grow shake and feed this year but I also use chemical fertilizer. Our season is so short I have to push the heck out of my plants, but I have to wait for them to dry out a bit before I fetilize them again.

Tina, I emailed u about how to put pics in here. :-)

Take care
Debbie :-)

We haven't actually had that much rain here. Maybe 20mm in the last 2 weeks and that is a big maybe. Lots of little showers, very little accumulation.

Today is supposed to actually be sunny!! and maybe even - dare I say - warm?? Up to 22C in the forecast - we'll see. Since I live in a warmer microclimate, it'll get hotter in my back yard - yeah!! I might actually play outside and enjoy it today.

Thanks for the email on pic posting. I'll try it a bit later.

I've thought about stone for some pathways as well. I like the woodchips or bark in my perennial and backyard bed paths as they do break down and I don't want them there forever, I change my backyard beds all the time and in the perennial beds I just like them until the perennials get bigger and fill the bed out more. I am thinking stones in some places that I know I will not plant. Don't want to plant grass and there is only dirt there.

Debbie I am glad your son came to help you out a bit yesterday - don't want you passing out and becoming mosquito fodder!!!
Have a good day!! Tina

Morning,

Looks like a beauitful day, yesterday was not that bad either so maybe are weather is changing. I would like some real hot days, went and bought my dh a wet suit so he can get in the water, he loves to swim and snorkel and with our weather has not be able to get in the lake. Tomorrow we will go and try it out, I will sit on the beach and watch, good be fun.

Anyway, thanks for the comments on the pond and gardens. Debbie, I had sweet williams in my old garden, but when I lost my bigger pond and gardens due to the water line, I decided to down size. This year I really wanted to sit back and watch and not start anymore projects. I hope everything is going okay in your yard, you certainly are one busy lady, it makes me tried just reading about it lol. Tina, you don't want rock like we have, it is impossible to dig, and I swear the things mulitply. I took a look at your page, your girls are beauitful, I have two boys 21 and 23 they are both out of the house now, but call home everyday to chat. They also like to come home and relax. You have a lot of land 50 acres, I have only 2 acres, but I am only 11 km out of town.

I am going to work in my vegys garden today, I am growing spagetti squash for the 1st time and it is not doing anything so I will fertilze to try to get some growth going, I know I need a good load of manure up there.

Have a great day
Janet

Janet, what lake are you near? Superior or an inland lake? Can't imagine diving in Superior way to cold for my tropical tastes!!

Still cloudy here. Weather's not bad though - bit of rain and warm enough.
I love spaghetti squash. This is my 3rd yr growing it. It's a bit slow this yr but it will pick up when (if?) the heat ever gets here.

WE have rock as well - I know about hte multiplying thing - but you have actually arranged yours around gardens. We still have piles here and there..

2 acres is probably nicely managable. 90 acres - not very managable. Nice to have the area to roam certainly will never use it all. Pretty dense bush in a lot of places. 2-3 acres is probably what we actually use.

Ah well, keep having fun with your gardens! Tina

Evening, everyone. We had a decent day here too, for a change. I think it might have gotten over 20! LOL It actually felt, dare i say it? - HOT! LOL We don't have a furnace, but we were starting fires every night. Crazy.

I had big plans for yesterday, but we ended up going into Dryden with some friends, so that shot the day. Today i got a fair bit done, including cutting most of the grass. Now i'm pooped! Some of the beds are looking fairly nice and now that it seems to be warming up a bit, they should really take off.

My daughter wants to plant mostly flowers, but i'm hoping she'll take my last tomato and pepper plants too. She likes to plant cherry tomatoes for their friends' kids, and i have two of those for her too. She likes sunflowers and i've started four different kinds for her. Last year she had morning glories in front of her house, so we started some of those too. I'm not sure what she was up to today - i phoned once and Dave said she was sleeping. Needless to say, we didn't do any work on her gardens today!

Debbie, my dh and my son use the riding lawnmower to cut the larger expanses of grass, like on the septic field. I use a regular mower to do the rest - i don't trust them around my flower beds!

What is a solar-powered mosquito inhibitor? I could use something to inhibit them for sure - they're pretty fierce out there! We got spoiled last year having no bugs!

Tina, my dh was sick this week too with a chest cold. Apparently beer helps with that....

Today while i was outside, the dog took off up the road and i could hear him barking frantically. My son came out and grabbed a big stick (!!) and went to see what was up. A porcupine!! Fortunately it was up a tree, but dh got rid of it anyway. We have friends whose dog died because one of the quills worked its way inside to her heart. Very sad - she was a nice dog.

Tina, we live on 10 acres here and most of it is bush and swamp and beaver ponds, and we use only a couple of acres as well. If we ever move to our property north of here, we'll have 160 acres to play with, but i kind of doubt it'll all get landscaped! LOL

Anyway, it's going to be an early night for me - only three more days of work and i'm free for the summer! Yahoo! Let's hope summer actually comes!

Take care!
Marcia

Hi everyone!

We actually got a bit of sun today,,,,got a few sprinkles too,,,,but mostly overcast with sunny breaks! Yeahhhh a high of 18C! *L*

I dug out quite a few hostas today and a bunch of lilies, then I sprayed round up and because it didn't rain this time after i sprayed, the round up may actually kill the stuff... *L* Then I can start filling in the 10" bed and replanting all the hostas and lilies and irises I have dug out.

I pruned the Japanes Lilac tree today as it had big branches coming up from the bottom of it and didn't look like much of a tree. I left two big branches as without the roses to hide us from the street the tree gives us a bit of privacy.

My hostas are getting sooooo big I'm going to have to move them which I don't want to do, seeing as I found out how heavy them are with the last big one I moved. With all this rain they are just growing like gang busters! I'm going to have to hire a student or something to help move them! When I replant the hostas in the new beds, I'm going to remember to give them lotsssss of room! I didn't think they would grow this fast in zone 2. *LOL*

Hubs helped me today pick up the patio stones, and move a few pots around as I was trying not to lift anything heavy. I also planted a few more annuals and fertilized the pots, just a bit. I didn't want to give them too much liquid fertizlier as they are so wet, but the leaves are going yellow so they needed something.

Yesterday we had one of our best friends come up for a day from Sudbury and he brought an exchange student with him from Japan. She was so nice, even our little nasty dog, Bijoux liked her, which was a first in 8 years of having him. He ran downstairs to see his buddy Randy and didn't bark at her or growl or try to bite her or anything! I was amazed! I didn't know she was here and just let bijoux go ahead of me down the stairs. I kidded her and said we would adopt her and Randy said she was actully looking for a family here in Canada. But we are 7 hrs from Sudbury, so that wouldn't work out too well. *L* Why can't son find a nice girl like her, smart, nice, a sense of humor? geezeeee

The son of another friend of ours is back in town from out west visiting and he wanted to jam with Gary. So while I was out gardening Gary and Vince went in the house and started making music. I could here them outside and they sounded good! Vince who is only 23 and grew up with our son, always wanted to play with Gary and has grown up hearing Gary in bands,,so he was glad when Gary said that he could come in the house and jam with him. *L* He was so excited. *S*

Tina, I use to get the woodchips from the town, but now the mill takes care of chopping and chipping any trees that have to come down, so no more chips for me.. *sigh*

Gary bought me another mosquito inhibitor so if I do pass out in the garden and have this thing running, the bugs aren't suppose to be able to find me, though I could afford to lose a few pounds, but doing that from black fly bites and mosquito bites is not my idea of losing weight the best way. *L*

You have 90 acres? Wow, that is amazing. Gary and I could of bought 90 acres, but there was no house on it then. The people that sold it split up the land and filled in the swamp and got rid of the hundreds of marsh marigolds and peeper frogs. We walked by there about 8 years ago and it was so different when we lived just around the corner and use to go for walks thru the fields and listen to the frogs at night. I'm so sorry we didn't buy it, our dogs would of loved it! *L*

Janet, yes I'm too busy! It makes me tired just thinking of it too. *L*

Do u grow your veggies in a lazenga bed too? When your spaghetti squash puts out a fruit, u can use one of your many rocks to put the fruit on it, so it won't rot and it will grow faster from the heat of the rock too. I use to put mine on bricks.

Marcia,,,, ah don't trust them around your flower beds? Got ya, I understand completely! *L*

Solar power mosquito inhibitor, it an inhibitor with a light on it that is run off batteries that are powered by a solar panel, it also runs the fan that blows the inhibitor stuff around. It is suppose to be able to hide us from the mosquitoes so when a person, say me, is passed out in the garden, the mosquitoes won't be able to find me... *LOL*

Gary went to Canadian Tire and got me another one for 20 bucks without the solar light thingy. The inhibitor stuff is suppose to last from 2 to 3 weeks, or 15 hrs if u run it constantly.

*LOL @ Marcia* Beer helps with a chest cold? hmmmm good to know for future reference... *L*

160 acres? *falling down in dead faint* WOW! Do u know how many hostas u could plant on that? And it wouldn't matter how big they grew either. *LOL*

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Take care everyone

Debbie :-)

Morning,

Sun is shining, but the day is still young. It seems that everday starts nice and ends raining. I can't remember a summer that it was this bad. We go to an inland lake to swim, my brother has a camp that is just a 40 minute drive from home and he is great about sharing, so we spend a lot of time there. The water was so cold though that no one went in.

Debbie, your hostas are beauitful, I have two of them and they are not that lush.

Marcia, when are you heading this way again.

Gale, I am having problems with water lilies they have real small pads this year and don't seem to be filling out. I did fertilize them.

Hope some of you are having summer.

Janet

We had summer here today! It was even hot! I don't know how long that will last, but i'm not complaining! The only thing i'll complain about are the mosquitoes - they're awful.

Janet, i don't know when i'll be coming back to Thunder Bay. No specific plans for the summer yet. I'll have to see if my mother-in-law wants to go and visit her friend again, and maybe my daughter will want to come at the same time. I'll let you all know for sure, though.

We were out at the lake a couple of weekends ago, and yes the water was cold! It didn't stop my grandson, though. I guess when you're three you don't feel the cold so much. Anyway, he was in there, shoes, pants and all, and of course, i had to go in and get him because his dad was busy cutting the grass. He didn't want to come out, either, even though Grandma was freezing! LOL

I've uploaded more pictures. Thank goodness June is over - i think that album is a little too full! LOL

Night all -
Marcia

Here is a link that might be useful: June Garden Pictures

Hi everyone!

I can't believe that the sun came out today and it was actually warm! I had to change into light pants! yeahh! I sure hope this sun and heat stays around for a while now and doesn't disappear again for weeks!

Hubs and I went to Walmart today and picked up some more landscaping fabric and fertilizer as by looking at the yellow leaves on my petunias they are going to need it. I walked around the trees and bushes with the shake and feed and fed them and I also trimmed the carraghana bushes too as they were getting a bit scraggly and I want them bushy.

I did some work in the garden, dug out another hosta that the garden bed was placed right on top of... *L* and started working on the 9 ft bed in memory of my brother. I also pruned the tamarack that kept smacking me in the face too, that will teach it a lesson. *L*

I still have about 2 trays of plants that aren't planted but have no idea where I'm going to put them.

I ripped a rose out of one of the pots and took it over to the neighbour and said hi, it's your grubby neighbour, I have something for your wife..I said where would u like me to put it and please be polite. He started laughing and had me put it on the ground, I don't think they planted it though as they went out shortly afterwards. But if it dies that is ok, as I was going to put it in the garbage anyways and I needed the pot to put the hosta I dug out in. *L* She is always after me to give her plants I don't want, so this was a perfect opportunity. *LOL* Me in my grubby clothes must have looked a sight. *L*

Janet, thanks, my hand isn't really that big. *L* Do u know the names of your hostas? Maybe they need more water?
Have your water lilies been in the same pot for a few years? I remember Gale telling me a few years ago when mine weren't doing well, that mine probably needed to be divided.

Marcia, I used the OFF lantern and the mosquito inhibitor tonight when I was working around the tamarack and pond as the bugs love that spot and it wasn't that bad. The black flies were bothering me more than the mosquitoes so I guess one of the things was doing something right. *LOL* I keep hoping those mosquito magnets will come down in price. I bet you, that you could use one at your place!

I love your pics and that orange tulip is wonderful! And those blue poppies! Wow! My petunias are just starting to think about blooming again, I sure am sorry that I cut the blooms off when I planted them outside.

We can't seem to get hub's friend over here to pull out the lilac. He said he didn't mind doing it, so I don't know what the problem is, I sure wish he'd get here, so I could get that bed finished too and get planting it.

I went out to take pics of my hostas tonight and this hosta now has ripplie edges. It is amazing how these plants change as they get older, this is the first year it has ripplie edge.
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This is a few of the hostas behind the garage.
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This use to be son's old club house, some of the hostas will have to be moved though as they are being squished by others.
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Take care
Debbie :-)

I am starting a July thread and will write in that one.

Debbie :-)

Hi don't know if I'm in the right forum but I was wondering if anyone knows how to plant chinese lanterns from seeds. Do they have to be dried out? Also can i plant them in the house to give them a headstart for next spring?
Thank you
Claire

Hi claire
Your in the right thread, the wrong month though,,I start a new thread every month. U could try putting this on the October thread to see if any of the gang can answer your question.

I'm sorry I don't know much about Chinese lanterns except that I was told they are invasive.

Take care
Debbie :-)