THE GPS 5 - The Glorified Potting Shed!

YAY! Found some stray s to start! This one even has a berry forming!

Gonna have to table the strawberry tire for tomorrow. Still need to water some more plants.

Heres one of the begonia and chocolate mint baskets I started this morning. Kinda looks Christmasy! LOL! It would look more like Christmas if it had allysums in it. Alas and sigh.. I dont have any starts of those. But this basket is going to winter in in the livingroom. It is very fragrant with just a few spears of that mint in there! In a few weeks it should be nice and full and a pretty house plant. Hmm I could add some white begonia cuttings in there to fill it more.....

Pink begonia cuttings in a basket

Boy, I am still hedging on cutting this gal! That vinca is now over 6 foot long. I need a taller place to hanger!

Trying not to just lurk but by the time I finish reading all my watch threads seems no time to post.
Must be a good tine to move strawberries, that is what I did all morning in the much needed rain.
Yes I do have a potting shed. DH built it a few years ago so he could have his garage back.

Most of the potting work is done on the bench , that is not inside the shed.

BTW I do not like the look of the snake , I did not know copper heads lived this far North?

Hey gus, thats lovely! Nice color! Im gonna move them strawberries tomorrow.. maybe. Right now I got a pile of stuff to hit in the office. Drat! But I will be back. So tell us about your shed!

Me either on the snake! It definitely caused a load of laundry after seeing it. It was like really close to my foot and well.. that was too freaky for me! Me and snakes just dont get along! Funny part on that snake though...he came up dead the next day.... I found him laying in the path going the other direction...He looks like he has belly bloat....probably ate something too big for its gut?

It did not have any rattles on the tail.. but then it was only 15 inches long so I speckulate its a baby. I know little about snakes.

So far this year I have seen about 6 varieties of snakes. Which is siz too many! Bull snakes, corn snakes, worm snakes, garter snakes, rat snakes and now this buzard bait of a snake.... I sure wish I could find my snake chart.

The shed is packed full of all sorts of gardening stuff.
Tools ,one of my many hats,a collection of tins.

Jars for seed saving ,pictures from old calenders

WOW! That is verrrry nice! Seems the harder I try to get organized the worse it gets...

Heres a spider plant I brought in today.

Your shed looks more like a lil garden shoppe!

Another strawberry basket....

I take it you are into crafts too from the garden?

Here is what is left of the mother potatoe vines I just pruned the other day and they are getting new growth already.

I need to pot up the cuttings already. They were rooted in just water and are ready now!

Got this ornamental grass from Smits and need to plant it

Drizzling this morning.. guess I am gonna just harvest afew seed pods of cleome, yank some cherry tomatoes of the vines and go in the house before the heavy rain comes.

Hope its not rainig later. I have a slew of things I need to get done.

Well, did some of my other chores. I ran some errands and on the way home stopped at a florist. She had some great plants and gave me some sweet potatoe cuttings and some spppppider plant babies.

The sweet potato cuttings are a lighter maroon/yellowish color.

The neat thing on the spider plant was that the momma plant was green. Dark forest green and the babies were striped! So ok, the sweet potatoes are sittign in water now in the cafe so they will get roots to plant later and the lil spiders are already in pots.

Heres the new sweet taters...

The new spiders....sorry the pic is a tad blurry..

And boy and duty am I kicking myself for not taking photos of a few of the plants she had that I really liked! There was a diclorus, a sweet pea, a lovely annual that had a long name that I cant remmember, but the flowers were gorgeous. It looked like a hummingbirds dream. Loaded with red tube flowers and very lush with a leaf that almost was like some gardenias. She had a huge tall purple leaved penstemon, some lovely hydranges, mums and asters and ....and ...and!

Wow, so what do you do with all your cuttings in the winter? Is your potting shed really a greenhouse?
As for the question about me doing crafts, you might say I am a'' wannabee'', I collect things like pine cones and gourds but never seem to find the time.

Well, yes, my "potting shed" is a lilttle greenouse...see pic on the threads beginning! I use it as a storage shed in the winter mainly.

We have two hoop houses. One is about 100 foot long. It is not finished yet.. Right now its been a place where I had my nursery cans stock piled.

The other hoop is only about 25 feet long and was being used to raise chickens up until this year.. it needs plastic on it, but if you go back in the threads you will see I have hanging baskets on it and well next year I plan to do some wild things with growing veggies. Until we get the plastic on it, I am using it as a trellis of sorts! There is a small tool shed on one end.

I will be bringing in a lot of plants into my home this winter. Unless I farm some out! I like doing containers, but also have a pretty good size garden. Dayliles are our specialty, but I raise a good number of perennials that I get from every where! Been trading and such for years! Seems lately every place I go when I get to talking gardening with folks, they give me cuttings or seed and I end up going back to them with something from my garden too.

I just got the sweet potatoe vines and those are a first for me... kinda late to enjoy them for the summer, but I think those should be easy to winter. Same with the spider plants.

I am bringing some herbs into the house too along with some baby sunroses, begonias, impatiens and some others.

I did a lot of hanging baskets this year. There were some 40 cherry tomato baskets to which I will be dumping soon and getting them set up for nextyear.

My DH made me a couple of plantstands for in the home with three teirs of shelves and lights so quite a few outdoor plants will be going on those. After I fill them.. Goodness knows what will become of the left overs!

I like to do crafts. You will find a lot of interesting ideas here on this forum! Im starting wreaths soon. I make my own bases and will show stuff as I get going. The gang here has a lot of talent! There are so many easy things you can do...so if you need suggestions or help, everyone likes to do that too! Take a tour around!

I collect a lot of nature things too. Do dried florals and silks are my specialty, but I do live florals when I get the chance. I am a certified florist, but do things on a hobby base. I would love to have my own little shop. We used to run a retailnursery with the daylilies. Might get back into doing that later again, but for now its just a glorified hobby. No pressure other than to get after the weeds! Do my own thing.

Heres an earlier photo of my GPS back in spring...

Well, this morning its sunny and nice out. I pruned cherry tomatoes and watered the container plants. Then I harvested the cherrymaters. Ran them and some taters to the kitchen.

I fertilized the mums with chicken doodoo tea.

Weeded the hanging baskets...amazing how weeds can sneak up high in a basket. Must be birds, or come in with the potting soil.

I took cuttings off the coleus, got them started, moved a few plants out of the greenhouse to the patio. Moved a couple more outdoor pots indoors to the living room.

Deadheaded the fouroclocks and need to do something about those sunnies. The mice are still getting into the seed in the GPS. Worked up some watermelon seed, cantalope, green pepper, a few sunflowers, liatris and heliopsis putting them in storage boxes.

I found an old poinsetta pot with a ring brace and transplanted my callas to that. Now when they increase, they will not flop over! YAY!

Later I have to rake up grass clippings.

I want to try to get the mums planted in the ground today....and yank some strawberry starters to put in that tire.

And oh yeah, pot up those sweet potato starters that rooted. Man, they rooted in less than a week in water! Amazing! Got enough for a nice thick haning basket on the margarita variety! Need to find a hanger to put on that pot.

Whew, thats enough for now. Time for a break. going back to the 24 to see if the gang unloaded that pile of boxes! hehehehe!

Here is the new variety of sweet potato vine I got from Browns yesterday. It did not have a label, but they are kind of a neat maroonish gold so that and the Margarite and the Blackie should make for nice trio baskets later!

And here are the Margarita sweet potato vines i started about a week ago. Just about a week in water and look at them roots!

Now where did I put that hanger for that basket that they made?

Need to get another load of nursery cans...

and while I am at that I think I will take the holly hock seed and broadcast that on the bed I prepared yesterday.

You might try pepper on your sunflower seeds. I use it to keep raccoons from my pots. And I know some bird seed mixtures add hot peppers to deter squirrels.
I buy cheep pepper at the dollar store.

Dumped some cuttings that were not going to make it.

Deadheaded some marigolds and some coleus for seeds. Packed up sme dried deadheads and checked the grass clippings to see if they were dry enough for raking. Im making hay out of them!

Transplanted one of my Endless Summer Hydrangeas. Looks like the momma plant turned pink as its blossom wained from blue! Neato! Will have to put that to September in the garden.

I cut this wisteria about 2-3 weeks ago. The leaves have dried and its about time to make a wreath out of it while the woody part is still flexible. I use a chicken egg basket for a wreath mold and stick the end through the outside of the basket and wind it around. Then I tie the wreath so it holds with floral wire and remove from the basket!

I will show that later on a craft thread, but in the meantime, here is what the raw material looks like!

Never tried pepper. That would even deter me! LOL! I have been putting the heads in paper feed sacks and dumping them every other day or so and repacking them....does several things.. shags the meece out, shatters the drying heads and checks for mold. Mold I am not too terribly concerned on, but the mice eating all my seed. Yeah.
I am about ready to resort to rat poison. You would think with all the snakes around here we would not have this many mice. and I reallly dont want teither of them in the GPS!

Speaking of peppers... shoot, my green bell pepper seed did not dry right. Gotta toss them. They got moldy and soggy. If it was just a little mold I would just dust them off and try them but these got yicky.

Going to check the loofa.. I think its bud has opened!

Heres the link for Wreaths from scratch - 2009! You are all welcome to join me there!

http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1037086/

Well, for now though I need ot get raking so see you tomorrow!

Later, heading out of town till Tuesday

Hey gus, you have a great day.. catch ya on the rebound.

Im calling it a day too. I had a 5 snake day.. 2 black garters and 3 worm snakes while I was raking and my BPs are through the roof with them.

Catch ya'll later too!

Well we had a pleasant weekend. Spent some time in the woods and gathered grape vines.

Im still having a battle with drying my sunflowers. Dang the field mice... they are making a royal mess of all of them.

I knocked the sunflowers in the feild down. Dragged the pasture and the hayfield to knock the prairie squirrel mounds down.

Been slowly bringing outdoor plants in.

started a thread called Wreaths From Scratch - 2009...

ya'll are welcome to join in and take a peak and also offer your ideas of how to!

http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1037086/#new

Need to hop over there with my grape vine wreaths and get binding!

Now just where did I put the egg basket?

Things on Tuesday to do list...

mulch coleas bed

water plant containers

check GPS for bump ups

Do bump ups

find hose to reach grapevine trellis

ammend the soild to plant grape vines

plant the new grapevines......

On my list today is water, just saw the weather and they said no rain in the forecast for the next week.
My DH watered the potted plants while I was gone but things will be too dry with a week of no water.
water garden
to coop for feed
A planning lunch
groceries
work this evening (more gardening)

Morning!! Hey gus, watcha feeding?

I just got up and its still dark out so I decided to go to the office for a little while before heading out.

We have critters here too, several horses, a donkey, dog, and a slew of wild life!

As soon as I got light out, I am motavating outside.

The feed is for horses & goats
The horses are retired pasture pets ,both 31 this year
Goats just two,one pygmy one just cute.
Our house is also full 5 cats 1 dog 1 chinchilla.
at least that is the count today.^_^

LOL! Well try 10 horses, one donkey, one blue dog, a DH for the domestic side and who knows what wild critters lurk elsewhere in this garden... it seems I have been infiltrated with snakes this year (yeck~~)....had two more today.. I wish they would leave and quit eating my frogs!

My oldest mare will be 30, the stallion is 20, a couple are 23, one is 14, one is 10, theres a 4 year old, 2 - 3 year olds and a pony that who the heck knows how old! I think I got everyone cept the dog and the DH! LOL, some kids never grow up! I should cut back on some horses....yano things are bad when ya can rattle of their ages, but when ya call them for supper, ummm whats its name??! LOL!

And hey you werks really swell!

Oh yeah, forgot the 13 hens...

used to have sheep and goats, cows... miss the cows...

Well, got half my list done and a slew of things not on the list also done.

Planted a new ornamental grass, trimmed back the annuals,
made wreaths today, harvested some more seed.

tomorrow I need to get deadheading again.. Jeez, I have endless tall garden phlox and that dang golden rod to whaack!

and I best check on that darned sunflweor mess again.. OY!

heres a few of our kids... um, the black mare is 23... her foal is 3....got to be the longest sucking baby around...the mare is a cow.. good for milk for orphans, trouble is, that aint no orphan... thats her baby by our stallion! The mare demands she suck....owell.... weaning is out of the question.

Well, enough horsing around.. back to the GPS... Did not seem to have the bump ups so check that of thelist for a day or two. Need Potting soil any way.

The coleus bed is mulched. Dang those snakes in the woodpile...man if I had not had my fair share of those reptiles!

Have to water. still short hoses. need to bring the one in from the lane to the grapevines so I can plant them already.

Need to roll up leach hoses for winter and store them.

Need to pack up some more trades.

Check the sunflower seeds too.

Thats pelnety to try to do today.