So, what are you doing this weekend?

Here around Boston, at least, it's supposed to be sunny this weekend!

So, are you planting anything?

I'm planting calla lilies, cabbage seedlings and an aster plant.

I am planting callas, roses, hostas, preparing raised beds.... and even spreading some sweet peas seeds... and testing other seeds.... it's a big weekend for me!!!!

No planting here - still isn't warm enough for that - although it is suppose to be nice and warm for the next few days. I am surely going to be spending most of my time outside playing with the kids and preparing and cleaning flower beds and pots. I love doing that kind of stuff.

I'm going to a conference on Urban Ecology at the Beardsley Zoo on Saturday and Sunday I'm going to finish clearing a path through the front yard for the gas company to put in the line. Also search for logs to make raised planters and rocks to rebuild the planter wall I have to take down for the gas line in constructions sites.

Ooh, that conference at the zoo sounds interesting. Too bad I have to work (figures, the first nice day in weeks!) or I would have attended. I didn't hear about this one.

Enjoy your weekend, everyone, no matter what you do!
:)
Dee

Isn't it a bit early for Callas? Discovery Channel has an interesting show on alternative energy (solar, wind, geothermal, etc.) on Saturday night - I believe at 9 PM.

I'm going to see a Broadway show - Pirate Queen - on Saturday evening. I'll be planting tomorrow - 12 Pocomoke Crapes and about 7 or 8 other shrubs.

wow... everyone is going to be busy!!!! I am planting the callas in pots... is that ok??? the roses and 2 bushes should be planted sunday!

I am putting in the tete a tete daffs I got at Home depot about a week and a half ago and haven't been able to put in my window boxes since all meteorological heck broke loose around here. I am planting them in the half baskets along my fence and in the rock garden at the bottom of my driveway. The tete a tetes from the last couple of years are blooming now, along with the crocus. They are shorter than the ones in the 8 pack.
I put in some pansy seeds in a flat and i bought all kinds of leaf lettuce and mesclun mixes and i am going to direct sow them into a spot in my veggie garden and into several large pots. I love fresh greens. I thought to get some onions and plant them also. I certainly have more to do than time to do it!
Martha

Isn't that always the case Martha? I say gardeners should be allowed extra hours in the day. Since we are helping Mother Nature, I think it's a fair trade.

I totally aggree Victor!!!!! now they are saying it can go up to 80's.... it;s all or nothing around here!!!

Well, I have some dahlias that need potting (courtesy bigcityal), but I don't need good weather for that.

they ALMOST started work on my rose garden today. came with the sod cutter and couldn't get it working so they left and didn't come back. so they cut about a foot of sod. I thought they were delivering materials today, but nothing showed up, so I guess that didn't work out either. somebody will probably show up tomorrow and do something. I think my landscaper is more anxious than I am to get started on this. It's a pretty big job for him.

they also clean up my other beds and mulch, do some fertilizing, etc. I don't know if they'll work on the weekend at all. but I plan on closely supervising. all the roses have been ordered online, but I may go to the nursery with him to pick out some plants for the cottage garden bed. he's figuring the job will take them about 3-4 days. I did the design and expect them to stick to it, so I'll be out there with a ruler to rap their knuckles LOL

here's the paint lines, or as much as I can get with the camera

Gram, thats going to be beautiful! You pull your self up a lawn chair and make sure they do it right! Your paying for it and want it done they way you invisioned it, besides...the customer is ALWAYS right. Just a suggestion though.....leave enough room for one or 2 extra rose bushes. You know you'll see another one you want sooner or later! LOL

Edited to say: I planted blackeyed susan vine, 3 types of watermelon, cantalope, 3 types of cucumbers, carnival mix peppers, cauliflower, 6 canna's, 9 calla lilies, 2 asiatic lilies, all in my office today....which it isn't (an office) anymore! I have a ton more to do, so DH better get to putting up the GH this weekend or we will need to move out of the house.

This message was edited Apr 19, 2007 11:16 PM

I have lily bulbs from a co-op, some perennials and lettuce & swiss chard seeds to plant/sow. Dalias to pot up (Thanks Al for the seeds and Gram for the reminder) Fertilizer (and some epsom salt for the roses) to get down and another "garden walk" to attend. First Little League practice of the year.
Happy Earth Day to all!

Here is my list:

1. dental appointment
2. potting up seedlings with neighbour (she needs some plants to donate to her church gardent
3. moving some daffodills (yes I know this is nuts, but it can't be helped)
4. improving soil in triangle garden
5. planting pansies
6. planting sweet peas
7. preparing holes for 8 roses.
8. potting up dahlias
9. starting more plants!
10 grading 30 term papers

Yipppee finally some sun! I even let students out of class early yesterday afternoon if they promised to get some fresh air (I hate it when students start to get moldy)

Moving out daylilies to make room for dahlias I started under lights and on heating mats. Maybe starting on path work - removing weeds, Preen, watering it in, weed barrier cloth and mulching with the long pine needles. Possibly checking out more nice pots for the courtyard and, if it gets as warm as they're talking about on radio, we'll continue hunting for more driftwood.

I'll be cutting back the dead foliage from last season's perennials, and picking up all the debris that's on my lawn from the last storm. Oh, and getting the backyard pool ready for opening (yay!). It takes a few weeks for the water to clear and the chemistry to balance, so time to put on my chemist's hat.

Gram, your rose garden plan looks great. I'm envious - every time that I try to plant roses I have to keep moving around because of all the boulders I hit up in this Granite State. By the time I find a place that works, it's no longer near where I wanted it to be. Then there's the Japanese beetles. Ugh. I've given up on roses.

The Japanese Beetles are so problematic. When they arrive, around July 4th, I cut back all of our roses to deprive the miserable beetles from having their orgies in my roses. You might want to try one in a pot.......if you really want one.

last year was the first time i saw Japanese beetles. they did a lot more damage to my river birch than to my roses (I only have a few now). I guess I'll really have to deal with them this year.

GOOD LUCK!

Does anything eat Japanese Beatles?

My cat used to. She couldn't keep up with them, though.

Praying mantises do!

Praying mantises eat everything they can catch.

They'll happily devour Japanese beetles, but they'll also devour good bugs. And frogs. And hummingbirds.

A praying mantis egg sac is tied to my hibiscus. In a month or two, the mantids will hatch. When they're small, they feast on aphids. As they get bigger, they tackle bigger game.

[Edited to add: The hibiscus is in the kitchen now. It will go outside in a couple of weeks.]

This message was edited Apr 20, 2007 12:17 PM

The Japeneese Yoko Ono may destroy the Beatles. (Yankee,Should I tell Al or was this for effect also?) ;^)

I pulled out the old leaves and the grass from around my previous years' tete a tetes and now you can see them. Will take some pix tomorrow. Got a lot more crocus blooming. Noticed that I may have lost some daffs to rot out on the north side. May have to till under that bed with some sand to break it up. don't think my three little red azaleas made it either. this side gets the wind something fierce. However, Cornus mas is in full bloom and forsythia will be out tomorrow. and I got this year's tete a tetes planted today. have some muscari out, waiting for others and many daffs are approaching bloom stage. I am off to yard sales tomorrow morning. will report about my purchases later tomorrow.
Martha

Hey Dave - I already used that joke a few months ago! I want compensation.

Victor: Al can pay you off in deer parts.

He can come and take my deer apart.

Victor, my apologies. A royalty check is on the way.

It's going to be a busy one!!
Tilling garden(thought about having the pigs do it!! gas is too expensive! ),
Planting about 300 onions,
helping DH mix quikrete for front walkway,
build area under rabbit coops for my worms,
fix leaking roof on potting shed,
move rain water barrels(5 -50 gallon) down to garden,
going to attempt to level out new area for a raised bed-if I get to take a pic you'll understand the "attempt"!,
seed front lawn,
divide daffadils(I know it's not the right time of year but I've been going to do it for 2 years and it's now or never!)
repot tomatoes and anything else that needs it!
Tend to the sunburn I'll probably have!
Anybody have a spa tub we can all have a good soak in? Maybe with some epsom salts added for the aching muscles?!
:)

You find one and I'll bring the epsom salts! I have some nifty scented ones.
Martha

I received this one as a gift from a sweet DG person:
http://www.localyokelshop.com/pd_tired.cfm?gclid=CPS9jOft04sCFSBMGgodCGTWZw

Great name, pirl! Dave, no problem. Please fill us in on your garden tour. I'll give my review of Pirate Queen. I planted 12 mini Crapes yesterday, along with two Lilacs and a Daylily. Potted two Gardenias, a Viburnum and another Lilac. Started moving some plants that are now in full sun to shadier areas - Ferns and Astilbes. I am scheduled to receive 40 Lavender today. That's Monday's work. This time next week, we'll be in Mickyworld!

You'll need a rest, Victor!

Ummm Seems like I'm not going to the Urban Ecology Conference after all since it is NEXT Saturday. So I'm digging up all the plants that might be in the way of new gas line. Where to put the stuff I dig up - now that is the question. And, what the heck is that? That is the other question. If I don't know what it is - it goes in the back yard until I find out. Picked my new boiler/water heater - a Munchkin - it is the size of a suitcase and does my hydronic heating and supplies hot water. How cool (or in this case, hot) is that?

Well, I am now convinced that gardeners must be the most slender, trim, fit, nubile, dexterous, agile, and must hold world records for longevity.

I just put in the one of the most rigourous workouts this totally non-jock individual has ever experienced and in two days all I have accomplished is numbers 1 -5 and 8 (see list above). I dug one 2' x2' x2' hole for a rose - man! this is a big hole (yes - I know you know how big this is, but I am a card-carrying member of NENC!)

Lesson learned - (1) must do all the heavy lifting before 9 am - I'll never survive the heat (72 degrees is a heat wave as far as I am concerned!) (2) must buy more manure and compost - much more than I first thought, and (3) must figure out where to put the extra soil that remains after digging holes and adding soil amendment stuff.

So - maybe dig one hole each day - maybe in the evening. Must spend Sunday grading those papers. When am I to find time for all the seedlings that are germinating on the front veranda?

Finally, what am I going to do with five Kevin Limelight dahlias? ?? (last year had 2 . . . )

You aren't cheating by sleeping, are you?

Well, I bought another used lawn mower. this one works but it needs a bag. I got two plants both rescues! The man wanted to charge 5 dollars for this parlour palm, of which a big section was dead. and he had this great big pot with one little round ball cactus in it that he wanted 5 dollars for. I liked the pot and I negotiated with his brother and got them both for 4 dollars. The guy was obviously in denial. The palm is already repotted and the little cactus is going into a dish garden with three others that I have.

I got a teapot, small, three Dave Clark 5 45 rpm records {don't anyone in this room tell me they don't know what 45's are!!} A blast from the past! Some more vine baskets for my garden club sale, a small table with a drawer, unfinished, a variety of flower pots, some violin exercise books, and a bowmaking contraption and two huge spools of red velvet ribbon to practice with for a 1.00 that had been in the bag untouched since 2003 because the Michael's receipt was still in the bag! I can now attempt to become un-bow challenged. I have all this nifty, but strange colored ribbon to practice on.
I had a great day!
Oh, and i cleared a lot of leaves and debris off of my corner hillside, osmacoted the daylilies, siberian iris and hosta that are there, and am preparing to plant pansies and the alyssum and english daisies I liberated from this year's flower show. This is my agenda for tomorrow.
Martha

My "garden walk" at Natureworks Nursery covered mostly things I know pretty well already. (the advantages of compost, organic fertilizers etc; when and why to prune various shrubs and woody perennials).
I found out why it was such a bad winter for broadleaf evergreens (which includes some groundcovers I never thought of [e.g. vinca] ). Warm winter had their (? things like pores) open. Transpiration occured, giving up their water. Flash freeze and the ground froze leaving them unable to "drink" from their roots.
Also bought fertilizer,2 epimedium and a daylily rosey returns. Planted them.
Got my indoor seedlings out, my winter sown seedlings uncovered. Planted 3 blue mist shrubs, 4 sedum autumn joy, 15 lily bulbs and raked up my back yard gardens. A little family game of sotball in the middle of the gardening and I'm exhausted.

I am exausted.... did so much.... got really dirty.. all day working cleaning, making rose beds... I had 3 guys helping me and of course the landscaper almost drove me nuts... he left the guys here and it took forever to deliver the loam/compost mix... oh brother my driveway is a mess... needs power wash!
they finally did a spring cleanup and looks really nice... just imagine, we used 20 yards of loam/compost/peat moss... all raised beds... even without the roses it looks good...
all my plants are outside in the porch.... I can't believe how many are there.... it's prety amazing how many plants....

tomorrow I hope to plant at least 20 roses... thank God there is no holes to dig... did it all today.... 62 roses to plant .... well another 16 on the other side, and all the red ones ../

I also planted hostas... small ones... and I am so pleased that the lilac tree is looking really great, Veronica has tons of leaves, and the many miniature roses made it through the winter... really a nice thing....

tomorrow more work! but I am happy!!!!! now is the nice work... the planting and watering.... really nice!

WOW! A totally different Kassia from the tearful one so recently. I'm so glad you accomplished so much today. Enjoy your sleep tonight and dream of roses.

Take photos!