My winter sowing in milk cartons is kind of like a cold frame. The first time that I did this I was very skeptical but really surprised at the result. At least I can sow seeds now and not worry that they will be growing too big indoors. This is about 1/3 of what I will be doing.
that is 1/3? there are 31 milk containers there - what in the world will you put in 100? and where will you plant them?
This message was edited Feb 6, 2012 3:11 PM
Lots of them go to Holly's plant swap in May, many go to my kids gardens and some go to my friends gardens. Right now the containers contain:
Verbascum Southern Charm
Delosperma Cooperi
Oriental Poppies
Different kinds of Delphinium
Different kinds of Agastache
Different kinds of Balloon Flower
And More
Least expensive way to fill my gardens. This is just one of 9 of them:
Thanks, Debi! I'll know if my brother will be operated on by May.....Jumper, I've been looking at those litlle greenhouses for a few years....I really need one! Guess I'll head up to Walmart's this week.....thanks, Pixie. Roses, very pretty gardens.....
Re the shade-tolerant evergreens, hemlock is happy in shade. I can't imagine any pine that would like it. Microbiota decussata is a nice shade evergreen that is low, good for understory.
Love the basalt fountains!
Two viburnums I have in the shade are acerifolium and rhytidophyllum. You can also use Mahonia and plum yew.
Welcome Robin, I needed a new one, have had mine since 1999.
Jumper.. word of advice.. I have a few of those stands.. if the winds start whipping in spring.. it will fall over.. I usually tie mine to the deck rail .. don't loose your babies
I bought these for $20.00.. no covers.. had to prop them up against the wall of the greenhouse.. and put a rod against the wall to make sure it didn't collapse.. it was leaning with just the weight of the trays.. water them and made it even heavier .. I have some shorter ones that were better ... taller the less stable they are
http://www.growerssupply.com/farm/supplies/prod1;;pgs102444.html
I've also been admiring the greenhouses at Lowes--much less $$ than at HD. I'm sure Jumper will do a lot with hers.
Gneiss and victor were nice! Thanks for the suggestions for my shady back area. I forgot to mention that it's pretty dry there now, which prevented any hemlocks from ever taking root so far, and why I have to get an irrigation system even if it's a spigot up there. The microbiota decussata might be nice near the double file viburnum that's going to be planted on the slope. Perhpas the aceriforium might work way in the shade, and I've ordered a hybrid of the rhytidophyllum viburnum---rhytidophilloides to grow with the Parague viburnum, I believe. Do either of these get leggy in the shade? Dirr wrote he tore his leatherleaf viburnums out.
And the milkbottles are going on my list for next year, if I can ever convince DH not to recycle them. Sigh, have to enjoy everyone else's for now.
Mine are not leggy, but it's not deep shade.
I try to be gneiss, except when I feel like schist.
Oh, saw that one comin. Heehee
You guys are always full of great advice.
we got mine on sale at Menards last year. I'm planning on winter sowing in it. DH has it lag bolted down with some metal straps so it doesn't move.
nice!!!
rosemary he recycle the milk containers after winter sowing
I hope the plants come out first!
Not a bad price, Celeste. Will have to check and see if my local Walmart has one. Or perhaps I can purchase on Walmart.com.
Wow! Allison, those are cheap, and they look like they're good ones. We just bought some plastic shelving units at Lowe's to store stuff on down in our cellar. It was about $50, I think. Could have saved a bundle!
Will have to get myself some milk cartons/bottled water cartons/juice cartons.
Karen
I have one of those stands with the plastic cover. I put it against a wall, and drove tall bamboo stakes down next to the two back corners of the frame. Then I used plastic plant ties to attach the stakes to the frame in a coiplemof places. Then I put the plastic cover on. I took out the top shelf, it got too hot in there in the sun and cooked the plants. I have an automatic solar opener and this year I want to try to rig it up somehow to vent it when I'm not there during the week. Even without that,, I've gotten great use out of it the last couple of years. I solved the venting problem by leaving it unzipped and hanging a curtain of frost blanket fabric down the front behind the opening. I used clothes pins to keep it in place. That diffused the sun somewhat and still kept it warm enough at night. I had tomatoes outside in it in April and they did great. Also hardier annuals and perennials went outside quite early.
Pam
Looked out today and noticed my large arbor is down again. What a pain. That will be one of the first projects of spring. After the last time, I drove stakes down to help hold it.
Hey, Pam, good to hear from you.....was thinking about you the other day....wanted a book from the library, ours didn't have it, but Warren's did....I'm like "WHAT" Warren has a library?
i have continued to play with my beach stones and made a smaller catapillar - here it is next to the "original" - it took twice as many stones to finally get six that did not break while i was drilling the holes with the hammer drill - most of the "body" stones have 4 holes that need to be 1 1/2" deep, the last has three holes and the front only two - i hold the stones with my left hand and drill with the right so when one cracks or breaks it is a bit scary and i have to hold back the drill - using a large hammer drill this way is not recommended i am sure
i have also made four more stone flower arrangements - the small one with the white quartz base may find a place in my office - not shown is the one i gave to my wife.
then i started looking at the link's celeste posted and while sorting through buckets of stone looking for the flower arrangements three stones stood out - and i thought i could make an ant as patti suggested - the fire ants celeste posted where all made held together welded metal which i do not do - i had just enough thick brass rods left after cutting down the length from 36" to 24" of the last flower arrangement to make legs and to hold the stones together - then it was a matter of bending them into the correct shape for legs using a vice. had to down load some real ant pictures to make sure it was ant like - last that middle stone needed to have eight holes - the head was also a bit tricky with the antenna's and i did not dare try and drill two more holes for the pincher's as i did not think the stone would stay hole.
here is the finished ant - it is about 18" long and pretty heavy
and you thought i was done?
here is my attempt at a frog - thought it would be easy - not - found the stone for the body in the woods, nice and round and almost completely covered with moss so i am hoping that placing this in the shade it will cover the rest - the stone for the head was easy as was putting the two together and the eyes.
the legs where a different story - i copied this from gardeners supply and they only have one set of legs and they weld the feet to a strip of metal that bends up and over to the back of the stone. the first set of feet i made where way too small for that and instead of welding i just wrapped the two outside wires around the middle one - you would be surprised how wire that uses up - then i used 2' lenghts of wire made larger feet and wrapped again - again the length of wire was not long enough to go up and over to the back - i am guessing 5 or 6' would be enough which i was not going to do.
so i used the smaller ones for the front legs and larger ones for the back and this is what i ended up with - frogs do have four feet right! - not great although i still like it.
LOVE the caterpillars and the frogs are AWESOME, the ant kinda creeps me out
the ant has creeped out the better half too - she see's it when she comes in from the garage - it looks real
love the frogs
These are great, wha!!! Love, love, love your stonework!!! Problem solver you are
They're all great! Wonderful, Bill!
What wonderful productions, wha. I'd love to have them crawling all over my gardens!!
Frogs are my favorite. Very whimsical.
Awesome Bill!! I had no doubt you could do it. ^_^
thx - i had some fun doing them - if i had the frog to do over it would have longer legs, four of them
have to stop because my wife is getting concerned about me:)
and celeste thank you for those links - when i went back and looked at them, especially the dry stone arcanes where very interesting with some direction - a little different than the couple i had seen previously - something to do this summer
Yes, please get it right before you send me mine, Bill.
how did i know that was coming :)
go get the 45' of copper wire at home depot, a couple rocks, drop them all off here, negotiate a price (be forewarned my time is expensive) and i will get right on it........
I want life-size.
Bill, those are just awesome...love them all, but the frogs are way cool!
oh my gosh..."life size"
Bill you found your calling.. those are all great!!!
thx - i will say they are much larger than they look in the pictures - the frog is life size, in fact it is the size of those giant african frogs that are huge - the base rook is bigger than a candlepin bowling ball - oh sorry some of you do not know what those look like..........
