Didnt crack a book, but did dig out all my old Fine Gardening mags and re-read many of the issues. I still have tons of Organic Gardening mags too. From the 'olden days' when it was a thick and newsy. I think I should donate the OG stuff to GoodWill or St. Vinnies.

I tried to finish up planting some bargain perennials in between rain drops, with no success. The ground was just too soggy.

Mostly it has been a sad few days watching the nice couple next door moving away. They have three baby boys that I've enjoyed watching grow from birth to about 3,5, and 7. They run barefoot and brown as indians. Their athleticsm amazing to me. Much more fun to see grow than plants, thats for sure.
Well, maybe the new family will start a family soon.

Gotta get outside now and finish up with those plants.
Enjoy the day everyone. Sharon

Kimberly,

Haven't read any books lately, but have two or three unread ones sitting on a shelf, and might get around to reading them this winter when I'm stuck inside.

Thanks for sharing the tip on planting under trees using newspaper in the planting holes. I use layers of newspaper (not the shiny stuff) covered w/4" of mulch when starting new garden beds. The grass & weeds are smothered over winter, and by next Spring, the ground is ready for planting.

I've never used the library's share program, but my mom uses it all the time.

Sharon,

It's crazy how gardening magazines pile up over the years. I used to subscribe to Fine Gardening - a great magazine, but had too many articles that didn't pertain to my type of gardening, so canceled. I'm now trying a Garden Gate subscription, and like it so far, because it has NO ADS!

Julie

I absolutely love using the library's online features! With 3 small children, I either have to make an extra trip down to the library after they are put to bed which doesn't give me much time before the library closes or I have to try and keep them quiet in the upstairs adult section which doesn't usually work very well. Imagine VERY loud voices asking questions like "Why do they have so many computers up here?" "Why do we have to be so quiet?" "When is it time to go hoooome? *whine*"

Once I realized how easy it is to do things online, I started using it all the time. I can renew our books online so that I don't have huge late fees. I can put things on hold at our library like popular DVDs or new releases. They are always on hold for someone so it's much easier to get my name on the hold list than it is to find it on the shelf. And of course, the interlibrary loan system is great! I've found so many books using that. Besides the ones I was looking for, I've also found some by using the features "nearby items on shelf" and "find more on these topics". They have a pretty nice setup.

Our library also has an ongoing used book, magazine, and CD sale near the front desk. I once found a whole stack of gradening magazines like Garden Gate and Organic Gardening for 25 cents each! And you can check out magazines also. In fact, I just quick bumped over there and put the last 4 issues of Garden Gate on hold (from Waterford library).

Oh, and Julie, if you do a search using the words "fine gardening" that magazine is available at Burlington library plus a few others so if you need some reading material this winter but don't want to shell out the money for a magazine that you only read part of, it can be transferred to the Racine library for you. There is also a series called "Fine gardening design guides" that seems to have been put out by the magazine along with a few separate books titled "The Best of Fine Gardening: Perennials", "The Best of Fine Gardening: Shrubs and Trees" and a few others. Does Sturtevant have a library or do you use Racine's? If the bookmobile comes out near you, you have the option of choosing where you want to pick up the items and can switch it to Bookmobile.

It's funny, most of the libraries only seem to keep the last 2 years of issues but West Bend has copies of Fine Gardening going back to 1997! I wonder why? Perhaps they have more gardeners in that area or just most storage room.

There's a new book by Melinda Myers titled "Month-by-month gardening in Wisconsin : what to do each month to have a beautiful garden all year". I'm going to have to put that on hold. I wonder if they have Birds and Bloom magazine. Well, I'm going to quit bouncing back and forth between websites and just send this before it gets any longer.

Kimberly

P.S. My library's SHARE program covers these areas: Dodge, Jefferson, Racine, Walworth and Washington Counties. But I'm sure there are similar programs for the other parts of...

Kimberly,

I used to use Racine's library when we lived in Racine, but now I'm actually closer to the Library in Union Grove. went there for a while, until we bought a computer. I actually have enough of a library of books, (many from Sam's Club), and don't need to get any more, at least for a while. It's almost faster to research something on the internet these days.

I have Month-by-Month Gardening in Wisconsin - nice reference book, but I follow my own "Do List" that I've developed for my own gardens.

I also have Do lists that carry over to the following spring that didn't get done in the Fall. Then there's the lists of future ideas.....I have too many lists, and loose notes all in a folder that needs cleaning out!

Julie