Gardening is a dainty activity?

Are you trying to set men back 2000 years ?

Set them back? I thought that's where they were all along.

Hahaha!

What dainty, visions of long flowing dresses, floppy brim hats with little gathering baskets on your arm. Oh yes that is exactly how I garden.

I've loaned my body to medical research. I live near a good size medical center and they are always having studies of some kind or other. So the other day I signed up for a sleep study, you go in and they have you fill out forms describing your sleep patterns, emotional level, and physical activity. Then they wire you up and you sleep over, in the morning they take a urine and blood sample and your done.
What was really funny was I remember before the study started being asked about my activity level and talking about how active I am, lifting ,carrying, dragging, you know very active. Then when I get there and starting answering the questions which ask what have you done in the last 2 weeks. I couldn't come up with one physical activity other than all the trips up and down the stairs I've been doing to get my plant room ready for seed starting. I realized that I haven't done anything in the last 2 weeks other than sit at my puter ordering plants,reading about plants, and looking at pic's of gardens. LOL
Man I was so glad yesterday that we have finally gotten some good weather and was able to get outside. Spent the whole day dragging downed branches and tearing out a huge forsythia bush.

I like the"in-charge "stance with the spade.Nice pic.

That back corner of my yard had a rather large dirt pile. Extra dirt from several different projects had been dumped there years ago and I just covered it up with daylilies and ornamental grass. A couple of years ago we (Ric and I) started to move the pile. In that pic a good bit of it had already been removed and there was a good bit more to go. Talk about dainty gardening, we moved that whole pile by hand and then Ric roto-tilled it and I screened the top foot or more of it. Then there were several carts of compost put in. There had been a stoned parking area there before the dirt had started to pile up so it took quite a bit of screening. The original dirt pile extended just beyond where those Hollies had been planted. The first year we did enough around the back edges to get the Hollies in and then the second year the rest of the dirt went and the bed was prepared.

beautiful photo

Sorry wrong pic.

i can see the end of the pile, nice job, now where are the climbers for the telephone pole?

That's my blooming OSP part of my deck boxes. I had it saved for a Propagation Thread on OSP. LOL
Here is another pic of that corner, those are Cannas coming up.

I love cannas but dont have a long enough hot season.

Ours bloom late at the end of summer. The Hummers just love them. I have more coming this year. I had thought about a vine for the pole but I have a suet feeder, squirrel feeder and bird house on it and love watching the activity. The Holly hedge will screen it a bit as it grows not sure how tall I'll let that get, probably somewhere between 4-6ft. I minded it terrible when it first went in but have gotten use to it now. What I really minded was the way the Electric Co. slashed the trees in the hedgerow on the other side of the lane and the really huge Tulip Poplar they took down.

I've had good luck staring them inside, Jo Ann, in a sunny window. Not so much just starting them outdoors. You're right, our season just isn't long enough.

I started them inside last year, was happy with the result but my"starting stuff place" is full of coleus cuttings.
Choices are hard sometimes.

I used to grow canna just for the leaves. I find most of the flowers forgettable.

yep me too.
I find them throwaway bulbe because its too much to overwinter them in this house.
My throw away bulbs for 2009 will be caladiums.

I also ditch my caladiums every year. From all sources, including Bill (the caladium guy) and Ralph Snodsmith, they're not worth the trouble of trying to hold over and they won't perform as new bulbs will.

The co-ops make this cavaliere attitude. Glad I found them.

I wasn't interested in Cannas either, Didn't particulary like those 6ft red ones that I see in my area and then I expanded my view a little, plus the hummers just love them.

If mine had ever looked that good I'd have dug them and kept them, Holly!

Yours are beautiful thats for sure.
Mine just never knocked me out.

That's a nice one Holly, do you know the name?

Well it was thanks to DG trades and Co-ops that I changed my mind. It started with a co-worker giving me a few of those Red Cannas that I didn't like, then a DG member traded me some yellow ones for my red ones and then I found the DG Canna Co-op.
Pirl, You are right about the foliage, I have some with bronze foliage and some with stripes as well as the green, they do look nice even when not in bloom.
I tried overwintering my Caladium bulbs in 2007 and they seemed to be OK, they did come back, not quite as full and the taller varieties seemed a bit floppy didn't quite stand up like they did the first year. I wasn't sure if I just restarted them too soon and they didn't get strong enough because they needed to reach for the light. I saved them again this year but plan to try starting them a bit later. Problem is the bulbs want to start, the ones in my Dads cellar are sending out shoots even thought they get no water and have little light. I did have beautiful pots last year mostly thanks to my ordering extra from the Co-op and of course I did the same again this year. Bill's Caladiums are very nice and at Co-op prices you can treat them as annuals.

Looks like Aaron and Gingerland

Cleopatra,
http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/37250/

That is a stunner. I had Picasso from Brent and Beckys

opps a photo

Speaking of dainty...

here's a stump where I wanted to put some plants.

My "dainty" look as I got the last piece of it out.

The final result. Nice and neat, right? I then planted all my no I.D. daylilies there.

It would have been ideal but then came the deer and the daylilies were breakfast. So this year I'll remove all the daylilies, either put them at the curb or squeeze them in some place as they bloom, and find plants the deer would rather not eat in that spot. We'll also be putting up netting on the side of the garden where the deer leap in to eat at night.

Awwww, Sweetest Grandma!

That looked like a job. No one can say gardening is easy.

When pirl is on a mission, she accomplishes it !

Thanks. Just got one from my grandson for Christmas and there's a photo of him in the berry patch and it says, I love you berry much.

I think gardeners sleep better than most people.

Yes, JD, I do. It's a matter of opinion whether to call it determined, obsessive or stubborn. I couldn't care less. I just want the job done!

Evidently someone got in your way while doing that root job...you have a grave marker there ! Fess up. Who's underneath it ?

Actually it was preparation in case an unwanted guest ever showed up!

Man your tough

My dog says the same thing.

Ahhhhh, look at all that dirt on your fingers. Does anybody garden in gloves? Sometimes I get ambitious and try it, but hate it so much usually I lose the gloves in the depths of the dirt. Probably not healthy, but still...I can't stand gloves on my hands when I garden. But in the mud, which I now have, sometimes I dig out more gloves.

Gotta feel that dirt on my hands. Notice I rarely say soil....it's just good old dirt!

Love the t shirt, and can't wait to see the Christmas one, Pirl.