Todays Project.

rcn48, your idea looks fabulous! I love what you did with the weeping spruce.

Geraldine87, I have a butterfly bush that I trim back to within 12", and it grows to 6' in one season.

I wish I had problems with lots of rocks at my place! I have the opposite problem, and I have to find them elsewhere.

Karen

No rocks here either. I get them from my niece. Have to be careful with them in the trunk so I don't bottom out on a bump.

I love the tree braanch on the arbor. It looks like it is putting its arm over a shoulder.

Jan23 - set the rocks on the floorboard of the front and back seats - makes for a better ride and distributes the weight better than putting them all in the trunk. I live in the land of rocks and got caught by "the man" last week for taking rocks from a demolition site. He kind of laughed and said he had to come out if someone called. Guess I won't be going back there again.

Geraldine, I prune the butterfly bushes to about 6 inches tall. You will need strong pruners or loppers because the wood is very hard. They grow to 5 or 7 feet tall by September.
Save the trimmings for pea brush and row markers in the garden.
I prune in winter but it's not too late now.
Andy P

AYC, that makes sense. Maybe that's why I didn't think of it.

Maybe you should dress in black and go under the cover of darkness. :) What are they going to do with it? Put it in a landfill? You are just being responsible and recycling. :)

I dug out a BB this year. The last couple of years it didn't seem to be as vigorous. I usually cut back at the end of Feb. I have several young plants to take its place though. I find new seedlings throughout the gardens.

love to hear about rocks!

the demolition site is probably making crushed stone out of the rocks - they do here - a buddy of mine drove in and asked permission when they were expanding Rte 3 up here and had no problems - although he did get stopped by a local cop picking up some pink granite on the side of the road - pick-up was full - cap gives him a hard time and my buddy says "want me to put the back?" cop told him to beat it and don't come back - what was funny was as he's telling us this story i interrupted and said "by exit 28?" - i'd been eyeing them for some time.

Hello Andy!!
It's been a long time. I hope you & Sarah are well.
dave

PS My gardens are still too wet to work.

Mine too Dave but I played pick up sticks a little today. Waiting for the rest of the snow to melt before I can do much more.

Many, many sticks here too. Paid son & his friend a nickkle a stick. After $16 I called them off. I still have more to do.

Hey Dave, long time no see :)

wha, funny story! I'm almost as bad checking out rocks on the side of the road as I am looking for plants in the ditches :) Rock work was interrupted by rain yesterday :( I don't have a problem working in the rain but the red clay was getting a little slippery on the slope. Then when my drenched dog got right in my face and "asked" me why we were working in the rain, I laughed and gave up! LOL

Question for everyone - I was talking to a friend last night whose teenage son is looking for work. I immediately thought about all the back breaking work he could save me from by carrying the rocks up the slope from the creek and stockpiling them for me. When I asked how much he charged, his mother told me $15.00/hr!! It's been a long time since I hired anyone to help me but isn't that a little steep? I could really use the help but am I too cheap or am I just getting ripped off?

Very steep if you ask me. $10 would be a good price for him, and that would add up quickly for you too.

I got to pick up sticks and dog poo. Oh and Acorns! The lawn looks like crispy for cocoa puffs.........

I feel better knowing I have fellow companions who pick up rocks and sometimes get 'spoken' to! Did get some great mica, they were small and would like to get more if I can find some here in MA..love that 'shine'!
Sunny and up to 60 today! Out to rake!!! Love that sun

gotta get out of this place - Let Me Out, Let Me Outta here :-) cya

Yeah, $15/hr is a little crazy for carrying rocks.

i'd make sure the kid can move the rocks and work for the hour - basically make sure he is not a slacker

$10 an hour is fine to start. Give him more after he shows his value.
Hi, Dave (not Dave).
I raked a couple flower beds yesterday before the rain. I also filled the wheelbarrow twice with Sweetgum tree seeds from the front lawn. It's not done, either.

I flew, not too exciting way to garden. signed irisMA

Iris your visiting/ staying with jumper2 in Ohio? How nice! Was your flight at least good? No turbulence I hope.^_^

$15 sounds very high to me too. Are the rocks radioactive? If so, then that is a good deal.
Hi RCN!

I'd find out what min. wage is and then add a few on from there. I figure if they go work out in the public they will most likely get minium wage jobs and work inside all summer. You are offering a better pay and a chance to work on their suntan ! lol
Seriously...15 is way to much, 10 would be as high as I woould go.

There are college grads right now having trouble finding $10 an hr jobs.

Not bad turbulance, but sort of bouncy. Quite noticable using the head.

LOL, Jumper. Glad you made it safely.
It turned really nice today, I HAD to get out there. The main perennial bed was next on the list, it has not had a serious update in 5 years. A large clump of Phlox and some Iris were removed along with encroaching grass by the property line fence. I planted Clematis along this fence 2 years ago, they are ready to take off. I moved some of my tetraploid day lilies from the nursery to the fence to compliment the purple clematis. I added some old weed blocker 'Pound-In' edging I've used with good luck for about 10 feet. Sprinkled some slow release fertilizer and the left over compost on the blackberries. Chatted with a couple neighbors then sat down with a beer.

LOL! Memory, that's funny about you taking the rocks from the demolition site. I do stuff like that, too, sometimes. In fact my sister has made two trips to a local construction site where a new development is going up (they keep cropping up like, well, rocks) and got rocks. They were nice ones, too. I recently passed by an area that had a lot of rocks. I'm thinking of going back and getting some.

$15 an hour is steep. Min. wage is $8 an hour. $10 is plenty for a kid doing yard work.

I got a lot done today. I worked in the Secret Garden area in the woods. I had a big hill of dirt to move over to a low spot. That was back-breaking labor! Transplanted crocuses, snowdrops, daffs and English bluebells. Planted some astilbe roots I bought from HD, and also planted my new Peiris japonica 'Valley Valentine'. Added moss to the gardens that I got from other spots nearby.

One of my goals is to have the entire pathway there covered in moss. There's quite a bit of it on there now, but I have grass growing in it, too. Will gradually get rid of all the grass and just have the moss. I love moss.

I did some more clearing of stuff I didn't want in there (briars and junk like that). Did more raking. It's coming along very nicely. Tomorrow I will post pictures on a separate thread, and I'll post a link to it here. Too tired to do that tonight.

Karen

Managed to get one of the Stella D'Oros moved across the street. Kind of scraped the path between the walk and what will be tomato mountain in a couple of months scraped, newspapered and buried in wood chips. It doesn't look that great - but it was free and there shouldn't be so many weeds to pull this year. Raked and cut the dead leaves off the hellebores and found they are starting to bloom! Jack-in-the-pulpits are coming up already. I have to spray the peach tree tomorrow as it is starting to bud. I want peaches this year.

AYankeeCat, what do you spray a peach tree with and why. We have one that set fruit last year, but the fruit never really grew to anything edible. I think we had something called leaf curl or something like that. It bloomed beautifully. Help. Thanks

Wha, I actually have a bed called " The slacker Bed "because I was so slow to get it done. It is still a fright.

rcn48, If I hired a kid to help I would do it with a carrot. Starting base pay with incremental increases as they "learn" the job in a satisfactory way. But 15.00 an hour in this economy is insane for moving rocks. I would try hiring an out of work adult who most likely really needs some work before hiring a kid. DH and I hated hiring any friends kids for the bookstores or for the boatyard unless we had a strong and long relationship with the kid first. It was horrible having to deal with a friends useless child with kid gloves, so as to not destroy our friendship the parents. I think you should dmail Wha and tell him if he misses moving rocks you will let him come to Va and play with some at your house for free in exchange for BB. His stone wall work is remarkable. How is your dear dog?

Our lawn guy stopped by yesterday and said that many of his regular clients he services for all their landscaping care and planting are for the first time ever asking him for hard estimates. He has also been being asked to bid on all the work on many fancy properties by owners who are now looking for a less expensive garden service than they currently are using. He is getting more business than ever from these people who want to pay less than they have been forking out to the of the high end "Gucci Gardeners" that have been overcharging them for years. Our guy has a great stable knowledgeable crew, and he isn't out to scalp anyone, or drive a Jag, so he is coming in low bid on his hourly rates. He is actually hiring crew. He has always been happy to just mow our lawn at a reasonable price and do nothing else, but he is willing to do anything else that we can't do like all the mulching or bringing in a bobcat after a storm when we call at a fair price. Our guy doesn't mow when there is nothing to mow. He drive in and leave if he sees mowing isn't needed. Our neighbors gets theirs done by someone else on a fixed schedule, needed or not. Stupid, I will be curious to see what goes on this summer next door. He is an architect/ developer in Princeton. Some of the big guys/gals landscapers actually had a minimum amount that you had to spend in a year in order to have the privilege to say you were one of their customers at a cocktail party. Hello, game over. Patti

Thanks to all for your comments on the hourly rate :) I think I've nixed the plan to hire him to help with the rocks but if he's willing at $10/hr I might hire him to start digging for that endless stream I'm still hoping for. And Patti, if you're reading this, I know you're probably thinking - you mean you haven't started the stream project yet? LOL The plan is still in my head and on paper but I'm getting sidetracked with other projects! The original goal was to collect the rocks for the stream and then I started using them for this path. I'm thinking if the stream project does go forward this year I'm just going to have to suck it up and buy a pallet :(

I didn't actually take any pictures yesterday but I've got a few to share that Rick took. This is "today's project" that started the beginning of the week. The rocks were used to raise the soil and define the edges of the path. It doesn't look like much right now but the next picture will give you an idea of what it should look like :)

This whole area was planted with Hostas - dwarf/mini along the rock edge with larger Hostas in the back. When the rain forced me inside this week I played with Photoshop to "paste" photos of each. There are actually three of each planted so the area should look a lot different in another couple of months. There a few other plants in the area but mainly it's a Hosta bed :)

I love adding unique objects to the gardens and this rock has mini Hostas planted in front of it. I have a moss mixture I'm going to 'paint' on it to encourage more moss.

wow I am impressed... you are really good with photo shop... I could never splice something together and make it look like it belongs

that shade garden is looking like it's going to be wonderful

Karen, this one's for you :) I don't have pictures of the finished path yet but these are the first few steps with the moss I added on Friday. I've got to collect a lot more if I'm going to squeeze it in around all the rocks but this is a start.

I basically finished the path yesterday although the last stones aren't done. The rain the night before finally made that area too wet and slippery so once it's dried out a little I'll be able to get them placed properly. I was so excited to get this project almost finished and I couldn't stand it - I just wanted to start planting! Grabbed my pail and trowel and headed for the woods. We have hundreds of Hepaticas blooming right now and it's the perfect time to make selections of those that bloom with different colors. I found one with the most beautiful deep violet-blue and it has already found a special spot in one of the pockets I created along the path :) I'll post more pictures once I get a few more plants in the ground. The whole area used to be a beautiful Hosta border but after almost ten years with two years of drought and total neglect they've withered away :( I'll be replanting with some Hostas but will add a blend of other plants to liven it up a bit!

Thanks Allison, what started as a small project is turning into a monster! The more I "play", the more ideas I have :)

Patti, this one's for you, our "dear dog" Phoebe. She's doing much better, thank you for asking :) She's still struggling with her weight after taking the Prednisone for so long. It's been almost six months and she's still overweight. The vet told us it might take as much as a year for her to shed the pounds :( She's been having a ball though "helping". She's taking full advantage of our daily trips to the creek to collect rocks. Here she is yesterday after her swim in the creek - she loves to grab the bamboo stalks and fight with them. If I could only figure out a way to harness her and have her drag the rocks for me! LOL

My project was to clean up the earthboxes from last year's tomatoes and peppers. Staring at the bare planting mix, I suddenly got an urge to plant them with some lettuce and salad greens that I had started indoors to jump the season, reasoning that they ought to be grown and used up by the time the peppers and tomatoes were ready to be put in 6 weeks from now. (At least that is the idea...we'll see if it works out.)

rcn48. We are still in parallel universes! I am so happy so see Phoebe. Fat and happy is OK, like me! I'll bet the puppy in her has returned after her long illness. She looks like our dear Tanya who died at a fine old age in 1982. We still miss her.

I think some times delayed plans turn out far better. Unintentional mulling is often good for mental tweaking. I know your stream will be running and be beautiful at some point.

Here is my next tackle. A Japanese Maple Bed on the south side of our house tucked up among some old cedar woods that we have cleared. I have a herd of Japanese maples to plant (14 mostly dwarfs ) to add to the one that we planted back there last fall as well as some choice cultivars of Hamamelis that are coming this month. I will fill in the bed with mini hosta, helleborus, ferns, carex, dicentra, euphorbia, dwarf and species iris, heuchera, primula, tricyrtis, hakonachloa, sedum and of course bulbs like species tulipa, frits, scilla, reticulated iris, crocus, and narcissus. I have most of the plant material already or it is coming soon. No time to mull on this one!

It is pouring out side, so no work today. We will strip the sod as soon as the weather permits. And then the next project is that we have a large number of Ilex verticillata and a few Viburnums and other shrubs and trees to plant when they get here within the next month mostlly for the north side of the house. Too much on my plate.

I love your use of the photo shop for designing your hosta bed, I should try that as I am still using crude sketches with circles and x's or just eyeballing an area, which is not as effective a way to plant. I am not sad about having to do no rock hauling this year, but your garden is going to look fabulous. No lack of good plant material either! Patti


This message was edited Mar 29, 2009 9:40 AM

DonShirer, projects that you can eat are always good! And any project that "cleans up" something is better. I am not so good at the cleaning up. Patti

I'm interested in the peach spray too. Mine had different nasties last year.

Looks great, Debbie!

Sigh, I did deep thinking of deep thoughts yesterday, then supper at Applebee's where coincidentally a party of 500+/- was having a birthday. (Well, that's how it felt.)

On the way over we passed an area cordoned off by police; figured they might be making another movie although noticed police cars rushing from all directions as we drove past. Ate heartily, returned home via another route. This morning we learned that in fact, it was a 22 yo with a knife who had killed his 17 yo and 5 yo sisters and was in the process of stabbing his 9 yo sister. Milton police, who are NOT used to this type of call, shot and killed the guy with the knife. The 9 yo is expected to recover. The grandmother was in the basement, doing laundry, the parents were out.

The yoyo guy deserved to be shot. DH is in the green house - going to investigate.