Stepping stones

Oh my! Oh my! Oh my! The Lambs Ear for wildlife gardeners is definitely slappable. The exotic Astilbe (I used to have some of that and dug it out) is also slappable but the Rose of Sharon takes the cake since that's exotic and invasive so that counts as a double slapper for me and worthy of me accompanying terryr (who will also view that as a double slapper) down to where you live to cyber slap you and naturally I'd want to take a little side trip to MoBot. Finally, somebody posted something that was slappable who lives in the vicinity of MoBot.

Sorry Len, no slaps for you if you live that far away from MoBot!

Hey, terryr... are you getting the idea that I'd really like to go to MoBot???????????
I get a botanical garden fix and you can cyber slap some people.

Here's some good news! I've started ordering from MO Wildflower Nursery near Jeff City, MO & got to stop in & say "hi" yesterday. They gave me 3 catalogs. So now, I'll be planting natives only.

Yeah, pepper. A 4 hour trip? You must have been one of the speed demons that past me on the interstate yesterday. LOL

So far, I've received & planted vernal witchhazel, buttonbush, & native bamboo (canebrake). I sited them correctly too!

I have astilbe and Rose of Sharon. Plus the barberry, boxwood, wild grape vine, daylilies, irises, pink honeysuckle. Have others too. Clematis, lily of the valley- does nothing here, and lots of weeds.

LOL. I can drive fast and do if needed but try not to. I say 4 hrs because we are right off the highway, speed around here is close to 80+ at times which I hate. I have been thru St.Louis to visit family in Illnois many times and it takes 6 hrs to get to family.

Ho Hum, I'm gonna slap all of you. Ms. E, I bet that Mobot has all the precious exotic invasives that you so despise. O.k. that I despise too. If I want to look at exotic invasive plants, all I have to do is go out to mommy and daddy's.

Pepper, everybody drives thru MO going 80. Isn't that normal? All the cars buzzing by me have MO license plates......what color is your truck?

I would go to Busch STADIUM though. Cubbies playing there now. 5-1 Cubs. WooHoo!!! Go Cubs GO!!! Double header tomorrow. Funeral in the morning, but then I'm ready to go. What time Ms E?? I'm well enough now, I can navigate.

I don't do sports. Watching sports is up there for me with watching paint dry.

I gotta deal for ya, I'll do sports with you if you do MoBot with me next spring?

The children's garden has an old timey village with a jail for invasive plants; such as kudzu; complete with wanted posters. The plants inside the cells are labeled. There's an empty cell for the kids to play in. Outside the jail is a cemetary for endangered plants along with grave markers.

Many exotics are found inside the International Gardens. Wildlife is also moving into the Woodland Garden. "Don't feed the fox" signs have been added near the stream where a mother duck and her ducklings were swimming. We laughed one day at a wild turkey admiring his reflection in the window of a building on the outskirts of the Woodland Garden.

I hope you all get a chance to visit Mobot. This place would not be what it is without all the wonderful volunteers. I always dreamed of someday being retired and still healthy enough to volunteer at the garden. The Climatron has a great display educating the public about the importance of saving the rainforest.

I'd say that the garden is slowly becoming more environmental friendly. I've seen many positive changes over the years. I really enjoy the Kemper Center for Home Gardening. I remember when this area was undeveloped and how I couldn't wait until it was completed. The butterfly garden is great to walk through in August. it's like an open meadow.

Ok, I'll stop now. Got me wanting to go this weekend, but I've got too much work to do at home. Waaaaah!!!!!!!

I'm still working on trying to wear her down. I am an eternal optomist at times.

Awwwwk, well all I've got to say is you guys have totally lost it! Straighten up and fly right.

cyber slap to sempervirens! whack whack! Can't see your picture. What is it? Need to know since so many of us have low self esteem here.

Say, do you wanna go to MoBot? Just kidding, I know that's a long drive from NJ.

It's one of her pet birds sitting on the back of the couch.

I still wanna come to MoBot. And terry, you HAVE tp come!!

Yes, 80 is the norm on the highways here in MO. Speed limit is 70 but people feel that is too slow. I feel that it is too fast and that's probably why I stick to gravel and back highways when possible. On back highways speed is anywhere from 30-60. Sometimes slower. Depends on who you get behind.

What do you consider a back highway? Rt 63 from Rolla down to Cabool is 65 MPH......love that road!

I don't hafda do anything!

You gotta pay taxes and die!

Ok, Equil. You have until next Spring to make it down. Otherwise, I'm coming to fetch you down here myself. Enough said!

I told my youngest daughter that we have from now until the end of next Spring to get the house clean for company. She thinks that we just might make it if we work hard enough since I spend most of my time gardening in the Spring, but she's all ready for a trip North. LOL : )

correction: all ready; not already

This message was edited Sep 16, 2007 3:18 PM

I do?? Well, talk about ruining my Sun. Taxes? What are they? And I pay who? Really? I have to pay somebody taxes??

LOL. My house is very rarely clean like it is supposed to be. But when company is supposed to come over my mom freaks and does a major cleaning job. It has to be perfect.

What's a refund? I have to pay Uncle Sam and the state....what is it? 4 x's a year? I don't know. All I know is I just sent in yet another payment to both of them on the 10th of Sept.

And I forgot. I'm not dying. Nope. I'm living till the end of time. That fountain of youth in our backyard sure is paying off. Now if I could just find that money tree everybody talks about.

Pepper, can I borrow your mom?

Yeah, why can't the "money tree" be an invasive species?

Ok, back to cleaning. I have a deadline!

LOL. Sure, but I doubt she will travel that far. I also am a clean freak.....but only at work. hahahahaha. I get paid to clean.

At the risk of sounding like everybody's mother..........If you'd keep your houses clean to begin with.....everything has a place and everything in it's place......then you wouldn't have to do such deep thorough cleanings........... ;-D

I think who you need greenbrain, is my mom. Talk about anal......and people wonder where I get it from! sheesh.......

We live on gravel and get home late. Plus, we don't take our shoes off at the door. We are constantly in and out so we are always tracking stuff in. We have a little electric vacumn call the Shark that takes care of that when the big vac is too much.

Fer shame, fer shame. Shoes off at the door and immediately put in coat closet or in your bedroom. I do leave a pair of slip on shoes by the back door to go in and out. Watch that Shark. I bought one in TN and it's been in the box for how long. Finally got it out and the motor went kaput. I like my vacuum better anyway, so there Shark!

We had this one just a few months or so but the other one about 2 yrs. Love them.

As for shoes, that is impossible. Landing is less than 3 ft wide and 5 ft long. The door is oversized and it barely avoids hitting the post. Our house is a split level. Once we take shoes off at the end of the day then they do go into our bedrooms. Then we just throw them whereever it is easy to reach. Otherwise they will disappear and never be found again. lol.

But I do have a pair of loafers at the door and my mom has flip flops for now.

Pepper, I was so happy to sell that split entry house of mine. My good friends knew I HATED answering the door so they would walk in, and yell from the landing. My poor knees... next house I bought was a ranch with a basement. We moved the laundry to the main floor and my knees were so grateful!

LOL. We were happy to just get this house. It's in the country with just under an acre but surrounded by acreage and just under budget. But it took a year of renovating and bug bombs to make it livable. Been here 10 yrs and have to replace siding, carpet, kitchen, dining room, and windows. Oh and finish up the trim and fix the basement walls.

We love ranch styles but we can't afford another place so we stay.

Pepper, when we bought our split level house we were in the same boat. It was a repo and we got in for no money down and only about $500 closing costs. It had part of lawn started to the side. It was one acre of tumbleweed literally clear up to the front door. We kept it 15 years, planted, landscaped, and finished the whole basement so yeah, I know what you mean. We got a good percentage back in sweat equity so I certainly do not regret the house.

At least it had been lived in and care for so bug bombs etc were not necessary.
pat

Don't forget rat bombs. The former owners used to keep their horses in the basement. Need I say more? lol. The yard was also eroding because it had no support. So we brought in timbers and tons of dirt and terraced some areas and others we just flattened out a bit while also keeping the natural slope.

We still have a problem with bugs thanks to the siding but it is nowhere near as bad as it used to be. The bugs and rats thought they owned this house. Possums think they own the deck and cat house, cats think they own the food and so do blue jays, dogs think they own the water, deck and yard. lol.

RAT BOMBS!!! Holy Sheeeeeeeeeeeeee OK, ok, ok... YOU win!!! LOL..

Man I lived in a rental once that I thought I would NEVER get rid of the mice! Nothing like watching TV and having them run right thru the living room!!

All I can say is, you got guts and a hardiness I NO LONGER have at the ripe "old age" of 52!!! You go girl, do ya gotta do. I understand that. I won the battle with the mice and you'll win your battle too!

Gosh, this thread got long before I came across it...

I may have missed this somewhere above, but actually I don't see anything wrong with the suggestion of slapping a shovelful of cement mix under each stone to level things out. That should take care of any unevenness that would cause a stone to crack when stepped on... and I don't see any reason your herps couldn't burrow under the stone and the underlayment... It'd be as if you bought stepping stones with lumpy, uneven cement bottoms.

I'm with you Critter. Since the darn ground is so hard to shovel, that sounds like a solution. If the ground wasn't so hard, I'd still think digging up an area, add a little of the fresh cement and the new stepping stone to have them barely about ground level. Any way you look at it, it's an ambitious project that is WAY COOL!!!
pat

Everything Equil does is Way Cool, that goes without saying!

:-)

Probably not a good idea due to rapid freeze/thaw cycling out this way. I'd have to dig even deeper to create a base for the cement I'd be setting the stepping stones in. Frost line is somewhere around 40+ inches for this area.

Had to take a little side trip yesterday. I got a spider bite and on my left hand. I was pulling weeds and can't imagine what got me but it got me good. My left hand hurts like the dickens and it's swollen and discolored pretty bad. One lousy little spider of some sort did this and it wasn't the recluse either.

My husbands come tomorrow. Never thought I'd want more than one husband but here I am jumping with glee that two more will be mine mine mine to "honey do" to death. They come back next week and if need be, they will come back the following week. I'd sort of been hoping to lay the sand but now I've basically got my right arm and my left hand out of commission. Figures. So much for the cost savings of buying the stepping stones on clearance! My savings is all going out the door in husbands.

Thanks for the compliments on my projects. I'm creating another habitat brush pile real soon. I get to use my husband's beloved Bradford Pear to start it out. Oh that makes my heart do flip flops. The Bradford Pear will finally be gone. What an embarrassment to have had it here and worse yet to have my husband hugging it in front of people telling them his wife wants the tree that protects his bald spot from burning when he barbecues to come down. Eesh, he almost gave me a case of the guilts... almost. Tree comes down and I use it to start another habitat brush pile.

Ladies, I will be able to post photos real soon of another project just completed this year that I've barely said a word about. It's still a surprise until we're done but I think you will all like it. It needs quite a few finishing touches but the major work is done.

And, I've got another major project slated for next year for native fish and native aquatic & marginal plants! I've already begun but will be stopped by cold weather as well as time restraints finishing up other projects. This project will be way cool and I think you will all love it too.

Photos to come of the stepping stones probably this Wednesday. Or at least what I can photograph of how far we get with them.

Hooray for extra husbands!

Won't the freeze-thaw heave your stones around regardless of whether or not you underlay them with a slap of cement? Well, if you're planning to lay some sand underneath, that should help regardless... and in spring, you'll have to just hop along th path a few times, jumping up high to land hard on each stone and settle it back into place... ;-)

I do keep a clean garden. Brick paths, mulched, no weeds, vining plants on trellises. Doggy poo picked up twice daily. We all have our priorities.

I bought a paper shredder yesterday & have shredded an entire trash bag of pre-approved credit card aps. I'm going to use the shreddings for mulch. Now my desk is clean.

And what does this have to do with Equil's stepping stones? I have no idea. I'm really anxious to see some pics. Maybe someday I'll get to walk on the stones. If they hold me up, the husbands did a good job.

Ok, my youngest daughter just declared marshall law. The munchkin has destroyed the living room. Looks like my time is up.

Yes, the rapid freeze thaw cycling will heave them but we're not talking about attempting to fuse two dissimilar materials together expecting both to withstand the cycling. Theoretically, the stepping stones should be able to float in the sand. Concrete should have footers below freeze lines and should be reinforced with mesh or rebar or whatever the reinforcement du jour might be. I actually did put some thought to this and knew they needed a base... after I leaped at the opportunity to purchase stepping stones on clearance.

Have them quit sending all those to me too. Great idea about using them for mulch. Will have to tell my grandma about that. She's the gardener in the family. I just throw it in the ground, tell it to grow and if it don't I pout then move on.

Actually, somebody gave me this number just the other day... I need to call it!

888-567-8688

You're supposed to be able to reduce the amount of direct mail (eg, all those credit card offers) you receive by calling the number.

We will try it tomorrow. Thanks for the number!!