THE GARAGE CAFE - where we are fixing and repairing daily!

Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas. Yes, I did freeze my butt off up in NY State for the holiday, but arrived back in South Florida this afternoon. Luckily I had scheduled my return for today or I'd be stuck up there until Jan 1st at the earliest. What a mess with all the backlogged passengers. Saw lots of frustration, and a few tears, from stuck travelers at the airport in Philadelphia this morning.

Should have some pretty good winter floral color in the next few weeks. The Calendulas are just beginning to bloom. The tall snapdragons have grown so slowly but are "getting there". Even had a few blooms on the Reblooming Bearded Iris in the past few weeks.


Jon

Well, those roses ought to be pretty. I always have trouble with them. I only have a few and every winter I wonder if they will make it. try www.freecycle.com for your wants!

They let you through TSA! LOL! POOR YOU, no less gramma!! I can see the tears! I hear ya on the travel...gets worse and worse.

Our Christmas was wonderful...spent it half the time plowing snow, the rest relaxing. Best one in three years.

Only winter colors - hmm outdoors I got going on is black and white... Mighty white! The snow here still is pretty, but some of the road dirt is starting to get it gritty.

Indoors, have some orange, white and pink impatiens and a blue periwinkle blooming. Couple purple flowers which reminds me.. time to prune them and water again.... Dont have enough killed yet to start anything new. And of course the reds and greens from the holiday. Need to take the tree down and fold the decor away.... not in any real hurr the tree aint gonna die! LOL!

Glad you had a nice Christmas Blossom. My Christmas was cozy at mom and dads with 9 people and my brothers dog in the house with the fireplace going most of the time.

I would think its still a bit early to start anything from seed up there. Perhaps mid-late February would be the right time? Lots of the seed started flowers were growing so lethargically here in Sept/Oct/Nov but finally beginning to see some growth spurts in many of the plants. The California Poppies, Lupines, Snapdragons, Sweet Peas and Stock seedlings seem to be growing faster as of late.

Here's some Salpiglossis, Chinese Delphiniums, Osteospermums and Echinacea out front this morning.

The Monkeys! The D**N Monkeys! Been feeling to poorly to do much of anything so I sit and play Jewel Quest III. In China the blasted monkeys keep letting out the monkeys I get caged.

Hub's is finally(8-10 yrs later)insatlling corner shower I wanted but he's been on it 3 days now and doesn't look any whrer near done and I'm gonna be real "ripe" soon.

Meanwhile,he di finally getmynew fireplace mantel built(whoops,spacerbar seems to have taken a short vacation)and I got the meatl flashing on and "revitted"have to do is convience him to replace the insert w/ a more contemporary,glass front,flush mounted one

More yellow Osteospermums with purple, blue and white Delta Series Pansies out front. This is what you get during the winters in South Florida.

I aplogize for all the typos...my brain has been squashed to the back of my skull with congestion....I can not be held responsable...responsible?

Monkeys???? Whoaaaaah.. red, are ya sure its not the poppies? That head cold of yern is sumthin else! Go to the bowling alley... you might have better luck!

Nas fluers thar Jon!

Tis mighty white out....

Nice shot Blossom. I like the snow in small doses. It's the four straight months of it, the winter winds and the cabin fever that drove me to the South.

The economy seems to be having an affect at the nurseries down here this winter. Nowhere near the selection/variety of plants in comparison to most years. I'm hoping there will be a slightly wider selection once we get into January and February. Good idea to plan ahead and grow more of your own things in 2011. Happy New Year my friend. I hope 2011 is full of good news and positive vibes to everyone out there.

Jon

Thanks and AMEN to 2011.

I got a seed catalog yesterday and was very disappointed. I probably will be buying starter plants again.

Maybe it was just a bad seed catalog? I haven't spent much time yet hunting down the new plant and flower varieties for 2011. Always like to try a few of them each year and hope just one of them is a shining star/good performer. "Candyman Yellow" Calendula photo from this morn. Seeds were direct sewn in early September and just beginning to bloom. Still my new favorite flower variety from the last several years. Low maintenance and a good blooming plant.

It was Guerneys....I was disappointed in the flower selection. They have stuuf I just dont need. What is that a ganzia?

Haven't ordered from Gurney's in several years. Their catalog is kind of generic so that's why nothing excited you. I have yet to look at the Thompson & Morgan and Park Seed catalogs that came in the past month. The last photo, including the one below, are some of the "Candyman Yellow" Calendula's beginning to open by the front sidewalk. They open with a green center that fills into solid yellow once at the petals fully open. The young plants branch out all on their own when they're growing. Very low maintenance flowering plant variety.

Very lovely bloom there.. yeah, your probably right there Jon.. once you have a taste of the better bloomers its kinda hard to go back to plain cotton.

Got some nubs showing in my indoor hyacinth pots..

We got 50 degree weather and most of the snow melted today with the rain we been getting and my pansies, however squished from the foot pile of white are still blooming! LOL! Grass is even near green. Actually ran around without a coat today! HA!

Hope that snow storm up north goes to the Kanuuks! But Id say we will probably be getting an ice storm before too long and more white..the fat lady of winter has not sung.

Pattys got toadtwisters .

Oh, forgot, her and I are getting tremours too.. My dawgs been hiding under furniture and just acting plain weird for the last week. Normally she does not do that. twas a 3.8 on 12/29 here. I swear I felt it and almost fell of the porch that day.

So.. ok, count down to the big 11! ADIOS 10!!

Hope you don't get any bigger tremors Blossom. You might have to watch for a tsunami coming off the pond. LOL Your grass is greener than the grass down here. The grass is brown because it was bone dry in December and there were a couple nights in the mid 30's. Them pansies are tough bloomers. All that snow acted as insulation to them. They can handle temps around 20 degrees, as long as their roots are kept dry. I've grown fond of hyacinths in the past couple of years. They won't work down here so the only option is buying pre-chilled forced bulbs in pots. They usually are available starting in February.

We've been having a few mild days so I've been playing in the GH,WS,cleaning and trimming. Some of the bulbs I potted up in the fall are jumping the gun and showing some green.

Showers installed. Took it on it's maiden vovage this am. Now gotta get the tile guy in for planning and pricing. Hub's spent 8 days working on neighbor's property,cutting,clearing and sprucing up so we could finally get this bathroom done.


Waiting for hair to dry so I can go do a little more WS. New Year rushed our cold weather back in so I don't expext to be out there long.

New Baker Creek cat in. They have Jing Orange okra!!!!!!

Fed the animals this AM.. Someone bent a stall and threw too gates out of line to latch them.. nothing like trying to fix something in drozen ground. Had a grunting and growling match to try to fix that....

No tsumanis here Jon.. the ponds dry. Waaaaaaaay to dry. We get more tremours the groungs liable to open up and go to quick sand.. 3.8 I felt it, dang near fell of the porch. Thought I was sufern vertigo. Come into the house and look at the crack in the ceiling..beefore too long maybe the plastter is gonna knock me in the head.

Need to try cleaning the microwave...looks like somebody exploded in thar. dang baked on crustations... house is a pigsty... gonna put some Christmas stuff away...

I always get bummed putting the Christmas stuff away and especially taking down the lights outside. The neighborhood is so lit up in December.....I mean REAL lit up ....and then it goes back to generic darkness. Gonna miss those evenings sitting outside looking at the lights and walking through the neighborhood doing the same. Gonna have to water all the "stuff" tomorrow. We need rain and there's none coming this week.

Awwww, poor you! But just think, all those electric bills... I can hear you gators singing....er make that whining!

Yeah, I gotta water stuff too....Gonna be really busy the next few days...then need to take the Christmas stuff down too. We dint run lights only on the little tree in the livingroom for a few days....beats running the other lights and more cheery.

Come to think on it.. yano, it was not such a really brite neighborhood... A lot of people cut waaay back.

I had to laugh, I was driving home the other night and passed the park in town and I was going to take a pic of it and right when I was ready to go click, all the purdy lights went out! Sheesh, I must of scared them! You know how I am about electric things....

oH, btw EVERYONE...

HAPPY 2011 YA BIG BUNCH OF DINGALINGS!!

http://www.alighthouse.com/newyearbell.html


364 DAYS UNTIL!

When ya'll get back, the party is over here!

http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1147265/


WOOF!