News not so good.

The prescription issue got straightened out. I took one pill after the ibuprofen time was up (can't take both) The new RX took the edge off still achy but the pain is not as intense or as frequent as the last time.

Gita, I'll check out the website, thank you! I also picked up a Wig/scarf/hat catalog at the treatment center. So I think I'll be covered LOL

Billy, I have so many seeds in 6 packs started (some have not poked through yet, it is easier to post a link to my spreadsheet then name them all here.
http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=tvvxYdmqaVP94FeH6Zm3Fgg
I potted up some more petunias yesterday when I was feeling better and checked out the watering situation. Things should be ok if I don't get to the basement today.
Sun is out and we may get some higher temps so I can at least get out for some fresh air and see what is new in the yard.

Sallyg, I did remember our corn planting method. Drop your pants and sit down. If it's comfortable, it's time to plant corn. I live in town, so I don't think I'll be doing that.

Chris, I'm glad they got your prescription filled. I hope the treatments, being spread out, will be a factor in keeping the pain down. All we can do is give cyber hugs, but I've found a little sympathy really does make a person feel better.

You have a great spread sheet! I am doing mine the old fashioned way, on paper. I've learned to keep all empty seed packets. Well, I learned in 2008 to hang on to them, LOL. They don't take up any room, yet :o)

I think my pots stay too wet for some seeds. I poured all the water off those I just started and will check every day to make sure they don't dry out.

After today it looks like we will be seeing temps in the 70's for a week. It's time to get out my ''Crocket's Victory Garden'' book and see what he would plant in April!

((((LadyG))))

I must report I had a good nights sleep! Knees and legs were feeling a bit ouchy, I remember I had this hand held massager so I dug it out and gave my self a foot and leg massage, took a relaxant pill climbed into bed read a chapter of my book , plug in my MP# player and turned off the lights. Listened for awhile and unplugged and fell asleep till 6:30 when the girls got up, left them out and then we all went back to bed till 8:00. I think I have finally found a routine here.

I used to save seed packets until I discovered that sometimes there is more information on the internet, I also have the book Seed to Bloom and I refer to that often. I write mine on paper too, I have a clip board hanging in the basement, then I transfer the info to the spread sheet.
You do have to check those babies everyday they can dry out so fast.

I think that the soil temp method worked better when woman wore long shirts . I think going bloomerless was cooler working out in the garden on a warm day. LOL

That is a fantastic spreadsheet.
Now we know why women used to wear long skirts for everything all day.....handy

HollyAnn, I like getting and giving laughs like that. And we did have Indians when the people started settling here. My Grandpa told me once they came thru the tall grass and wanted to borrow a cup of sugar. He was joking! But I was pretty young and had a vivid picture of feathers and all, peeking thru the tall grasses. I watched too many cartoons :o)

LadyG, I like that schedule! Especaially since you get to sleep :o) I've been wanting a handheld massager for a couple of years now. They seem to be mainly a Christmas item anymore. At least for a good one. I want four settings and heat.

I walk outside with a clipboard every day, and keep track of what day something started blooming. I transfer it to a big notebook. Very handy for trying to put a blooming bed together for bloom and color. Or, just to tell someone when something I give them, will bloom.

It's pretty windy today. I feel pretty cozy sitting here looking at the sun shine.

Sallyg, my name is Sally too, so your name throws me off guard, LOL! Laughing over the long skirts :o)

(((Big hug LadyG!)))

ha ha billy/sally
how does anyone find time to be so organized?
maybe we can plant tthe corn when going barefoot feels 'really nice'

I don't have any more time since DH retired than I did before, but some organizing is my fun/hobby.

Yeah, barefoot would be much better :o) Altho, there is always ''under the cover of darkness" but then you can't see the bugs that might be out. Or, I'd hate to sit on a toad :o)

Chris, we get the Grandkids today, for two days, so I'll be a no show unless I can sneak away - ha ha!

Hope all is well with you and will be. (((Big Hug))

PS, I checked my seeds and the tomatoes and one cabbage has sprouted!! I'm on my way!!

Had another good night, I followed my routine. The rain and dampness set in yesterday and I was pretty achy all day. I decided to stay off work today.

When do you plant out tomatoes, LadyG? You're right about not starting too early... I go by Dr. Carolyn's recommendation of 6 to 8 weeks before planting out, and I have really good results that way (much better than some of the monster seedlings I grew in the past). Long about now, I'm looking at those little plants and thinking, maybe I should have started earlier... but soon I'll be looking at them and thinking, maybe 6 weeks would have been better than 8! LOL

I'm glad you had a good night! Sorry to hear you're achy with the weather but good to hear you could stay home and rest today. :-)

I'll have to file away that bit of wisdom about when to plant corn! Probably holds true for peppers, too... cold soil just makes them sulk.

It is a great day to stay home!!! I wish I could. Boy I want to crawl back in that bed!!! Not the flower bed either LOL, the cozy bed, the one with the nice soft blankets, the pillows, the TV, the bedside books, the dog that would lay at my feet all day, the cat that would come lay on my tummy...
AAAGGGHHH what am I doing? Slap me! I should be ready to leave the house by ten!

Billy be very careful those GK carry germs. They look so sweet and hugable and then their germs "get" you.
Can you tell that Ric and I have been laid low by sweet little Lucas Brooks, his runny nose has turned us into snotting, aching, sleeping Grandparents. LOL
He is not as Innocent as he looks.

Jill, I can extend my planting out of tomatoes with Wall O' Waters. They work great, I have used them in mid April. I bought 2 Tomato Success Kits for Gardeners supply in 2006 when I was going to have surgery and gardening was going to be out of the question that year. I have been growing in these kits every year since and get lots of tomatoes to eat fresh and some to freeze for sauce. If the weather get cool I wrap the sides with bubble wrap and at night toss a light weight blanket over the cages if necessary. It is not safe for my to put out tender plants without protection till the just before Memorial Day, and we have had some pretty cold Memorial Days up here.

Wall O' Waters, I have also planted cuke and squash seeds early using them.

Critter, laughing, someday we may end up planting the old ways!

Sally, not the flower bed, I got a smile over that!

HollyAnn, we get sick almost every time they are here! Oh, he is ADORABLE!! So is the other one who didn't expect to be found, LOL! The do love a tent! It's no wonder we all have colds all the time.

Chris, I've never tried the Wall O' Waters. It stays so cool in June I wonder if I should think about it. Trouble is, when I can juice, I have about 17 plants going.

I forgot to add. The Grandkids are 5 1/2 and 3 1/2. Both born in September.

Billy just try the walls for your eating tomatoes. If they work well, get some each year, they are reusable as long as you are careful not to poke holes in them.
Grandkids are great but are little germ spreaders, LOL I enjoy hearing about them.

I may get out my WOW's this year... should have started a few Stupice & Jaune Flamme plants early, but they can still go out 2-3 weeks ahead of schedule with the WOW's. I used them the first week in April one year, and they worked fine, although I'm not sure the plants started producing that much sooner than the unprotected ones I put in my main garden later.

Early cukes... now there's an idea! :-)

Jill, for the cukes and squash, I set up the WOWs about a week early to heat up the ground and then planted the seeds down in the WOWs, when they started growing and the weather was warmed I took off the WOW's and mulched around the vines. Worked very well, I had nice cukes. The squash bug ended my squash : (

I don't have good luck with squash, either... here, it's those vine borers. I have better luck with cucumbers not getting that mosaic virus thing (where the whole plant dies, usually just as it's setting baby cukes) when I do them late in the season, but I can try early ones and use row cover (pretty sure cabbage butterflies or something similar are the vector for the disease, so row cover works until you need to remove it for pollination). Thanks!

LadyG, my next step would be where to store them without poking holes in them. We are full to the rafters around here. I thinka big outdoor cleaning is in order for me. I'm pretty good at tightening up with out actually geting rid of things I need.

They should be here around noon. DD has some errands to run first.

Critter, early anything sounds good to me!

Everyone makes the WOW's sound pretty good. Now I was thinking as I read, that the squash would have a good headstart before the squash bugs found it. I guess not. I love winter squash. I gave up on the summer squash when even I wasn't thrilled with it. I tried the patty pan last year AND canned it.

I had DH put up a cuke fence and I'm going to try running the winter squash up it.

The WOWs will lay flat and you could roll them and put into a PVC pipe or store in a plastic storage box. Just some Ideas!

I like the cuke fence. I had one cucumber climb up my pea fence it really kept the fruits clean.

Hello it's Ric, We pretty much have given up on any squash, watermelon, cantaloupe, or pumpkins till we get the squash,(stink) bugs under control. We came home one year to find parts of the garden crawling. It's a slow process. They leave a scent to tell other they found a home, so more come to enjoy the party. LOL One of the controls is spraying your window sills and siding with a deterrent and in worst case a pesticide too. They recommend dipping all outdoor trays and pots to kill them and descent them, and drenching any plants being brought back in for the winter. Breaking the cycle is difficult in that even though they only reproduce once a year there is no specific hatch, they just pop out whenever. There are some plant based pesticides effective on them. Since we are traveling less this year we can declare DEATH TO THE STINK BUGS! Ric

I may have to try some of those WOWs, pretty neat idea, although I've been contemplating putting removable sash over an 8x16 raised bed. For effective reuse you would either have to steam or replace the soil every couple of years.
We had a large sash bed at one of the commercial greenhouses I worked at. We had a steam boiler so sterilizing wasn't a problem. The price on the WOWs must be coming down, I found a package of 3 on sale for about $10.

Chris I hope these rants find you doing OK, and hopefully give you a smile. Grand-babies are great fun even though by the look on this angels face, you can tell he's planning his next virus attack on Grams and Poppie. LOL Ric

billyp==I had no good with winter squash until I grew them on top of a mound of previous fall's leaf/compost- Even tho the compost was far from 'done', it just loved the moist leafy bed. but you do have to really work to stay ahea d of stink bugs with squash and gourds. They may like my gourds even better if you want to try and lure them away.
and there are times when I don't feel too hot but crawling out to my flower bed is the thing that perks me up! Get in the zone and out of my own head.
critter--cuke beeetles carry virus and they say try not to plant in the same spot cuz the eggs fall right there and are waiting for ya!

Chris the sun is coming soon to bake those aches

You guys just keep up the chat, anything goes on this thread. I check in every day that i can, to get a smile or a ROFL.
Ric, he really does have that pass on the virus look, we have a few staff members with little ones and we have seen things cycle through their families, one gals has nieces and every time she visits them she gets sick. We make a habit of not getting to close to each other at work and if someone thinks they are coming down with something they wear a mask when they get around me up front. I'm in my own office so sort of out of the main flow of the office, plus sanitizers and Lysol spray is everywhere.
And we send patients home if they come in sick, or excuse their appointment if they call in.
It is very foggy outside this morning, hopeing that the sun will come out and bake that away.
Have any of you tried garden lime sprinkled on the vines, my father was a big user of it in the garden. If you can catch it early before the bugs do any damage. I keep a coffee can with holes in the bottom with lime in it and tap it over the vines to dust them.

I'm glad you're being careful, LadyG, and I'm glad your co-workers are cooperating!

I haven't tried dusting with lime... maybe I'll put in just one or two hills and see how it goes.

There are some new photos to make you smile on Joyanna's new thread: http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1084263/

Ric and Jill--super cute!

Great pictures Ric and Jill ! The young-ens are really growing !

I went to work today and it was good to see everyone, and get out of the house. I am starting to recover from the side effects, still walking gingerly. I am off tomarrow, only have to take my girls to the groomers, so I'll be able to go at my own pace, maybe a little lite gardening, and some hot tub time. I like to sit and read in the tub, nothing to do when you are in there but sit. It sort of hold me captive, which is good.

Ladygardener,
I just stumbled upon this thread, and I'm so sorry to hear about your cancer. I'm glad that the treatments are going okay. You seem to have a GREAT support system here. I hope you enjoyed your soak in your tub.
--Pam

Pam, this is a great support group!! I am enjoying this thread just rambling on, chatting about whatever comes our way.

Hi, everyone. I had a great day yesterday, got some things done outside. Unwrapped my Topiary Tree and the patio set, hosed off the patio, and did some lite raking.
We have a scanner and pick up police and fire department (HD belongs to the Volunteer FD). A police officer called in that there were 2 Bald Eagles sitting in the road, he did not give the location not wanting to draw a crowd, must have been out on a country road. He stayed with them unlit they decided to fly off.
I asked HD if he had heard about it and he said they were right in town on a side road. Later, I was in the hot tub and there were 3 very large birds riding the air currents, I could not tell if they were eagles, to high up and no white head spotted.

This morning is golden here, already 51*F. A Johnny Depp misquote from Hair would be appropriate here:" Good Morning Sunshine".Have a great Day Chris! from Ric

Ric, that's a nasty bunch of squash bugs!! I don't always have room to plant squash, so I don't see a lot of bugs. That's enough to make you, well, cry if you're a woman, LOL. I hope you find something that works. I'd love to defeat them too!

HollyAnne, that is a picture to enlarge! He is thinking pretty hard about something!! That's my big smile for the day!

Sally, we don't eat cucumbers much. Well, I like them and DH doesn't care for them, so I'm trading the fence for squash thisn year. I am going to be on the look-out for the squash bugs now. I've had them, and I feel they are going to be a big problem. I plant the acorn squash and I think my cousin had carnival seed that I'll be using. I sowed them for my Dad last year and since they didn't vine much, I decided to try them this year. I had tomatoes that did real well on the compost pile last year, LOL! I hear you on zoning out in the garden. I'm glad it works for you.

LadyG, I have lime! Thanks for the tip. I am going to do that! What a great bunch of people to work with. I was picturing the office wearing green when they think they're coming down with something. Or even an armband, giggle! The hot tub sounds like a great place right now. The more you do that feels good, the more you can counteract the bad!

Critter, seeing the world thru her eyes is great! I love the idea of the crocus yard. That's the best gift a little one could get. It's easy to see why your hearts are bursting with love. She's the best!!

Good Morning LadyG! I have been busy running to do laundry and clean up the kitchen while trying to catch up on threads. The morning is still slipping away. I'll bet you were seeing eagles!! We have so many of them now, everywhere, and not always close to the river either. In the 70's, it was a big deal to go to Davenport along the Mississippi to catch sight of the eagles that gathered there. Now, they fly right over the truck as we drive down the road. I never seem to have the camera on when I see them and they fly over so fast!

Well, we got the boys Monday. Their Mom brought them down and stayed for dinner. It wasn't too nice out, but DH took them outside for a while to run off steam.

Tuesday, we spent all afternoon outside and still didn't need to break out the bubbles, so I'll have those for another day. I got the short shovels out and they dug in the garden. Little boys learning how to dig a hole need to be in the MIDDLE of the garden, not the edge! Then, we got out the trowels and dug for worms in the compost. Success! We played at the park and walked down the gravel road to see if any spring peepers were left in the ditch water. Thankfully it's draining away or we would have mosquitos way too soon!

Wednesday we took them with us to get groceries and then took them home. I was ready for some peace and quiet by then! I turned the small east garden and finally got my peas planted! They don't care about planting yet, so I just waited. I unearthed two toads. A fat one and a skinny one. I felt pretty good by the end of the day. I took a long shower and shaved my legs. Yep, I wore shorts and hairy legs all day :o)

I'm thinking about planting spinach today. I need to get my book and notes out. I'd like to finish raking the walnut leaves up too. It looks to be another wonderful warm day and I think I heard the word rain for Friday night. I hate to listen too far ahead because they are never right any more. They need to turn their Doppler Radar down!

Chris, continue to have good days! Big hugs and a prayer for you!!!

Hey everybody! I'm an Eagle!

Sally, Are those Nubian goats? I've never seen Nubians with such uniform color or marking. Ric

I found it! They are Boer Goats raised for meat rather than dairy and heavier muscled that Nubians. I don't remember seeing them at any shows. Probably because the shows are dairy orientated. Dah LOL Ric

This message was edited Apr 2, 2010 2:44 AM

This message was edited Apr 2, 2010 2:45 AM

Love the picture and the caption, LOL

I have spinach seeds need to get them planted, spinach needs cool growing conditions or it will bolt. Good early spring veg. to get it started.

I went to work today but didn't have patients this afternoon, so Doc took us to lunch and we went home. I sat outside and enjoyed the warmth and sunshine. I checked on the seedlings in the basement and they are fine, but I hate to spend time down there when the weather is so nice. Need to start tomatoe seeds really soon, like NOW!

I'm home tomarrow, and morning is a good time for me to get out and do a few things in the yard. Afternoons is chill time.

As mentioned in my article today, I've been taking Carolyn's advice and starting tomatoes just 6 - 8 weeks ahead, with excellent results. I had planned to do a seed offer in conjunction with the article, but something came up that had me pretty busy & distracted today and I figured it was better to take that off my plate for next week... but if anybody needs tomato seeds, LMK and I'll send you a pack of assorted varieties!

Ric, you are quick! These are show quality for 4-H kids. DD is trying to get a business going on their little farm. They look pregnant even when they aren't. They also cough a lot, but they are tame and fairly gentle except for pushing at feeding time. The little one's were frolicing that day and I had no idea their ears were up.

LadyG, I got 6 wide rows of spinach put out yesterday. I bought orange utility flags to mark new plants for watering and decided they would make good garden markers. I used a paint pen and made one for each spinach row and one for the peas, even tho they are planted on a fence. I'm debating on putting out radish and turnip yet. It's supposed to rain tonight. I'd sure like to catch the first rain. I love the first real day of warmth. We had hot sun, a cooling breeze and 80°.

Critter, I'll have to find your article. I get so busy I barely have time to get everywhere on Dave's. One of my tomato seedlings is up. I tried the small Italian ''Principe Borghese'' last year. I discovered sun dried tomatoes and am hooked! But, I'm not paying for a small jar when I can make my own. The Grandkids found them and stood out in the garden eating every ripe one I had. It was so funny, and there's always this year!

Today is the last really warm day. Rain is to move in and we're to be a more seasonable 60's. I've tried to weed and have had company each time :o) Oh well. It's easier to find the dandilions when they're the only flower in the flower bed. I wish they were rarer. I think they're pretty.

I'm so glad he wasn't striking a ''Gangster Rap'' pose.

He was making a bunny.

Hey! getting their vitamin D. LOL

I grow early girl tomatoes every year and usually try something different too. I only grow a few plants as I am the one that insists on fresh garden tomatoes. I eat them right off the plant, (of course I pick it first) warm from the sun, no salt, just wipe it on my shirt and then bite. Gosh! I'm making myself hungry. I have different seeds from swaps and Round Robins to try so I am all set to go. My left over plants I give to co-workers.
I also grow a few current tomatoes, they are so tiny but packed with sweet goodness.

I would think the radish and turnip seeds would be ok to plant.

ROTFL I got this picture of Chris on her hands and knees, biting a tomato. No fair! I'm laughing so hard, I can't stop coughing. Lady G you're tearing me up. LOL
An old story: When the twins were little, I worked 2nd shift and kept them some while Holly worked. I was still trying to have a veggie garden back then and would take them to help. Weeding onions is easy enough for little ones and they observe and participate in the garden. As a reward, I would bring them in and feed them fresh tomato sandwiches (still warm) and fruit or whatever.
Years later Josh would retell it like this. He would take us to the garden and make us weed onions, then he would bring us in and make us eat tomato sandwiches that were just awful, I hated it.
I guess it was an age perception thing. LOL Ric

The munchkins have arrived for the day (making the sign to ward off the evil eye) LOL Ric

Ric, LOL

Eagle story in paper. Read all about it.
http://www.goerie.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2010304029924

Chris,
I just wanted to poke my head in here (finally re-upped my DG subscription)...and see how you were doing...continuing to pray God's strength...
Sending some beautiful Daphne fragrance your way...first year of blooms for this gal....
Love ya!
Chantell