Does this tool exist?

Crestedchik: good plan--I think we'll try that this year. What happens if there are twigs in the mix?

Pirl: oh no!!! I hope you're okay! I wasn't aware that gardening was a combat sport!! And here I am, encouraging my husband not to go solo backcountry skiing--talk about the pot calling the kettle black! I'll have to watch out. It's easy to get overzealous in the garden, especially since my work involves sitting on my patootie all day with my nose buried in a book (and thus my neck all cricked up)--I'm always so glad to get outside that I throw caution to the wind and get overexuberant about lifting heavy things etc.

The second "incident" was too much digging of established daylilies for seven days 8 AM to 5 PM: injured tendons and ripped muscles.

The first WAS from sitting on my rear trying to dig out Japanese irises that were in that sunny spot for over 10 years and I had no idea they'd get so thick that I had to use three knives to get through the ground and take out little pie shaped wedges. I was taken to the hospital on all fours on the gurney. I couldn't even stand up. That was muscle pulls in the right thigh and sciatica. All is well now but I'll always go a bit easier than I had been doing.

Is anything tougher than Iris?

Hmm, I'll keep that in mind when I plant irises this spring!!

Not all of them but flag, japanese.. not german. Stories of people using an ax to divide them. I think they are worth it. Just wish the flowers lasted longer.

I was also using a sledge hammer to pound the knife through the clump! Now I really will divide more often: one lesson learned.

The wetter they are, the more acid the soil, the more blooms the Japanese iris and Louisiana iris will have. One JI went for six weeks. I find the one I call light blue, some being 9" across, akin to a floating butterfly.

Pirl, Do you know the habits of Dutch Iris. I always get confused.
(My iris grow about 4-5 ft tall in my bog)
Dave

They're the most confusing ones to me. They can send up stalks (weak as they are) and no flowers for years and then something makes them flower beautifully and then you're back waiting another few years. I'd never plant them again.

Thanks. I'll continue to avoid them too.

Now I feel guilty. Maybe I have them in the wrong spot or they don't like me.

Don't worry. It probably wasn't going to happen anyway. Reducing the possibilities from an almost infinite variety is necessary.

Thanks, Dave. Now I won't eat the poison mushrooms.

Thank goodness! Save them for biddie!

She's in beige shorts and a green top at the right, but not drinking the cyanide I prepared so carefully.

Just teasing, like she might drink it....
Are you in that photo?

No, I was taking the photos!

Well, first impressions can be dangerous but she looks like a pain in the posterior. Why does Inca woman bother her?

Even the very first one - a simple country girl with a big floppy hat - bothered her. One Sunday her husband was driving down the road and she was in the passenger seat and she had him stop and back up just to see it. The scarecrow is at least 100' from the road but I'm sure she feels it's undignified. Too bad. It's our home, our gardens and she doesn't have to pass this way if she doesn't want to see it.

Umm, did I miss something???

We were talking about my female scarecrow that one neighbor finds terribly offensive and out of place, unnecessary, rude, etc.

She finds the scarecrow RUDE?!? sounds like Dan Quayle getting mad at fictional character Murphy Brown for being a single mom...only even more ludicrous...

What can I say about someone who still walks with a very fancy parasol?

MEG, IT EXISTS
http://www.harrodhorticultural.com/HarrodSite/product/Composting_Composting%20Accessories/GCO-050.htm