you mean they would do that to us??...make it sterile??..that would just suck!

Hi all! Talk about waiting for spring, I've been hangin out in the wintersowing forum. Going nuts trying to find more containers. I sure do wish I knew who my partner was so I could do some shopping while I'm off...
Dan, those springs in the snow are creepy. Think spring.... happy, colorful, pink, GREEN!!!! Nik

LOL sassy...it's that mean streak in me hehe :) But looks like you have one too. In shorts and a t-shirt...I'M JEALOUS!!!!!

Went and dug strawberries today. The beauty of wild strawberries is that they just don't go away, even in the freezing weather :) Have a trade that I made way back before the snow hit and bless his heart, he's been so patient. Told him I have an 8 lb package on its way hehe the PO will love me :oP I LOVE Flat rate boxes...cause I fill them to the top! :) hehe Made sure to include some dirt so the berries can survive that 2-3 day trip across the US. After all, they may end up on a shelf somewhere...probably right next to my package of Christmas gifts that hasn't arrived yet and they can't find it. And they need to have moisture and food...well they have PLENTY...5-6 lbs worth :oD

CONGRADULATIONS BUNNY

email from Bunny
SHE'S HERE!!!!!

Lilian Alaya was born at 2:07am today (Dec 30).
She is 7 lbs 10oz and 19 1/4" long.
Labor was fast, and she was delivered by her DADDY.
She is dark complected like her brother Elijah - the Cherokee coming out in her (yay, I finally got another one that looks like ME instead of daddy!!)
She's doing GREAT, I'm doing fine....just feel like I've been run over by a mack truck. :O)
Hopefully, I'll be up & running in a few days.

Hugs to all!

Melissa

Awww almost a new years baby :)

CONGRATS Bunny!

Yea Baby Bunny is here! I better watch my chocolate cabbage plants! Bunnies will be nibbling at them soon!

Congrats Melissa!

{{gwi:1317031}}

YAAAHHHOOOOOOOEEEEEYYYYY!!!!!! I am so thankful she came and everybody is healthy. Been prayin.... Nik

Bunny had a li'l Bunny! WAAAAAAAAHOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!! And she's a cutie too!

Congrats! I am so glad the waiting is over for you! I am sure she is beautiful! Melinda

thank goodness!! I thought we'd have to plant a cabbage patch to get her to come out!

And she is SOOOOOOO precious!!!!! Congrats Melissa and family, Lili is gorgeous!!!!!!

You did good!

HUGS,
Kat

-Dan & Bump

I have just enough time to share a picture, for those I couldn't get an email to. :O)
Here's Daddy & Lili a little bit after she was born.

{{gwi:1317033}}

I hope everyone has a GREAT New Years!
Stay Safe!!! :O)
Hugs,
Melissa

She is beautiful!! But we knew she would be! Melinda

Happy New Year to each of you. May 2009 bring you health, wealth, gorgeous gardens, love, peace and the Brightest of Blessings :) I love you all and feel so honored to have you each as part of my family.

HUGS
Kathy

Happy New Year! How about this for a New Year's Party? I have three friends over and they loved all the plants in my living room. So, what did I do? Showed them the GW! Now, we are all looking over seed catalogs and drooling..

Me tomorrow morning. Nope. Not a Bailey's hangover! From looking at the seed catalogs till midnight!

THE BALL HAS DROPPED!!!

WELCOME TO {{gwi:1317034}}

"laughing at Mark enabling his friends"..good way to start the new year.

Dan, have a Bailey's on me!!

I'm in too!! Chris

aren't you a bit too far away for me to have a bailey's ON you? how about I have one WITH you instead??? that would make me more comfortable...
of course, if we had some more brownies with the bailey's, we'd both be feeling pretty comfortable, wouldn't we?
hehehe

Linda,

Growlikecrazy is a newbie. I have told Chris about the swaps. Is Chris comes over here, how about letting her play?

Mark

I've already sent Chris an email in response to hers. We love to make new friends and enable...err...I mean share seeds!,..."L"

okay Dan...maybe it was the wine I had last night...Bailey's with you not on you..ROTF! My neighbor came over last night about 11:30 with this huge bottle of wine. so we all drank in the New Year, toasted friendship...needless to say, I'm drinking tea this morning...very..very ..slowly..."L"

I thought I would throw out some ideas for this swap in case people were wondering what to send with their seeds...as I said..this is a simple fun swap..nothing to break the piggy bank on:

some ideas: garden themed
stickers
note cards
gardening gloves
interesting article you found on line or in your newspaper on gardening
seed envelopes (either bought or made)
markers
a cool seed catalog
windchimes
bubble envelopes
bubble wrap
blank address labels
pens
notebook
treats (as if this group doesn't like treats.."L")

these are just examples...feel free to add your own uniqueness to your box!

Cliff and I rang in the New Year at home with the bratlings, a bottle of Jack and lots of munchies! Subs, hot wings, chips, salsa, queso, mozzarella sticks, pizza rolls, cookies, mixed nuts, spicy nuts and cheezit party mix. I made the kids their favorite punch made with ginger ale, tropical punch koolaide and rainbow sherbert. We watched tv, watched the countdown show and toasted in the New Year at midnight! It was a wonderful night and much better than going out somewhere to a club and being charged $50+ per person and dealing with all the drunks, fights and cops. At midnight I got to be a "first" for Cliff since he'd never kissed *his* woman at midnight ever before. Not when dating and not with his ex.

We had a great time... and by the way, we discovered something delicious last night. Take a Totino's Pizza Roll.. we had the combination ones, and dip it it queso! OMG! It was SOOOOOO good! The bratlings enjoyed getting to have all the junk food that they don't normally get to have and they really like that punch.

So, how did everyone else spend New Year's Eve?

Kathy

we had a fire and talked about what the new year will bring and what we would like to change from the old year. Then as I said, my neighbor came over with some wine and we toasted the new year and good friends..."S"

I wanted to add to Linda's list of ideas some things that I enjoy getting:

Plant food
Epsom salts
Garden Bed plans using the seeds you send
labels (peel and stick type) Can find these at the dollar stores sometimes
Garden kitchka... things like small garden statues made of poly resin (Gotta love Dollar Tree!)
Recipes.. everyone here enjoys good recipes, share your favorites!
paper bags, the small lunch size ones- for seed drying
small ziplock baggies- for storing seed packets
manila envelopes or small snap lid plastic saver containers for storing seeds
cheap knee-hi stockings- again for seed saving- used to bag seedheads to catch the seeds Dollar stores and walmart have these for like .33 each
small calendars
hand lotion to smooth away the garden wear!
scented candles
body scrubs, works great to get all the dirt off your hands and smooths away the rough spots from gardening
jiffy pellets for seed starting
small pots/containers for seed starting. The small ones that come stacked like 10 to a package.

Oh, and I think I've decided for my birthday this year I'm gonna tell Cliff and the kids that I want enough topsoil and manure to finish all my beds into raised beds :) Perhaps they'll find me some edging too to keep the beds from being washed away in the rain. And maybe some more containers to keep my seeds organized in too.

Sounds like Dan & Mark partied a little too much... But, boys will be boys. :O)
Ummm....And Linda....Hmmmm....
Well, that's not too much of a deviation from normal, is it?? :O)
Good to know ya'll are(n't) behaving while I'm away!

I actually had a mug of hot chocolate WITHOUT GETTING HEARTBURN!! Yay!
That was MY New Year's celebration! LOL
Ah...it's the little things, isn't it?? :O)

I think Dan came over and spiked my punch! I woke up with a headache. It may have been the 6 eleven year old boys that stayed the night too and didn't go to bed till 4 AM!

We made homemade pizza, homemade dips, baked cookies, all that fun stuff. The boys had a blast making the cookies and no girls around to tease them! I think they ate as much batter as we baked.

BTW: I wear a mans XL gloves if anyone ever sends me those!

Just wanted to stop by and say.....

Hope we all have a great 2009!!!
Vic

okay here's who we have so far that are waiting for spring:
markcase/mark
dan the mailman/dan
jaleesia/kathy
nikkineel/nikki
w9yards/diana
greenthumbgrow/tammy
debya/deb
ejmoore510/joan
ncgardengirl/fran
lindaruzicka/linda
dirtdiggin/Toni
grolikecrazy/Chris

and I'm not sure about the following gardeners, if you'd like in..please let me know.."S"
diene
proudgm
Ilovefarac/melinda
carol

Looks like we're gathering a good crowd..

if anyone else has ideas for boxes, please feel free to post. Good list Kathy..."scribbling down on my list".."L"

HAPPY NEW
YEAR EVERYBODY

Sorry so late in Wishing You all a Happy New 2009, I was asleep at midnight....went to bed around 9 pm, wasn't feeling to great. Still feel hazy, kind of weird.
Thanks Mark, it is good to know what size hands ppl have. It is hard to send gardening gloves when you don't know which size to send.

:) Fran

I didn't want to say "Upgrade to Pro today" LOL
I wanted to say
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Hey Mark, when you do the paper pellets, is this what they look like when done? And about 2" high?
I've been sitting here folding a paper for about an hour and this is the only thing I can come up with.

{{gwi:1317035}}

Dan, thanks for the link for the paper pots! That was helpful.

Vic

My New Year was actually a sober one, the first time in a few years. Bump and I spent the evening watching movies, and making bids on plants on e-bay. We watched the ball drop online, then we went into the living room for some reading, where we woke up around 2am. Today it was more movies, and winter-sowing. I planted 16 jugs today, over a dozen types of grass, chocolate foxglove, and black hollyhocks. I received some more mandevilla vines in the mail yesterday, and they are now happily resting in the aquarium in the livingroom. I had a 29-gallon aquarium which I've turned into a terrarium, and it has mandevillas, moudry grass, and some flowers in it. It's really cool to look at, and it keeps the plants safe from Bump too!
Now I'm waiting for wal-mart to put out the plastic greenhouses so I can do some more winter-sowing!

78 MORE DAYS UNTIL SPRING!!!

What to put in my box? Well, food is always good....

which reminds me... I'm hungry.

Happy New Year's everyone!!! :) We're all still in our pj's... LOL We've been playing Guitar Hero w/ my daughter all morning long. :)

Hugs everyone!
~Wendy

Vic,

That's close to what the kids do. When they get wet, they push together tighter. We water with a weak miracle grow mixture and the paper gives the substrate. We have very good success with it.

It was cold outside today, but guess what was poking it's head up out of my mulch?

{{gwi:1317038}}

Happy New Year everyone! At midnight, we were out in the yard with kids and adults banging pots and pans together - a tradition shared with us by a friend. Today, Sarah Kate and I wintersowed about 4 containers, then we went to have lunch with extended family. A very sweet New Year's for us. Miss my oldest, he likes to spend time with friends right now more than family. I know he had fun watching the football games.
That tulip is pretty Mark! My daffs have been poking out green leaves for a couple of weeks now. I hope they are going to be ok till spring. I went a little nuts this year with the bulbs...
More ideas for the waiting for spring swap:
Wintersowing containers
jiffy pots
plant markers (old blinds work great!)
Anything to help with seed organization (a cute box, envelopes, baggies....)
SEEDS, of course
Indoor seed starting stuff
I hope everyone has a great day tomorrow! Nik

Ahhh the crocus "Springing" from the ground...always a sure sign of Spring :) k blast it, I'm done with winter, let Spring be Sprung!!! We're expecting MORE of the four letter "S" word :o( Got lots of stuff to get done though before I can plant. We're extending the garden by about 15 times this year...WOOOOHOOOO!!! Got hubby going with Spring Feaver lol. He doesn't even mind anymore when I "buy" MORE seeds lol :)

Thanks Mark! I have LOTS of newspaper but not so much potting mix so that will help with the wsing.
And I am sooo jealous of your crocus!!

It sure is quiet in here today, that's unusual! LOL

Vic

OK Mark, I think you need to give us lessons on the 'paper pellets' we's need to sees YOU making them, pics PLEASE....don't leave us hanging in the dark like this.
Causes Ima Little Confussuled...and we all know by now that it doesn't take much to get me to this state!
(Ok Mark you and Dan can stop laughing now, Dan is ALWAYS laughing at ME! BUNNY GET HIM!)
Isa gonna go lurk somewhere else now....and sip on my Tea.

:)Fran

Happy New Year All;
I really had no intentions of joining as I am not very good with seeds but I do harvest lots every year so I guess I can easily put a box together.
I do enjoy this group because there are always new people to meet. For anyone who has not introduced themselves, don't be shy.
I live in the wonderful state of Maine where we have four seasons, near winter, winter, almost winter and summer. We are in the beginning of winter now and have about a foot of snow on the ground. That is down from the two feet we had last week but they are threatening more this weekend. You do not live here if you do not like snow. I have yet to start cross country skiing but if it gets above twenty tomorrow, I hope to get out there and start. I live by the ocean and across the street from a state park so I have lots of room to ski. I have been gardening my whole life and my goal is to have flowers year round. I am cultivating some lenten roses and snowdrops as they are the best chance at a winter bloom.
My favorite flowers are lilies (day, oriental, asiatic, trumpet and orienpets) and I have way too many of them. Having said that, I received an e-mail last night from one of the vendors with a special sale and I found myself checking the Eureka to see if I wanted to buy some. Fortunately, I came to my senses before ordering.
I am working on a new vegetable garden at my house this year, I have a rather large one at a friend's house but this would be just some special stuff for me. I may concentrate on flowering herbs since it is in the front of the house.
I just counted and I have eleven distinct gardens in my yard at this point and have plans for a few more. Sometimes I think I should be committed.
I live in a neighborhood where they hire people to work on their landscape so most of my neighbors think I am nuts. Not sure why I went on like this but I would love to know more about some of the newbies. My DH says I am nosy but I like to think I am just being friendly.
Did I say I was in, Linda? If not, I am.
diene

Welcome Diene!

Hey! With all that snow, does that mean you have snowberry and snowflake daisy and snow bells and snow plant and snow-in-the-summer plants?

here is that snow plant:

Sorry, couldn't resist. Kids will be kids. even big ones.

See what you started Fran? LOL!

That snow plant looks rather interesting, but I don't have any conifers :(

Welcome, Diene! I'm glad you're joining in!!

Kathy

I'll get some pictures or video of making newspaper pellets later today or tomorrow.

More box ideas:

Teas, coffees- most of us here drink them and enjoy a variety, share some of YOUR favorites!

Kathy

Diene, I'm so happy that you can join us! Don't worry about your neighbors thinking you're nuts, I"m sure alot of our neighbors think the same thing.."L". Just wait until I put out my winter sowing jugs!

okay here's who we have so far that are waiting for spring:
markcase/mark
dan the mailman/dan
jaleesia/kathy
nikkineel/nikki
w9yards/diana
greenthumbgrow/tammy
debya/deb
ejmoore510/joan
ncgardengirl/fran
lindaruzicka/linda
dirtdiggin/Toni
grolikecrazy/Chris
diene

and I'm not sure about the following gardeners, if you'd like in..please let me know.."S"

proudgm
Ilovefarac/melinda
carol

Lots of great box ideas! I think I might write them all down for further reference!

I hadn't intended to join either, but I am always reading these threads and following them! And of course, I too have traded with Bunny and always look forward to it! I would just love to cuddle up that baby and smell that wonderful baby smell! (oops-not always!)I'm going to be in the area in the next week or so and maybe she will even allow me to come and visit the new one!! I am hoping sometime in the next spring or summer, she will come and visit me and let her kids run wild with my grandsons and we can have a nice light lunch! But have to wait until I get my gardens cleaned out! This past year was a bummer for being able to work in the yard-tore that knee ligament and wasn't in much!
Anyway, there are some great people here! So I guess, I will also join!
Thanks, Melinda
Hope everyone had a great New Year! I watched the ball drop by myself and then went to sleep! That was my idea of a good evening at the time!