Affleck!!!

Whats your favorite cement pet in the garden???

Does resin count or does it have to be cement? http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/fp.php?pid=5438650

I'm good for anything,papermache,if I spelled it right!LOL

I've got a few.

Rubber Duckies

by far my favorite is this rat I picked up during an after Halloween sale at Big Lots. Such a dufus looking look on it's face.

This message was edited Sep 3, 2008 7:08 AM

Big red you have a animal farm!

in more ways than one....LOL

I say if it makes me happy go for it!!!LOL

This is my favorite but WARNING MANY MIGHT BE SCARED! This is Carlos the Coachroach. He normally lives in the apid cities but came out to lurk under a Rocky Montain Columbine on a more important mission to attack Damien the Spawn of Satan TreeRat. Note how he's in perfect position over the Treerat hole.

I think Carlos has been waiting at the hole a very long time,or maybe he's a albino!!!

I have this big frog floating in the pond on a lily pad,and sometimes I'm amazed when I see a real frog sitting on top of his head,catch myself saying,do you really think that he thinks that is his mother??? LOL

Aint that the truth. I got a really girly bird bath with metal birds hanging over for a drink I guess to encourage the real birds. All the real birds spent 2 months pooping on the fake birds before they would take a bath. I think we're dumber than the avrage bear.

LOL! So true!!! LOL

it's my understanding that birds prefer gentley moving water so I use my bird bath for seed station. My birds love it when I turn on the sprinklers....even the hummers.

Mine too bigred although the robins use the bath all the time and Bert the challenged Blue Jay almost drowned in it trying to imitate the robins. The robins really slay me cuz they bob up and down on the phone line at night when they want me to turn the water on.

I catch the devil when I go out and turn off the sprinklers.

My hummingbirds have turned into peeping toms since I put in the butterfly/hummer garden right outside the picture window we put in the new addition. I'll be watching the boob tube,look up and see a hummingbird hovering at w/ it's beak almost touching the window. Probably just admiring it's own reflection but it sure looks like peeking to me.....LOL

Ok Now I'm jealous,trained robins and peeping tom hummers!!!!
I've got the biggest trumpet vine in Kansas,and so far seen one hummer,and when he saw me,he up and high tailed it and ran!!!!LOL

I'm light on the hummers too Tropicman. I only see a few in mid to late August obviously on their way home to bigreds. I saw a goldfinch for the very fist time in my yard last night cool. This is the best bird time for me when all the wimpy birds pass through on their way to warmer climes. Geez what's a little -30 + wind chill. Merely brisk.

dahlianut,what are your day and night temperatures?

Low 60s day. Low 40s night. I have f*r*o*s*t (sorry for swearing) sheets piled by the door. I don't let Jack touch the dahlias til early October. All my natives and fall perennials just laugh at Jack so the rest of my garden will look nice til October (usually, maybe, hope, hope).

My neighbor across the street has a line of humminbird feeders on her porch that look like an angry wasp nest,it's so busy with hummers....I only get 2 or 3 at my one feeder. But I do have a yard full of flowering plants they visit. They especialy like the weeping butterfly bush.

We don't get our first frost until Nov. 15th but it's chilly out this morning.Feel's nice and I'm going to happily pulling weeds as soon as it's light out.

Well I fired up the gas heaters in the greenhouse just to see if they still work,and to make sure the thermostats would work as well,so far so good,just with the pilot on kept greenhouse above 60* lastnite when the outside fell to low to mid 50's.
I think were in for a early winter,hasn't been this cool since the early 80's here.
Better start preparing to bring my potted plants in for the winter,that means lots of pruning and debugging!!!!

Tropicman I think you are right about the early winter:( It seems to me that I just got all the plants out of the house and now it's time to get them ready to bring in.Already I'm missing the heat and humidity!

Just got back from going to lowes and out to dinner,and everyone was wearing coats!!!!
It's 60* here with a little light breeze,but not heavy coats,and one guy was wearing a parker coat!!!

Obviously a tourist ^_^

Yeah,must have been from the south!!! LOL

It was cool yesterday morning.Had to put on sweat pants to work in the yard early of the am but by 10am when I took my dogs out for their walk I had changed to shorts.Never got really hot.

I don't heat my greenhouse but them I only grow perennials in them. I put my trops in my lean-to attached to the back of my house but I don't heat that one either.I usually don'y start bring in my potted trops until mid-Oct.

I have over a couple hundred palm seedlings,and not sure if they can take any temps below 50,and believe me it took half a day or better just to get them all in the greenhouse.
Then I have about 50 or more large potted plants to do the same with,using a dolly cart this year to bring them inside,legs and back can no longer lift these 100 to 200lb pots.
Then there is at least 50 plants to dig up and repot,this takes a lot of time to get done,so I really need to start early to get all this done before the first frost,and with all the overtime at work,doesn't give me a lot of time!
Your only a zone warmer,how do you get by with out using a little heat?
Does it stay above freezing out there in the lean to?

I only grow root hardy perennials in the big greenhouse. Sometimes it's so full,I can't get everything in for the winter so I just leave the rest outside. I don't lose many.

The lean-to faces south and the back wall is stucko(sp?). I'm always surprised what can make it thur winter w/ little or no harm.The only thing I found that doesn't like it,are orchids,african violets and epsicias.

I know if I don't keep it at 50* at least at night time,my hibiscus and bougainvilleas,go beyond dormancy and die if the temps stay that way for a few days,we get cold spells below freezing for weeks sometimes,not even the day temps will get above freezing,my plumerias will even turn black and mushy .

My greenhouse is a tomato basil house in the summer. I don't heat it in the fall and usually my tomatos finish in November more from lack of sun than cold. I start heating the greenhouse in the beginning of March when I wake up the dahlias.

OMG! Y'all talking about all this cold weather just makes me REALLY appreciate living this far south. LOL, I'd probably be that southerner wearing the parka Tropicman! I only bring in about half of my plants from outside. The rest are on their own. My porch faces south and the brick on the house holds enough warmth that some stay green all winter and a few die down but come back in the spring.

You lucky southerners!!!
With exceptions to the ones living in the coastal areas ,those hurricanes,can you drive you crazy,board up the house then take it down only to do it again in a few days!!!

I know--my son lives right ON the coast! Every time they are potentially in the line of a hurricane, we have to get ready for them in case they have to evacuate. If they have to come up, it will be my son, his girlfriend and her two kids, and her sister and BIL with their three kids. Talk about a full house! They got lucky with Gustav (he lives on the eastern side of the MS coast next to AL) and now, needless to say we're all praying hard that Ike won't hit them.

Well there talking it heading more southwest,just depends on how much it breaks up in Cuba!

my plumerias survive winter in the lean-to just fine

I tried to put a few in a dormant stage,only thing that went wrong as they wouldn't wake up and continued to shrivel up and die!

My plumerias (new cuttings, started this spring) will be spending the winter in my bathtub with my cymbidiums. LOL
We have a separate shower and don't use the tub. It has a skylight over it, I hang my vandas up by the skylight and put the rest in the tub. The orchids have always done well, so I think the plumerias will too.

Sally be careful your roots don't get to wet during the winter,seedlings may tend to rot a lot easier than a adult plant.
Some people in the Houston Texas area,dig there up out of the ground and just keep in the garage over winter and never water at all,in fact they don't even pot them up.

Thanks Tropicman, I've actually been thinking about the garage. Water wouldn't be an issue, I don't water the orchids much in winter if at all. The vanda needs more, but the others not much at all. I need to see how much they're rooted by then, I might still need a heat pad. They're in 1 gal pots and I don't see any roots at the bottom yet. Things just take a little longer in OR. :-)