She's about to...60... Spring is here!

Marti, so glad to hear your son won the truck rodeo! Congrats to him, and good luck for the next rounds.
No rain here. Nice and cool, but no rain.

Congrats to your son Marti. That is quite an accomplishment especially beating out the company trainer!

Iris are really blooming up a storm and if the winds would let up they would last forever.....as cold as it is.

Thanks everyone!! I'm still patting myself on the back that I was able to raise such a good kid.

I have no idea what a truck rodeo is, Marti, but can tell how excited you are for your son. Congrats to him for winning! Let us know how he does in the next leg at Stockton.

Yellow and Purple make a stunning color combo, happ. Is that Salvia "May Night" in the background? Just wondered since mine are blooming and look similar.

A few Yellow Primroses opened today, those made me smile, then noticed how beat down the Iris blooms are from last night's rain. Just hope there are a few left for another bouquet to take to my MIL the next time we visit her one day this week. Before it started raining buckets -- again -- today I raked up several wheelbarrows full of dead grass and picked up rocks out of my new garden. So much for trying to get anything planted. All this rain is really starting to get to me, like snow in Winter, and feel like I'm one notch above a slug not being able to get much accomplished.

A truck rodeo is where semi truck drivers go and take written and actual driving test to see who is the best. During the driving test they have to demonstrate the ability to handle their trucks safely including backing up to a dock, their graded on how close they can get to the dock without hitting it & driving around a set course without knocking down the pileons that they use to mark the course.
The judges grade them on their driving and they get so many points for answering question correctly. My son said there were almost 60 drivers there, he tied for 2nd place with 2 other drivers, so the judges had to use other criteria to pick the 2nd place winner.

that's great marti!!!! When my son was about 4 or 5, he would ride in the truck with me (we did custom harvesting from Texas all the way to Montana) and say 'I shift momma'. So I would let him put his little hand on the stick with me and 'he' would shift the truck. lol It was a 13 speed, so we had a lot of gears to go through. He then bought his own truck when he was 18 and drove until a couple of years ago (he's 32) when he parked his rig to help his dad on the farm. I'm thinking he said he had 2 million miles under his belt at one time. Now THAT is a lot of white lines!!!! lol

My son drives for FedEx Freight. He only goes local. He thought about going cross country, but than he got married and she doesn't want him gone for weeks at a time. Plus now he's got his son, my grandson, and his wife works, so it is up to my son to take care of the grandson most of the time. Elijah, my grandson, goes to day care while my son works and than is home with his dad in the evenings and weekends. Elijah went to the truck rodeo on Saturday and while my son was doing his tests, the company's driver trainer took care of the kid.

Morning All!!

Just took a little walk outside before I head off on an errand.

Have a few things blooming..

Some MG's from Debra

My Weigelia shrubs...

My son was driving when he and his wife met. He had a son from a previous marriage and they have 2 daughters and a son. He continued to drive the first 8 or 9 years they were married. It was quite an adjustment for both of them when he started being home all the time!!!! lol

Yes Fruity that is midnight salvia. Do you trim yours when it stops blooming to get a second flush of blooms?

A lot of the master gardeners got together to get our plants ready for the plant sale next Saturday. It was so darn cold! I couldn’t bring all my plants cause my car got full, so the rest I will drop off this week. We still have about 5 members who haven’t shown up with plants yet. My strawberries I am donating have berries and they are starting to turn red…should be a good selling point don’t you thing….rofl.

We have been cloudy forever but not much rain so I am having to water and so windy! Course today we have sunshine, wouldn't ya know.

This garden is always full of weeds for the last 20 years so I have decided to grow tall plants to cover them up...rofl. It works most of the time. I am not sure why they soil is so weed infested. I don't want to use preen or anything like that because of the poppies. These are poppies my Mom brought me from her house years ago. We like to never have got them started. Hate the plant, but love the bloom.

rvnsbrk, is this a Weigelia shrub? Someone brought this to the plant sale but didn't know what it is....

looks like weigela

http://www.pbase.com/hjsteed/image/124006824

here is my blackeyed susan vine i started from seeds it is in bloom now :)

We cross posted Happ. Yep. Weigela.

Wanted to show you all this little number. I have had this magazine rack from my MIL ever since we cleaned out her house. Some years I plant in it, some I don't, mostly because getting a liner is a pain in the butt. So this year I think I had a brilliant idea. Wanted to share it with you all because you may have some openwork containers like this that you don't use. I hate the coco fiber liners. They are thick and clumsy and hard to get to fit. So my solution was to take a roll of weed fabric that I had. Cut off a piece. Line the planter. Fill with soil. Trim the edges and just tuck them inside the soil and BINGO! Instant liner. The soil can breathe and drain and for me it is a whole lot more unobstrusive that the other options. Hope you can see it. The sun is really out right now.

happ...... LOVE that lilac bush!!!! Gosh I wish I had one like that in MY yard!!!!!!!!

Great idea neener. Looks terrific.

Gives me ideas! If the rain would just stop so I can get something done.

Oh Neener, that is a great idea! Thanks!

Love that neener, I had a basket that I did that with years ago, got it at thrift store for nothing and planted all kinds of stuff in it.
I saw some ladies on tv that did it to a old fireplace log holder but they bought sheet moss, course their tv program has more money than me garden...rofl. My big problem if I don't leave things like that on the porch those silly maple trees send feeder roots right up into the pots.....I about yank my arm off one time trying to move that basket, I grabbed it and started walking and the basket didn't move....I sure did tho like a boom a rang!

Crit thank you on the lilac bush, that is a miss kim lilac suppose to be small....guess small is in the eye of the beholder, but I love it. It is on the north side of the house and garden and does really well there so far. Been there probably 4 or 5 years. Got one on sale at HD at the end of last year and over wintered it in the fort and it is blooming up a storm and it is about 2 to 3 feet tall. Need to get it in the ground along with about 50 other things..rofl.

Hello..love & hugs. Wishing everyone of you could come to the RU! O Susan, wouldn't that top the wish list?

Happ I've got a Little Miss Kim too. It bloomed one bloom for me this year for the first time. I didn't see yours, but mine seems to be getting a lot bigger than I thought it should. Figured it was just stretching for the sun here.

Indeed it would, Faye.

happ, your scene looks like a picture postcard. Yes, I prune the Salvias and had another flush on of blooms from late Summer til frost. They were not as large but will take what I can get that late in the year. My back deck looks like a pot ghetto with so much stuff I need to get in the ground. Weather dude says our rains will blow out Friday and we'll be baking around 90 this week-end.

Very clever idea, Neener.


This message was edited May 16, 2011 5:14 PM

Pot ghetto... Too funny.. I have piles of empty pots everywhere just waiting to be scrubbed out and stacked. I am making progress though. Tomorrow I should get the brugs planted (the over wintered ones didn't come back). Still have the coleus bed and a few onesies and then I am calling a day. Next up on Sports Call....mulch. :(

FOTV .... I owe you an apology. In the Houseplant swap, I was so excited and overwhelmed with all the great plants, I didn't even mention the wonderful plant markers you sent along with them!!!! Thanks so much for those, and I'm sorry.

Everything is doing well, except the Anise Hissop. The foilage on it got real dry. There weren't alot of roots when I planted it, but I am treating as all the others. Maybe it will come back. If not, can I beg another start from you?

Is the pitcher plant a carniverous plant? I don't know why, but I was thinking it was. It sure is pretty though.

love the garden Joyce, and your lil kim is pretty, I have never had luck growing poppies, and I love it all. My white lilac is so sweet and the old fashioned is done, my wegelias are all about done, someone told me to trim them right after they bloom..

love the basket ideas, but u know I have a love for the unusual..

Debra you can trim the weigelas after they bloom, or any other time for that matter. Mine need a haircut a couple of times during the season because they are getting too big and hang over the stuff planted underneath them.

Susie, your Blackeyed Susan is awsome, mine blooomed all winter inside, now it is outside, and pouting..
this is the before shot of the fromt triangle, Joe hates the primrose, he thinks they look like weeds, so I thinned them out to make room for the liatris, monardas,cones, and gloriosa daiseys that are up... After picture will be in a couple weeks..

Have a question about using Irish Spring to keep the wabbits out of your bulbs, etc. I was going to use it to try and see if that is what was eating my hosta. Will the soap not hurt the plants? Do I put it underneath them, a foot away from them, etc????? I appreciate any information I can get.

Thanks!

I use like sheppard hooks & Put the soap bars in oinon bags & hang them close to the bulbs .they last longer when hung but you can also put a bar of soap in to a dish of sorts on the ground but they do turn mushy & not so nice to step on . hanger is a better way to go .

Hello everyone.. I found you again! I have been MIA for quite a while. I noticed the 'shepards hook' idea and thought of those little garden signs they tend to sell in the dollar store Those would be great to use to hand a little bag with the soap in it. Inexpensive and cute.

Hey Stranger! How are you doing? What have you been up to?

I don't remember what thread we were talking about Super Thrive, but I have a question. I looked at Lowe's and Wal-Mart and neither place knew what I was talking about. Where is it that people have found this? What does the bottle look like?

Hi Tammie :) It's great to meet you.

You're welcome to the markers, Patti. No need to apologize. Most everybody here knows how neurotic I am about keeping named plants tagged. But I do have a semi-circular garden near the road I could care less about and plants grow willy nillly, . If your Hyssop doesn't bound back, I should be able to replace it. They're pretty tough plants though. Just stuck a broken Agastache my cats brought me over the week-end in a dab of rooting hormone and then in a pot, and it already has tiny roots. The Pitcher plant isn't Carnivorous. It might take a while, but it will eventually show a Pink bloom spike.

Edited to say: I've never bought or grown Snapdragons. There are three in the wild garden blooming that are from Lazlo's Mystery Mix I Winter Sowed two years ago.


This message was edited May 17, 2011 10:23 PM

In regards to soap in the flowers, I use a soap wash every fall as I bring mine in ( tropicals) and use soap/olive oil in my spray for outside..
I love snaps, but they don't seem to last around here...

here is a site for it as for buying it I have not for i have a gardening friend who buys it & then Shares it with me in trade for plants. as to where she gets it i trully do not know i do know it works . she also shared a bottle of something called No wilt ??? & it also works well not sure that is the name will have to ask her but the plants won't wilt when transplanted when you use this.

hope this site helps you .

http://www.spray-n-growgardening.com/products.asp?dept=17

well wishing you all a great day back later its a another cool wet one here today .

susie

Thaks for the info. I put the soap pieces in the small plastic plant trays. The garden is on a slope, so tilted them so that the soap doesn't get all mushy. I didn't want to put holes in the trays, because I might need them. :-)

We are getting a nice shower now. That will help all the stuff that I planted in the front flowerbed, and the seeds I planted there. We have about a 40% chance each day to the weekend, then it goes up for the day. I'm glad, we need some showers. I saw some new grass sprouts coming up in the pasture, so hope this will make more emerge and they can get their little feet set deep into the soil.

Good morning everyone. Rained last night so I'm hoping the ground is wet enough for me to dig a large, thick clump of grass out of my oldest Iris. I'm sure I will have to dig up Iris to get to the grass, looks to be right in the middle of thick Iris. They are yellow and have been there for 4 yrs. guess it's dividing time. Can bring some to the RU if those coming want them.
Out to do the digging.
Hope your day will be happy and pain free.
Love & hugs

http://www.dcourier.com/main.asp?SectionID=2&SubSectionID=2&ArticleID=93945

If anyone has horses, please read this!

Dug up grass, Iris were so thick they were growing over Iris.

Grass in just 1 place of the Iris bed. I kid you not, that was some hard digging...very large clump of grass, and of course it was in twined with many Iris.

Continued digging up Iris (all yellow) now what on earth will I do with so many of the same? I dug about 1/3 of them and seeing how many there were, about panicked and wouldn't dig the others....Where will I plant so many??? Answer, I will not plant any of them...they are to be given away to anyone wanting them. LOL new Brecks & Spring Hill Catalogs came yesterday and my Iris order is ready for both. When the new ones come, I will plant them so far apart from each other that identifying them will be a snap.

Yellow Iris anyone?

That's backbreaking work, Faye. Bring some of your Yellow Iris to the RU and they'll be gone in a snap. Oh yeah, did I ask you to please put my name on a clump or two? I'll find something else for you besides Caladium bulbs :)