Hiya, I've been silent all summer, just a planting fool. But now it's seed saving time, and can't help thinking about the swap this winter. Once again the house is littered with piles of seeds, baggies everywhere. I got some blooms this summer from some of the Chile and South African seeds so am really excited about passing those along. It looks like you all have some great things growing, too.
Seed Swap and Chat #59 - dog dayz of summer
Leave some to reseed Terese, for the first time this year my profusion one reseeded but they are only about four inches tall not sure if i will see blooms on them. I did plant one yellow profusion for this year.
You know I keep saying to myself that I'm going back to no annuals except for a couple that I can't do without and as I think of the ones I have planted this year I think I'll be planting more than a couple again LOL I really would just like to get back to just perennials I really really would instead of having to plant them every year but there are some I just can't do without :)
I like the little flowers that wonder thru the other plants :) These little coreopsis I got from a coop last year I think look like they are going to be like that unless they stand up more next year they are so spindlly like but this is the first year for them being in the ground they may stand up more next year I don't have anything next to them to help hold them up wish I could remember the name to them doesn't look like I planted the tags with them usually I do.
Hey there Colche welcome back wonder who else will be wondering back now that it's seed collecting time :)
I just went over and cleaned all the seed heads off of the zebra grass at my neighbors house today it's planted by the pool so you know that would end up a mess lol The seeds weren't quite ready though I have a huge one in the field but it isn't going to seed yet I don't understand that both places get just as much sun as the other. I plan on having a lot of grass seed in my seeds this year :) I may not know the names to all of them trying to id them as I go I have tags for all of them but the grass grew around them they got so big this year guess because of all the rain we had this winter.
spider zinnia - again
you can see all the "stems" they are sort of laying across all the other plants...
guess those could be the 'spiders legs'
my best is, if this plant was supported, it'd be 8' tall.
8' tall? And they are wondering on the ground that's wild, they would be cool to plant by my neighbors drive way and let them wonder toward the house some plants want to lean that way anyway on that side :) I like those little flowers :)
I'm wondering what plants are going to make it next year and what plants and annuals are going to reseed my dirt is so hard yet I very seldom get reseeders so if I do I cherris them. I hate it that salvias and pineapple sage doesn't start to reseed until late in the summer! I start pineapple sage under lights and mine are as tall as the ones that reseeded late lol
If I watered my beds more would they reseed more I hate to get the water bill sky high though I only water deep once a week some plants need more but they hang on until the next watering. I use a couple of soaker hoses around the edges and a sprinkler, one of those double circled ones in the middle.
HI EVERYBODY! I've missed you all, but can't possibly keep up these days.
I've been spending what little energy I have watering due to temps running about 108 for a week straight. Now the weather is in the 80's. These temp. swings are hard on me physically. Not to mention the poor plants that aren't on auto timers with the irrigation system.
Not complaining.
My chickens love garden pests like slugs and snails, and when they can catch 'em grasshoppers, and even caterpillars. Although, I have to admit I haven't seen any caterpillars lately.
I am so thrilled that so many of the wonderful seeds you've (PIggy Swap Group) given me continue to grow and flourish. I really love that guppy plant among others. I wish I could remember the name of that small blue flower. It grows like crazy and looks good with the alysum, I am just worried the alysum will crowd it out.
I'll try to pop in to see what you all are up to more often.
Walk In Beauty!
SingingWolf
Hi everybody! Been off line with computer, phone/dsl line problems and life! Missed my friends here. I have been saving seeds for the next piggy swap all season. I am looking forward to it already! The bf looked at the bags/cups on the table of seeds and accused me of becoming a "terminal hoarder". He watches too much Discovery channel, I think. The extreme heat and loss of my gardening companion, Tiffany, dampened my gardening enthusiasm this summer. I managed to keep everything watered and am pleased with my new plants -especially the coral nymph and marble arch rose salvias. I just moved them yesterday to be near the roses. They are bouncing back nicely. Have to go out and move a few roses. This is my first garden, so I have lots to learn. I call it "experimental cottage style" I am trying to add airy plants among the roses.
Goal for next year is companion plants and contrasts for the roses such as salvias and Japanese morning glories.
I am also going thru my seed collection for summer/fall sowing and sharing with friends and neighbors. Some new neighbors moved in who are gardeners! Such a welcome change from the boozehag that moved out! I put together some divided plants and seeds for them as an unofficial welcome wagon!
It's Kelly's/klstuart birthday today!
Happy Happy birthday Kelly hope you have a great day!
A belated Happy Birthday, Kelly!
Welcome back SW, colchie and GQ!
I spent a week visiting my folks in NC, but hardly made it outside, as they weren't in very good shape, and also a new phenomenon of tiny flea-like bugs that like to fly around faces and into eyes and ears if you stay still long enough for them to find you, which is about 10 seconds or less, not to mention mosquitos.
I did a few unsucessful seed searches. They mostly have spring-flowering wildflowers, and those seeds are long gone. Some other seeds weren't yet ripe. I did collect a few skimmia berries, which I forgot to bring home. If anyone's interested I can ask my mom to send them. I'm going to ask her to send some seeds of some really teeny hostas when they're ripe, if she's able. I generally don't much like hosta flowers, but these had really pretty little lavender/purplish and white blooms, maybe 4 to 6 inches off the ground. Is anyone interested in these, if I can get them?
Thanks for the Birthday wishes guys :) It was a nice one!
Ah perenniallyme, welcome to the world of gnats (or whatever they are). Annoying little suckers aren't they? We have them here mostly all spring and fall, and summer too sometimes. Morning and evening. Just the time when you want to be outside! I find that a little bug spray on the brim of a hat seems to help. Also, people swear that if you raise your hand above your head they will swarm around the highest body part for some reason. It does seem to work, but who wants to go around with their hand raised all the time :)
LOL Kelly I can see us all now going around in our gardens with one hand above our heads LOL
Sharon, Little mini hosta seeds sound good but I bet they take so long to grow :( I usually have seed pods from my blue mouse ears and suprise by joy minis but this year I don't have any for some reason just guess it's because of it being so dry is the only thing I can think of if they did make any they all fell off, I have daylilies there and usually I have a lot of babies on the stems of those and only got one off of all of my daylilies this year.
Kelly, I've visited my folks many times, but have never before experienced these gnats where they are. They're in the mountains. And whatever time of day I went outside, they were there. I'll definitely bring a hat next time and try your anti-gnat tricks if they're still around. Thanks for the advice.
Lea, if my mom does collect those mini hosta seeds, I'll send you some. I'm hoping to plant a few myself. I have no idea how long they take to grow, but I wouldn't imagine they'd take too long.
Hi everyone : ) Been busy and have lost interest in the garden due to the hot weather combined with drought stricken plants :( Did get some seeds gathered and started a couple things MOney Plant and Sweet Williams. Hope everyone's gardens are lookin better than mine : )
As much as I would like to try them Sharon little plant babies like that in our hot and humid weather just are so much trouble have to baby them constantly I'm just not up to that in this heat I barely get the plants watered when it's hot like it is this year and don't see it getting any better in the future :)
I've got little babies out there now in five inch pots that were left from a vole this winter they were bigger when I dug them up had three nice leaves on each hosta, they are not doing very well at all in this humidity they are what is left of three full grown plants :(
I think I have more gnats in the house this year than outside and don't even have any plants in here was talking to Ella and she grows gnats for the hummers this time of year when they are getting ready to migrate isn't that wild :) I'm thinking of trying it soon as I get around to it, I have the gnats to lay the eggs lol The cats love to chase them too :)
Geez, Ella can have my gnats! Have a major fruit fly issue in the house too. Was just trying to drink a glass of wine with dinner, and the darned things wouldn't leave me alone! I've got 2 vinegar traps set out, but looks like I should put wine in them instead.
I hear you on the garden Meredith mine is kind of crispy and I've been watering :(
The aphids are eating my milkweed seeds too before they can even mature, so many aphids this year and noticed the other day there are a lot assassin bugs after my cats! I killed as many as I could get to my gosh! The site of those poor cats hanging upside down and brown just tore me up!
That's an idea Kelly we can pour us and the gants a glass of wine they will be our drinking buddies Ha!
Sometimes I have good luck with vinegar and sometimes not.
Lea are you sure the cats aren't just turning into chrysalis? I found one today under our grilling area bar. I told my DH I'll kill him if he accidentally kills it! lol He has been working on it to finish and of course that's where a cat decides to make a chrysalis. It's the only Monarch cat I've seen in my yard this summer.
I'm pretty sure Meredith that they only take three days for them to come out of the chrysalis don't they DH can ait that long to grill LOL If he doesn't he has me to answer to along with you hate to make a trip there to fuss at him LOL
Lol Thanks! For some reason I thought they took a couple weeks..... maybe it's three days though, that would be much better. Then I won't have to make you come all the way here to fuss with me! ;)
LOL I hope it's three days I spyed one the other day and was going to watch to see for sure and lost it! I've got daylilies I'm wanting to cut down to the ground then move those Stellas all along the sidewalk and I keep seeing cats going to them so I don't dare I'd be afraid I'd cut up one of my praying mantis too those suckers are getting huge. I was going to use my grass shears and they are electric so that's why I'm afraid to too many leaves there to even watch for them.
Fruit flies are driving me nuts. Been harvesting & canning my plum tomatoes
and the darn things are everywhere.
ewww! One of the down falls of canning sorry Cris!
our Red Hat group went Putt Putt golfing yesterday, and this place has the most gorgeous gardens.
is this a Dahlia of some sorts?
Sure looks like a dahlia and I had a red one here I've lost it but it had the red foliage like that too sure is pretty!
We are finally getting some rain don't think we have had any for almost two months!!! My poor plants look like it too you can water but it's just not the same as rain water but now it's almost too late for them to come out of their dought mode I'm afraid.
Spent all day yesterday trying to get the darn crabgrass out of the side yard bed such a mess those crabgrass seed heads looked awful healthy LOL
I cleaned about 12 shot glasses of seeds yesterday and put them into baggies to divided them up trying to get my kitchen table to look like a kitchen table again and didn't even make a dent in it lol There are shot glasses everywhere on it!
I"m guessing that Dahlia is a bishop's children one. The bloom looks double and mine are single, but the same foliage.
I should have taken more photos... this place had the most gorgeous beds... and about 30 or more i'd guess, just on the course we were on. Many, many monarchs and bees were buzzing about.
had some hostas, but for the most part, all the beds were full sun.
Had some Blue Fortune Agastache... but the seeds weren't ready yet. I did snag some verbena seeds... that one that starts with a B and is a very long name. i can never remember the name.
Purple Top Verbena for short Terese :)
I think my printer went out need to have it checked out it's the first printer I ever had so it's a fossil lol I have to have one for the swap lol The only buttons on it that work are to make a copy off of but that isn't even working rignt now I may have to get a new one :(
I started looking at Wal Mart for one and all they have are the ones that have the fax I just want a simple one to copy and print.
i picked up a printer last year for the trailer... 30 bucks at wallyworld. BUT only one ink cart.
I think they gave me color, not black.
printer was 30, black is about 13 color is roughly 17. cheap printer, gets the job done.
at home I have a laser [black only] and an All in One. they just getcha coming and going when it comes to ink though. i get generic and for the all in one, we got refill kit, so it's WAAAAy cheaper. ... especially with 4 ink carts.
I still have my trusty old HP lazerjet 4L. It has to be over 20 years old. The ink cartridge lasts years. It's probably hundreds of times the size of the ripoff teeny cartridges for today's printers, and I've started getting the refilled cartridges for around $30, as the HP cartridges are now over $100. I also have an all-in one machine that I only rarely use - for color and copies and faxing, but most of the time I only need black and white, so it's much cheaper to use the laserjet.
same here.... i got my laserjet when i was in a class when i needed to do a lot of printing. with my coupon it was less than 100.00 -- that was about 8 yrs ago.
My printer is a three in one like I could use a fax :) I got it about five years before I moved in here and I've lived here since 2000. I was looking on the home shopping channels and found one for $50 that has the scanner on top and just a printer the cheapest I've found so far not sure if it's a laser printer like this one though are they all laser printers it doesn't read laser printer just says 'laser-quality text' and a comment on there about it from a customer says a Lexmark uses a lot of ink? My other one is a Lexmark 125 and haven't found it to use a lot of ink and used it to print out a lot of pictures of flowers when I was selling plants for labels.
http://www.qvc.com/qic/qvcapp.aspx/view.2/app.detail/params.item.E205991.desc.Lexmark-X2670-AllinOne-Printer
This is the only one I have found with out a fax I went several places yesterday in town and couldn't find one! Just couldn't believe it!
Lea, just get one with a fax. You won't be paying more for it. Printers are really cheap now. I think they make their money by selling ink at ridiculous prices. Just try to find one with the largest ink cartridges and the cheapest ink prices. If you try to save money on the printer you're likely to make it up by paying ridiculous prices for ink.
Yes but I was really hoping to get a smaller printer this time my other one is so darn big and takes up so much room for what I use it for I was going to check out the prices on ink for that printer while I was in Wal Mart yesterday took the name of the printer with me and my son was rushing me so much I forgot to look :)
I've got one of those desk that fits in the corner in my room and wanting to just get rid of it it takes so much space up just want something small to fit on a smaller table and all of those ones with the fax in them are all most $200 for the cheapest and really didn't want to spend that much. The only time I really use my printer is for the swap I did use it for copies when I was going thru all that crap with my sister but that's over :) I still think I'm going to have to get an external hard drive too these darn computers!
WaHoo! It's pamsue's birthday today! Have a great one and hope you are getting more rain there than I am this year lol
Happy Birthday, Pamsue!
Lea, maybe you can find a used laserjet on craigslist.
I go to ebay looking for computer parts usually just haven't checked yet because I wanting a new one and still might find a newer one on there they have a lot of computer parts that are new I've replaced a few parts for my lap top the last couple of years never really think about Craig's List except for all the trouble they have had in the past I'll keep that in mind though :)
Happy Birthday, PamSue
& hello to piggies
a posie for Pam -
RedonOdilon_Flowers_The Athenaeum_1909
----- (I file art images by artist's last name first, and this is "open domain" which means okay for general use)
source: http://www.the-athenaeum.org/art/full.php?ID=6784
karen
Happy Birthday one day late Pam Sue.
Sorry I missed it, we were too busy celebrating my husbands 50th. Went to a nice restaurant in Detroit called Slows. They slow cook their pork ... lol.
Just wondering if anyone uses a fax at home if you not working out of your home. I just use the fax at work whenever the need arises which is once in 5 years.
My pentas are just beginning to open. You guys were right ... you have to start them super early to have enough time up here in Mich.
Happy Birthday Pam Sue!
Another thought on the printer, I really like my Epson rx680. It's not tiny, but does fit on the same small stand I've always kept a printer on. The scan quality isn't as high as dedicated scanners I've had, but it will do for most things (I'm a graphic designer, so pretty high standards in that department, anyone not using it for professional reasons would think it's fantastic!) What I really like about it is that each color has a separate ink cartridge, so when one color runs out you don't have to replace the whole color cartridge! They never all run out at the same time!