oooh, I could be in soooo much trouble---he's shy (so sometimes shy guys need a prod...)
This message was edited Oct 9, 2007 3:55 PM
My Cottage Garden as Pictured Today :)
How much fun could this be?? Maybe we could have the wedding in my garden??
:)
Susan
Susan---LOLOL!!! Wait tho, I need to lose a couple of lbs :)
mee too!!
:)
Gosh, you two!!! My kids aren't allowed to put pictures of themselves on-line! But I like the color of his shirt.
My advice: get to know each other by corresponding first. My DH and I met on match.com! In those days you didn't see a picture or video or anything; it was all just corresponding. Because I wouldn't have picked him out of a line-up as "my type". But we fell madly in love just by writing letters back and forth. OK, we were madly in writing letters to each other all night. Then we HAD to meet, and we already had tons of stuff to talk about. THEN we fell madly in love. Ten years later we have so much fun together that last night he said if it got any better, one of us would spontaneously combust!
Carrie---Jason has no clue that his picture is on here! I transferred it from home pc (it's his fault cause he showed me how to do it!!!). Unfortunately, he inherited his Dad's genes as far as the hair "goes"...my grampa (Mom's Dad) had a full head of hair til he passed in his 90's. That's cool about you and your DH. My (present) DH and I met 10 yrs. ago thru the personals and have just celebrated our 7th anniversary. My DS has a heart of gold (he's a Libra)---just before he went into the Army he drove me to work during a horrible snowstorm and on the way back home he hit a bad patch of ice on the road and smashed the front end of his car. He got it fixed and then let me use the car (uh oh!). Yep, I accidentally rear-ended someone and smashed up the front end again (!!!) and he still loved me! IT WAS such a cool little sports car too!
How sweet!! :) Love those stories...
My husband chased me down in a parking lot after the final exam in a college class. He had a job and a working car, unlike "my usual type", so I didn't get a restraining order :) He wasn't my type either.. Long "band hair" in a pony tail and full facial hair.. I was an "A-B" student and he was..well.. he didn't want to be a student :) hmm.. Well, I wasn't going to go out with him, but he was politely persistent. He had previously told me that weekdays weren't good for him, since he had to be up so early for work, so I was jsut tying to be nice one day and said I could do Thursday night since I worked weekends and he said that was fine.. I was a little surprised, but we went out and the rest is history.. we have a wonderful marriage and he cut the hair when I got pregnant with our first :) Still has the facial hair though... :)
Susan
Awwww---what a sweet picture! That's your 4 yr old that you mentioned earlier, right?! Do you have another child? Let's see a picture of YOU and DH!
"it's his fault cause he showed me how to do it"........... hmmmm
Do you think this would hold up in a court of law Jan??
Susan
The whole family :)
Susan---Fantastic family picture! WHERE do you need to lose weight---your big toe?!
What an attractive bunch!
Jan.. I was sitting on it. :)
Thanks Carrie :)
Beautiful garden!!! I want one just like that!
HA HA!!! You guys are so funny! I bet we could get on a talk show with that story. "Woman who trade plants for husbands." LOL!!!
Actually Susan gave me such a good sales pitch, I may start taking her on dates with me! :) But then again, she's so pretty I don't think I want the competition!
Wonderful story Carrie! :) That sounds like the kind of marriage I'd like. Men are easy to find, I've even dated some really great men, but the RIGHT man for ME has been elusive thus far. I'm glad you found yours!
I didn't find any seeds on my Pachystachys. Susan, I saw the one that Jim gave you at the trade and started lusting after it on the spot. I was returning something to Pike nursery and they had some so I just ended up exchanging my return for it. It is supposedly easy to propagate from cuttings. I'm planning on overwintering mine in the sunroom so I'll have it next year. I only bought mine a month or two ago so it's not very big yet but you can check back with me later to see if I can root a cutting for you, Jan.
Danita
Good morning Danita!
Thank you for the thought re: the Pachystachys. I hope, when you can take the cutting, that it will root! Right after I saw the pic I thought it looked like a "little person" and I love unusual plants like that.
Before I joined DG I never realized that so many men were also avid gardeners. HMMMMM---just had a thought...."Do Real Men Snatch Seeds and/or Dumpster Dive for Plants...?"
Susan, good for you on the dumpster diving!!! I've never done that but if I see a "dead" plant sitting by someone's garbage I'll rescue it. I've also gotten some good pots (including black nursery pots) just sitting out in the alley (being thrown out). A friend of ours used to dumpster dive and I got a noid rose from her (8 yrs. ago) and it's been the best, no-fuss rose that I've ever had. I just refer to it as my "dumpster rose" :) It sickens me when I see half-dead plants being tossed-out, some people (non-gardeners) see them as "dead", we gardeners see them as a challenge needing a bit of TLC.
I'm still seeing half-dead/dead plants at some of the "box stores" (W-M, HD, Menards) and they still are not marked down to clear out. I've even challenged some of the people in the "garden centers" wanting to rescue some of their sorry looking plants for a discounted price but they don't care. DH doesn't understand the obsession; thank goodness he has other redeeming qualities (vacuums, cleans the toilet AND windows!!!).
TTYL,
Just "ME"...Jan
Susan, such a sweet family pic! It's hard to imagine your husband with 'heavy metal hair' though.
Did you get any rain up in Marietta? My son thought a hurricane was coming. It's sad, it's been so long since we had a storm he had forgotten what it was like :(
You and your family are so picture perfect! Cute pics.
The reason the big boxes don't care is because the plants are on consignment from the growers. The stores have nothing to loose. The growers only get paid for what goes in the register......some of the growers pick up what is left and downtrodden. I really got hold of the manager of the HD closest to me....I was so mad......he got ugly and asked me if I wanted a job watering. He's been fired. Nursery is still a mess.
Where do you "dumpster dive"? Sounds like fun to me.
lou...lets go dumpster diving...he he wish we were closer:)
Oh me, too, sticks.
Good for you LouC!!!
Check out the pic on this thread...
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/778505/
Thanks Linda :)
Danita, I am not able to root anything indoors over winter.. I don't have the place for it. Your more than welcome to take all the cuttings you want of the Pachystachys.. and anything else for that matter to root over winter :) If you covet something in my garden just say so and you can take it and root it :).. unless you want to wait for me to root it.
Yes, we did get some much needed rain two days in a row.. I'm so glad.
Thanks PrarieGirl, I am very blessed.
Lou, I find it very odd that HD never ever puts their plants on a clearance rack and my local Lowes do.. We are in a full drought and HD isn't budging on their prices and Lowes is having a "fall sale" at 50% off all evergreens and flowering shrubs. I've been like a vulture at Lowes lately. Also, the manager at the Lowes will negotiate the almost dead plants for less..and I am am not to shy to ask. Since we are in a drought and most can't water and aren't buying plants, I was able to get 13 huge white silver moon stokesias this past weekend.. They were originally $8 each, marked down to $4 and I talked him down to $1 since they looked real bad and I was going to take them all. The root systems were so full and overcrowded I had to cut the pots off.. I cut each plant into 4 and planted all along a new bed.. Over 40 plants and each plant = .25 cents :) See.. the way I see it is that most people can't imagine the thought of having an ugly plant newly planted in their garden and giving it the time it needs to perk up.. I know straight away even in it's begging to be rescued state that it has the potential for its full beauty and just needs some TLC and I'd rather give it that than spend lots of money.
Yes, I have seen the inside of a dumpster and I have reached in and pulled plants out of a trash can. I'm never too proud to pull plants out of the trash...I just always try to bring gloves and a change of shoes in case I need to get dirty. Did you see the two poodle junipers on either side of my Costco bench and Costco screen?.. The pots were what cost me, as I pulled those two nearly dead junipers out of the trash.. I took out all the dead browned pines and babied them for about maybe 2 years in my nursery area and potted them and they've been real happy. All I can say about where this is and who it is would be to try a grower. And they might not be right next door either... I have to drive some. I would tell, but I don't want to be surprised and see anyone in my own highly coveted and cultivated dumpster and have to fight them for it. :)
Also, I'm known for trolling the street and taking bags of leaves off curbs and putting them into the truck.. Crazy I know, but I have to do what I have to do to maintain my addiction. I cut them with a mower and use as mulch over winter or I put them in a huge wire circular holder we made and they break down on their own.
I get horse manure for free, and a local city gives away leaf mold each spring which is how I mulch my garden for free.
All the brugs were either traded, given to me of bought super low at a garden club auction.. and most of the plants follow suite.
I buy the roses on sale and super discounted.
I propagate and I sow and grow from seed
I use to call into a garden radio show that is no longer on and I always talked about ways to to things for less money and he knew that I pulled stuff out of that trash and thats where I got the name "dumpster diving diva" :)
Susan
Funny Jan! :)
Really lovely garden. It must have taken you ages to put it all in this thread, not to mention getting it to look so good ! How old is your garden?
Sue (ps. I'm married so no fixing me up) LOL
Hey there Sue,
My youngest was born in March 2003 and I joined Daves in late October of that year and i joined some garden clubs as well.. but I didn't know what I was doing straight away.. I still don't :) and was fearful of putting the wrong plant in the wrong place, so I did nothing for a while... I kept lots of things in pots! And I still put plants in the wrong place.. but part of being a gardener is learning and moving things around right? So I'd say about 3 years old really.. it's very young and looking forward to seeing it mature :) Yes, on the day I loaded these pics, I was moving the sprinkler all around so I set the timer for 20 minutes and came and loaded pics in between.
Glad you can enjoy my garden even while your down under :)
Susan
Susan,
Your user name fits you well!!! Definately can see the love, and beauty, in your gardens.
My neighbor next-door goes for "instant gratification" and buys huge plants as soon as the nurseries open in the Spring and then has friends and family come over and "oohs and ahhs" with them over "her garden". Yeah, I do suffer a bit of green-eyed envy in the beginning but I get over it (eventually)---LOL!!!
My gardening style is such as yours---I can't afford to spend all the $$$ that the neighbor can, and does! But, even if I could afford it, I do get greater joy and pride in working on my garden(s) as I try to re-acclimate over-wintered plants and coaxing seedlings to grow. Sooo...when all her beautiful, expensive plants start dying/drying out from neglect my gardens are coming into all their glory!!! I gave her a rooted brug cutting and it "kills" me how she's neglected it---I even gave her some water crystals to put in the brug's pot (which she didn't do...), told her how to fertilize it (which she hasn't) and my DH has to remind me that he told me not to give her any plants...
I still do a lot, 90%, of my gardening in black nursery pots that I dig almost all the way into the ground. If a plant doesn't do well where I've situated it then I can pull up the pot and place the plant elsewhere thereby reducing stress to the roots. It's about "that time" to start " dragging plants/pots into the house (basement). Last week at this time it was 90 degrees, now we're in the 40-50 range---UGH!
Hello to everyone else on this thread!!!
Just "ME"...Jan
Susan-
Would you be willings to send me some cuttings of the Pachystachys (if Danita doesn't mind...) and also, would you possibly have seeds for your Dichondras, or cuttings of them?
If unable to do so-not a problem! If you'd rather you can dmail me, OK?
Thanks,
Just "ME"...Jan
I love the flower on the "pachy"!!!
You know, that picture is so cute! Before I clicked on it, I thought you had dressed up a corn on the cob with little hands. The bright lights in my sunroom plays tricks on my monitor!
Deborah
Jan I'm d-mailing you :)
Deborah, I didn't notice it looked like a dancing man until I pulled the picture up on the computer :)
Lovely gardens! It all looks so peaceful!
Thanks! Time for me to get hopping on this years plan! :)
Ooooh
Ahhhh
Fantastic garden. Thanks for brightening my day!
Thanks! :)
I have taken out all of the brugs in front of the fence.. looking back at the pictures, I see how much space they took up and while I was glad to have them, I'm going to do shorter cottage plants in front of the fence and taller plants behind the fence.. Now I'll have room for many more plants too! :) I have tons of seeds from Suzy's cottage swap, so it shouldn't be a problem.
We have installed a rose wall (No, actually I forced my husband to do it and I wouldn't stop asking until he finally did it already- I did get him some help for the post hole digging at least) made from painted cattle panels inspired from
http://homepage.mac.com/lemec/Garden/PhotoAlbum88.html
If you have a chance to look around this garden, it's really amazing.. but I wonder why they stopped in 05? I put my rose wall against the property line on the side garden with sun. I have 8 sections. We painted the panels a dark green and they just disappear with the green behind them.. but they will be covered soon enough. We did the posts in white to match the fence and they are very very white right now.. but they too will be covered in time :)
I have plants ready and waiting :) I wanted to top some of the posts with bird houses and my husband asked me to please have some yard art restraint and do the birdhouses in the back yard, so the post tops will be traditional.. until I get a wild inclination and change it up one day when he's not looking. ;)
Jackson and Perkins Roses and are in at my Costco and I'm like a crack addict standing in front of the display. I'm sure my pupils dilate and my heart starts beating faster when I'm standing there staring, dreaming and master mining a plan :)
When I load up new pics, I'll start a new thread for those on dial-up.
Susan
This message was edited Mar 7, 2008 9:43 AM
Susan,
My husband had suggested building a cattle panel fence along the front of our property at the roadside and I balked because I thought it would look tacky, but after seeing yours I have to admit it looks really good! It didn't occur to me to paint the posts and fence green then cap the tops. The more I think about it and look at your picture, the more I like it. Guess I'll give my DH the go ahead.
JoAnn
JoAnn..
That garden isn't mine, but yes it can be done well.. I have to show my husband pictures of things like that too before he will go for it... In all honesty, just the term "cattle panel" does sound a little tacky for a nice yard... but after seeing that garden and how they did it, I knew I was going to do it too! :)
Susan
So skip the term "cattle panel" and use "welded wire fence", see if THAT changes helps overcome your reluctance!
For those of you following this thread, I have posted links to my slideshows here
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/846681/
Happy Gardening
When life gives you poo, grow flowers.
Susan