It was so wonderful meeting all of you today. I don't know when I've had more fun and met so many fantastic people all in one day. To quote Chantell, people who like plants and animals are always nice. :>)
I do feel like I should have been giving out a lot more plants. Next time I'll pot things a week ahead so last minute thunderstorms won't mess up my digging. And I want more time to visit with everyone and less time running around doing other stuff. Did I tell you I'm a fretter? LOL
Aside from all the wonderful plants and wonderful people - I just can't rave enough about what a treat it was to meet everyone - the food was delicious. I promised a bunch of people I would post my family recipe for the corn pudding. I'm going to start a thread in hopes that everyone will share their recipes for the yummy things they brought.
Thanks everyone so much for traveling out here to the hinterlands and allowing me to share such a great day with you all.
Haves, wants for spring swap II
I can only echo all the sentiments and praise to hart for undertaking this huge event. Thank you, Hart! I don't envy you the clean up.
I am bushed! My eyes can hardly stay open. I still need to shower off all the sweat and wash all the dirt from my feet, and the bug lotion from my arms and face and neck. I hope I don't fall asleep in the shower.....
Hmmmm.....Has anyone ever drowned in a shower stall? Could one actually fall over in one--you know, the walls would hold you up. They are only 30" square, or something...I know this is inane and silly, but I am brain dead at this point.
Sally! You sweet thing you! Thank you so much for driving and NOT getting pulled over by all the Troopers we passed. You were VERY good and obeyed all the speed limits....:o). This must have been a "fund-raiser" weekend for all the cops......They were everywhere!!!!!
I will be in withdrawl from now on! What will I do with no more posts on this big event? After all the pictures are posted, this "Swap" will ride over them thar Hills in Virginia and disappear in the sunset. I will miss all the communication and all the planning and the chatting, etc.
OK! Off to the showers! Gita.
Oh, we'll have plenty of post-swap chat! We'll have to start a new plant for brag reports on how well all our new treasures are doing. :-)
I'm not sure I realized quite how much vinca I had gathered for my mom until I put it all in one spot on the deck -- WOW! Thanks to all who contributed... I'm going to tuck the cuttings into a propagation bed tomorrow, and I'll put the potted ones into bigger pots soon... plants from cuttings will go up to Pittsburgh this fall or maybe next spring (to underplant Mom's maple, where grass isn't growing too well despite my very best efforts this spring), and potted plants will go up the next time we get together with them. It's wonderful to have enough material to make a big impact for her right away, and I think she's going to love it. (She'd better love it, LOL, because I don't have anywhere for vinca major to run rampant!)
BTW, you know how when we all saw the picture of Gita we were saying no way she looked anywhere near her age? Well, it wasn't trick photography. I think she has a painting in her attic that looks really old and wrinkled. LOL
Critter, the vinca I gave you came from Joyce, who was hiding out in the living room all day because of the heat. Which is a darned shame because she enjoys socializing more than anyone I know.
She has tons of the stuff in her yard and just let me know if you ever need any more.
I am echoing the rest above- what a fun interesting day! The time just FLEW ! I knew somebody would be here writing tonight.
Thanks hart again for hosting, that is a worry! Everything worked out great, nobody starved or dehydrated or left empty handed.
Brent , all agreed, gets the grand prize gold medal for organization!! Best labeled neatest array of plants!
Critter, the gold for Herbal Enthusiasm!!
Everybody gold medlas for plant and garden compulsion! When I got home there was a bukb catalog waiting for me- gotta start planning for next year, not what do I want but what would be an awesome swap item.......
Thanks to everyone who willingly or less than willingly took my stuff. hart, there is a litttle pile next to that black bucket, of things either for larlienda or donate.
Still need to shower then crash so I can start going through my stuff at the crack of dawn!!
I too want to add my appreciation for all that Diane (aka hart) and everyone else did for yesterday. When I finally got home around 8 p..m., I was exhausted. I'd been up since 4:30 a.m. and traveling since 6:00 a.m., so after I unloaded the car and put everything away, I crashed.
It was a wonderful day and so nice to be able to attach a face to a name. I enjoyed meeting all of you. The food was probably the best I've had in a long time. I hope we do this again. If you want a complete change of Virginia scenery, I'd offer my place on the coast. Of course, that would be quite a ride but it'd be worth it.
I can't wait to get the recipes for the wonderful food. Thanks again.
Betty
Hart,
You are too funny!!!
I wonder how many people actually "got it" about that painting in the attic??? Besides--you have never been to my house! How did you know I had that painting up there????????/
OK! So as not to wait for individuals to ask me, I c/p the Pickle Recipe and here it is. Might take 45 minutes total to do this. I do not use measuring devices. Tbs. and tsp. are the regular and not necessarily "level". Just scoop and pour.
(Oh, my! The type below is all chopped up, but if you c/p it from here and then print it out, it will be OK again.
*****************************************************************************
Gita's Garlic Dill Refrigerator Pickles.
Need: 3 wide-mouthed jars (pickle type), or Mayo.jars
One BIG bunch of fresh Dill
6-8 cloves Garlic (or to taste).finely diced.
10-12 pickling cucumbers (such as Kirby). Fresh is best! Store
cucumbers are WAXED, and no way you can remove it! If you
must use store cukes, score them through the skin with a fork
and slice them thickly. They also have more seeds! But…it will
work if no others are available.
To Do: Stuff jars ¼ full of fresh dill, stems and leaves! Sprinkle a gene-
rous amount of the chopped garlic on top. Mix up a bit.
Stuff jars as full as you can with speared/sliced cucumbers, inter-
spersing them with some more Dill and chopped garlic.
Prepare the Broth: In a 2Qt. saucepan, combine the following:
2 and a half cups water….3/4-1cup white vinegar (can be part
Apple Cider vinegar)…1 rounded, regular Tbs. KOSHER salt (DO
NOT use regular, iodized salt!!!).
1 reg., level Tbs. Sugar, 1tsp mustard seed, 1tsp. Pickling
Spice….1-2 Bay leaves…6-8 pcs. Whole Allspice.
Bring broth to a boil. Lower heat and simmer all, stirring often,
For about 10-15 minutes. Keep very hot until ready to use!
Filling Jars: Stirring constantly, to distribute spices, ladle hot broth,
evenly, into jars until all contents are covered. Seal jars. Invert
each jar a couple of times to mix contents.
Let jars cool to room temperature, and then refrigerate.
Pickles are ready to eat in 2 days! They will be delicious and
crunchy! Use them up in about a month, as they will soften
with time
Enjoy! Gita
I got it, Gita! Thanks for the pickle recipe. It will come in handy later this summer.
It's not that Wrightie reads Oscar Wilde. She has one of those paintings in her attic too. LOL
Ya'll are too funny--I must've missed Wrighties' pic...will go ISO later...thought I was going to plant today but my son's old baseball team has asked him to help out on a double header...ugh!!
I'm so sad I missed out on most of the food...every time someone walked by with something else my mouth watered...my bad for not getting there sooner so I could have the plants passed out a head of time. You all are such a great bunch of folks!!!
Diane, I DO believe most animal and plant people are the best and all of you re-enforced that thought yesterday!!! Hugs to all!!!
Gita, I don't like pickles that aren't sweet but they sure looked delicious. You don't have to leave them for weeks either - that's great.
My mom used to make pickles every year and had a great big pickle crock. You had to leave the pickles in the crock for weeks before canning them.
Wrightie--are you reincarnated here or something? You are too young to have a painting in your attic!!! You looked like a college student to me.
SO! I read the funnies in the newspaper, and that is (probably) 75% of the reason I subscribe to it in the first place. It still KILLS me that out paper stopped carrying "Prince Valiant"! You know, when I came to the USA in 1951, that cartoon was already running in the papers. I loved it!
Geez, hart! Attics are scary!!! Everything there is sort of "GRAY"! Besides--the "DOOR-IN"(?) to them can sometimes be hard to find.......
Who wants to visit up there anyway? Everything is so OLD--all dried up and wrinkled!!!!
OK! Enough mind games.....
Hey! Guess what???????
EVERYTHING I got yesterday has been planted (except Critters itsy-bitsy Columbines and the even itsier-bitsier Hellebore Foetidus--these need to be put in 4" or 5" pots and "nurtured" a bit). and watered in and I am now just hoping for some level of recovery at some of the more wilted plants. ..the Bell Flowers and the Begonia Grandis.
I will know in a day or so if they are "settling in". Sure hope so!
It is an overcast day here. No sun at all. Slight breeze. Might rain.
What a perfect day to transplant anything.
DO I GET THE FIRST PRIZE OR SOMETHING HERE???
I am DONE!!!!!
:o(.....:o(.....:o(....Someone else went home with my pot of "Grandpa Otts" rooted, and growing, Morning Glory. Boooo---Hooo----
Maybe someone was walking by my table and thought it was available, or, more likely, I laid it down somewhere and forgot it. You know--at my "advanced age", the brain matter is a bit "GRAY"......:o)
This may just turn into another "blu" thread! Except it will be a "GRAY" thread. We need something new to occupy our free time here.
OK! Two hours to go till I have to leave for work. SO stupid! We close at 7PM on Sundays. I am scheduled to be in 3-7PM--EXCEPT!--the opening Phone person is there until 8AM-5PM! They cannot schedule you for less that 4 hours, so I have to come in--kill 2 hours somewhere else (Garden), and then sit by the phones for 2 hours and go home. MAJOR el-stupido!!! Ruins a good Sunday for sure!
Hart! Don't forget to post your delicious Corn Pudding recipe. Please!
Just for y'all to see how little room I have in my WHOLE yard, I am posting pictures of my house from all sides. This is the front--faces NE. The stump in the front used to be a beautiful, red Japaneses maple until the drought in 1994 killed it. I could have cried! Now it acts as a prop to my big pot every year, but the stump is almost completely rotted. Any day now, it will come crashing down.
This is thee "kitchen side" of the house. I NEVER use this door. It faces east and gets full sun until 2-3PM.
This is my shade bed side.
The green bush you see (partially) in the front is mt "Wintersweet Bush". Cimonanthus Preacox. I have seeds....
MOving around to the back yard, this is a view towards the SW coner of my yard. This is my "Yukky bed". My property ends there.
See the huge Silver Maple? That is why!!! Roots everywhere!!!
Gita - you DO get 1st prize...yeah you!!! Karen had the Morning Glories - maybe you could ask her if she had any left. Nothing like volunteering you, eh Karen?
Actually, that was not the correct picture for the descriptio, but still in the right direction. The house on the previous picture is my neighbors.
This picture is the "yukky bed". The fence also ends my property.
This is looking in the other direction of my back yard. This is towards my other neighbor's yard. You cann, partially, see where my roofed over Patio starts.
The shed is my Ex husbands creation. Kind of cool!
The tree is my other maple. This is a "sugar maple" aka as a Swamp maple. Much smaller and daintier in size, BUT--the roots still go everywhere!
This is the West side of my house and the only bed that gets full sun all day long.
My climbing Rose (Autumn Sunset) is on the trellis at the right, and there are 3 more Roses in this bed as you look down.
Isn't my OLD Spruce lovely at the front? Dead top and all. I am just waiting for the top to come down in a strong wind or something. Meanwhile--it is a bird-Condo!
LOLOL You wilde thing you, Gita!
And you keep saying you have no place to plant things but I see all that perfectly useless grass that could very well be flowers! LOL Just kidding. I do envy you your nice green grass. We have such a time getting grass to grow anywhere except in the flower beds. There it thrives.
The bellflowers should be okay even if they wilted, although you may want to keep them fairly moist until they root in. After that they're pretty drought tolerant and will compete well with the tree roots.
I started with about three plants that a lady in West Virginia gave me and they were seriously wilted when I planted them but they perked back up after they got some new roots. But if they don't make it, just give me a holler.
This is looking at my Patio (has 4 skylights) from the West side. This is where I "live", work, plant, transplant, rest on my porch swing, cook out, eat, have a couple of cold beers---you name it. It is my "World"--my sanctuary.
The bed to the left has 3 Rose bushes in it also.
That's it, Folks! As you can see--my available space is limited.
I have lived here for 38 years.
Your yard is so pretty, Gita. Where did you come to the US from? Their loss, our gain.
This is looking back from the West towards my roofed over Patio. It has 4 sky lights in it so as to allow sun into my LR and DR where I keep most of my plants for the winter.
My Patio is where I "live". I pot there, repot there, rest there on my porch swing (not too visible), grill there, eat there, have a couple of cold beers there and, in 2 weeks, hold my HUGE Summer Solstice cookout there--and in the back yard under the trees--in 2 weeks. I will be hosting about 50 people that Saturday! Haven't done much prep. yet. Gotta get moving!
Just behind the AC unit is a 4-steps down entrance into my lower level of the house. Ther is another level below that. I have a 4-level split house.
Hart,
I am from Latvia one of the 3 small Baltic countries in northern Europe. The other two are Estonia and Lithuania. See on the map across from Norway and Sweden. We are tiny--but when it came to declaring out freedom from the 50 year occupation under the Soviets--we were "The Mouse That Roared". Our countries started it and we did it!!!!
Many, many thousands of us all fled out countries in 1944 to escape imminent Soviet occupation (again). Spent the next 7 years in post-war Germany as refugees. Then emigrated to the US in 1949-1951. It was the last year the US permitted these mass emigrations. Glad we made it! We came in September of 1951.
I spoke NO English and had to struggle in the schools to learn and to pass. I still speak my Latvian language fluently. Also partial German and Estonian, as my ex-husband is Estonian and we spent 25 years actively involved in that Society here. Estonian is the most beautiful language!
Our countries are now FREE, and the Western world has "invaded" them and the young people are eating it up. I hope that many of them will return to their "roots" and cherish their heritages and culture and language and Folklore. I think they are. I hope it never disappears!
Sorry! You asked!!!!!
Gita
Oh, sorry about your MG... I don't have it, but there was one looking for a home at the end of the swap... I said, check with Gita, and I was assured you had one... :-(
The columbines are itty bitty because they're wintersown seedlings from this year... they will grow! I overwintered a dozen of them (all different, what fun!) in trade gallon pots, and now they are nice and sturdy, and many of them even gave me first blooms this spring. They're worth babying along this summer... :-)
I'm making some progress getting things sorted out here... Hart's bellflowers and lovely little lilac shoots are potted up... The bellflowers are already perking up. I planted 3 of them to a trade gallon pot, and I'll plant them out when they've had a chance to get nice and sturdy with lots of roots. The golden moneywort pieces that didn't have roots have been layered into a windowbox planter, and the rooted pieces will go into a bed once there's a little shade there (I figure sticking them out in bright sun won't help them adjust LOL). I also potted up a flat of pussytoes in deep cell packs... I know she said they could be planted right out, but I wanted to baby them a little to be sure they adjust before tossing them out into the iris bed to fend for themselves. Thanks for all these lovelies, Hart!
There are a couple of blooms on the pussytoes, and they seem to be yellow... ?? I thought they were silvery/pink... either way, they're cute, and I love the foliage. Maybe the yellow is some other little volunteer that got mixed in, although I did try to separate out the occasional sprig of grass or plantain sprout.
Happy, somehow I ended up with 2 clumps of Siberian Iris... I'm sorry, I thought I checked! I will put them both into a nice moist spot, and the next time we get together I'll dig one of them up for you. Now I'm going to separate your wonderful clump of sweet woodruff and pot up a flat or two to spread around my DL/daff bed. The green ajuga looks really sturdy, so I think I'll just divide it into several pieces and plant it out directly. I'm thinking the other ajugas will do better if I let them grow on for a bit -- you potted them up so nicely!
Gita... I think I love you. College Student??? Nah, I'll be FORTY ONE in August. You can call me Dorian if you please.
Well, I've got all of my cuttings, bare root plants and bulbs either in water or potted up, and I've planted Sally's ferns and Happy's Hosta, but the other FOUR FLATS of plants are still in 'the nursery' until I can decide where they are going to live.
Here is a picture along my patio that shows my new hosta next to the steps and the four ferns from Sally. I gave them a bit of a haircut so there's not much to see ... YET. Thanks again to everyone. This is all very exciting. I'll post more pic's as I get things situated.
Wow, Gita, what a life you've led! How wonderful that your country is now free. Do you still have family there and can you visit now? And I can't believe English isn't your native tongue. You certainly don't have an accent.
You must have been very young to have gone through all that. You're a little bit younger than my mom and I know she was a teenager when WWII ended. She has told me about going to the local churches and ringing the bells the day the war ended and being lifted up off the ground by the bell rope.
Critter, some of this may have gotten mixed in. I think it's pretty too but you may want to pull those out. The leaves look exactly like the pussytoes.
http://www.ppws.vt.edu/scott/weed_id/hiepi.htm
BTW, don't panic that this is a Virginia weed site. For some reason, Tech has lumped all the wildflowers in there with weeds.
This message was edited Jun 10, 2007 2:34 PM
Gita----GRAND GOLD PLATINUM PRIZE. You are such a go getter!
Remember at my house when you said- I must get my grandpa otts, and I said it,s right back there, and you said, Oh you have... and I said Yeah that's ... and I got it from ... and been growing it... and there's my ... and this is..and you said that needs.............Well we forgot it!! I will gladly send, or run them up.. So ironic I did leave an extra pot at hart's. but the one for you has started to twine.
I spent a couple hours wandring my yard in a new plant induced haze..... Decided to gather happy's hosta party THANKS in place ready for that area but need a wheelbarro full of dirt an I wasn't up to that this am~~~
The seedlings are together in nursery flat Thanks Critter
Tomatos up potted before final placement Thx Gita and Critter
Pot of mixed coleus Critter, miatablu? Thx
Forget me nots~ no miatablu I will not forget you now, you live in my yard now- azalea is great too
DAYLILIES~~ Thanks ruby and john I will look forward to seeing them bloom!! I got FIVE
Bellflowers, went swimmin in a five gal bucket and look very happy, hart!
hart, I know we all noticed your many interesting plants in the beds like angelica, poker, moneywort, bellflower, saw you have big mockorange bushes.......your cool waterfall and ponds....chickens..etc etc I suggest next host or hostess not be allowed to contribute cooking or food, I think hart coulda had more fun talking plants than making food, delicious tho it was!!!!!!
I like it regardless, and I think it'll work fine out in my iris bed!
If I squint really hard at the plants, I think I can distinguish two different leaf types... the "hairs" on the pussytoes seem denser and more silvery maybe than those on the mouseear hawkweed?
"Take a look at my pussytoes! They're growing out there with the irises, next to the mouse ears!" Too cute by half.
:-)
don't leave your rabbits foot there, it'll burn up
Gita, you got everything planted already? Show off! Wrightie, did your pussytoes survive the trip home? I can't believe your 41. I thought you much younger than me and I'm 43. I know all about paintings in the attic. My last name is Gray and there's one of my husband in mine. We often joke that his great great great grandfather's name is Dorian. Sally, how sweet of you to remember me when you see the Forget -me-nots. I think that's one of the best things about the swap that, like you said, a part of each of us is in each others yards.
Thanks for asking, Mia. They got a little sore, but I sprayed cold water on them just as soon as I got home.
Speaking of having a little of each of us. I'm being a bit of a bum around the house today and have started entering my loot into my DG journal and am trying to note from whom each of the plants came.
Sally, are you saying the plant Gita is looking for is here? Do you want me to mail it to her? Did you want some of the angelica and mock orange cuttings?
I feel so bad that I didn't get anything potted up the night before. I've been saving pots for a year.
The red hot pokers for some reason don't want to spread where they are. I'm going to try moving them in the fall and see if I can get more plants out of them. When I grew them before they spread like crazy. Did you see the little miniature pokers in that bed too? I moved those last year and they seem to be spreading a little now.
I told Critter I hope the pussytoes don't chase the mouseears.
Miata, my maiden name was Dellinger and I got so tired of people asking me if I was any kin to John (who was Dillinger) that I started telling them he was my grandfather. LOL
Hart,
NO! My Grandpa Ott MG is at Sally'. She was the one who was giving it to me. Since we were coming back to her house, I thought we could just leave it there and i will pick it up when we get back.
Well, we both were tired and with all the re-packing from car to car, I totally forgot it. I also forgot the last 2 chicken shishkebobs that i put in her cooler for the trip home. SO! The mystery is solved. Sally and I will have to figure out how to get it back over here. I DO still want it.
Hart--I have distant cousins back in Latvia. They are very dear to us. We propped them up with $$$ when times were tough. My two sisters more than I. They are better off. I have been back there in 1994. Plan to go again next year--hopefully.
I do so have a small accent! Every time i open my mouth, people want to know where I am from.
Wrightie--You are right in the middle of my daughter's ages. They are 42 and 39. I still look at that as young.
OK! Got stuff to do. My cookout is in less than 2 weeks.
Hugs to all, Gita
I probably just thought it was a Baltimore accent. Just kidding. LOL
Hart, Gita obviously hasn't picked up Baltimorese. I didn't once hear her call anyone "Hon" :)
I have a habit of calling people "sweetheart" or "sweets".
"Hon", or "Honey" just doesn't seem natural to me.
Just FYI--when someone LEARNS a language, rather than growing up with it, they usually speak it very properly. Good grammar, no double negatives, not too much slang, etc. At least that is an observation of mine....
(did I just get too serious here???....:o) )
Gita
Gita over-serious? not unless you are planning a moon mission soon. Of course we should do one of those sometime in the near future. Or maybe just relax and enjoy what we have right here right now? - Or - maybe I should just stop this rambling before someone sends the dudes in the white lab-coats to pick me up.
Gita has a moon in her yard. She says it glows night and day.
She doesn't even pronounce the name of the city properly! It's "Ball-merr" to most of it's natives.
Dyson -- if you're planning a moon mission, I want to go!
:-)