just moved to Missouri....

from Texas....brrrr!!! Just wanted to say hello to all my new neighbors. I was pretty active in Dave's down in Texas, I even organized some roundups. So I'm looking forward to getting involved here.

:) Kim

Welcome. So, where at in MO.?
Will

Welcome Kim!!! Always nice to see new faces around here. :~)

I'm in Ashland....just started a position at Mizzou!

Cool!! My favorite college team!!

Congrats! You'll love it here! There is many friendly members in Columbia and St. Louis as well. I hope all this snow hasn't caught you off guard!

Welcome to MO.

blue-eyes...glad I saw this...I would be looking for you in TX Jo

I use to live in San Antonio and moved back in Dec with my MG convertible. I remember sitting at a stop light and it was snowing lightly at night and I was freezing, thinking "WHAT IN THE WORLD HAVE I DONE!" rofl.
Sorry Blue the weather doesn't get better, we have hot humid summers and freezing cold winters.......but welcome!
Did you leave a big garden behind?

Wow....I'd be asking myself the same thing if I moved from San Antonio to here...lol. I'm from Ohio originally, so this isn't so bad. I kind of missed the snow, although a foot and a half was a bit much for my taste. I rent still as I was a graduate student in Texas and now a postdoc here in Missouri. I did however have quite a garden established there, my landlord allowed me to put in several flowerbeds and I lived there for over 5 years. The lady who rents there now apparently chose the place for the garden, and it sounds like she is keeping them going which makes me happy. More than I can ask for considering that it is a college town. I plan on doing a bit of gardening here as well, in fact I've already got plans to till up a vegetable plot in a few weeks.

:) Kim

Oops, sorry about that, thats my fishpond in it's current state. All the manual labor the last 2 days has drained my energy to do anything! The railroad ties, the shoveling of mud and the chainsaw stuff has wore me out! I don't feel like doing dishes or putting out the trash. I eventually do that stuff, but not so much in a timely fashion!
Here is a photo of some old railroad ties that will soon be on they're way to the landfill!

Hey Kim, welcome to MO/ I pass through Ashland all the time on my treks to Columbia with my DH. Plus my DS and DDL live in Columbia. Maybe we can visit sometime when I 'm not in a big rush like usual.

Aquick tip, don't start that vege garden until around the 2nd weekend in April. We're going to get at least 2-3 more heavy snowfalls here in the next 4-5 weeks.

Robin

We have had way too much snow.... ;)
The midwest group has had a couple of roundups in the past. We had one in fall where we all froze to death! OMG it was cold and windy, then spring ones, course then it was rainy. Gotta love Missouri. Didn't have one last year at all.

I have a flowers (perennial gardens) and then DG got me into tropicals, so I have plenty to keep me busy summer and winter. This year I am going to do raised vegetable beds with concrete blocks about sitting height and 4 feet wide and about 18 feet long. Figured I had better do then now, while I am young enough to lift concrete blocks to get ready when I am too old to get to the ground.... ;) actually that is part of the reason, the other is hopefully the weeding will be easier.... I can spend hours out in the flower garden weeding, but for some reason I have a harder time being as motivated in a vegetable garden, so I hope this helps.

I became a Master Gardener thru the Missouri University program which I have learned alot and have enjoyed, but have to admit, I have probably learned more thru DG and got into plants I would of never thought of on my own.

Welcome to Missouri blue eyes. The next couple of weeks are going to remind us that Old Man Winter is not quite done with us. Hopefully, after that it will be planting time!!!
Debbie

If I could catch the news I would know what day to lock my hubs. lol. I'll catch it eventually and hopefully get em locked before the next big mess. Gotta have my 4wd here in the gravel road country. LOL.

I need to raise my veggie bed also. Mainly to hold all my good dirt in there and not lose all my nutrients. Because my whole yard is sloped I lose everything good. But my dad won't let me since he would then have to mow and weedeat around the blocks and it would drive him mad. lol.

Oops, I see I replied to a different thread than the one I meant, dangit! I meant to post it to the Feb. thread, I am such a dunce! Sorry about that all!
Yes, welcome blue_eyes.
Will

Sounds great Robin! After all this rain I'll be waiting a while to till up the plot anyway unless I want to go muddin'. I wanted to get some early stuff in, and planting schedules that I have been looking at have said March-April for things like lettuce, spinach, onions, and peas. Should those wait until April as well? I always was one for pushing the limits of the frost date anyway, sometimes I pay the price but a lot of times I get lucky. Perhaps I could start the early items in containers instead.

Most of the roundups we had in Texas were too hot...so I guess the weather hardly ever cooperates. However, I'd love to help organize one here if people are interested. I organized the College Station roundup in Texas for a few years after The Dave started the first one there.

:) Kim

I would wait until the around the first of April, just in case or at least start them in containers say the first or second week in March. I have already started a few here in the house. I get warmer than you do by about a week or so.

A RU sounds good, not sure if I can make it due to summer tourist season, vut I can try. It just depends on when you have it.

Welcome Blue Eyes, you have picked a lovely area to live and garden.

HI, I am new to Dave's Garden. Please tell me what a "roundup" is?
Thanks!

A RU is the most fun you can imagine...a get together of other DG'ers for a day of fun, food getting to know folks you post to , and trading plants if you want to.

We have a forum especially to advertise where folks are planning a RU...and I better get over there and start posting some. Jo


Here you will find pictures of us having FUN>

http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/f/rounduppix/all/

Ok everyone....I'd like to try and organize a roundup for this spring. Please post on this thread if you are interested: http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1160597/ .

Thanks! Kim

Does anyone here know where I could find some cheap large pots or tubs to plant some springtime veggies in?

:) Kim

Contact all the local landscaping companies, most of them throw their pots away.

Kim, I get 5 gal buckets from the school cafeterias. They smell like pickles, but that goes away after a good washing and sitting out in the sun to dry.

If you don't have access to free tubs. I buy from home depot and I think Lowe's have them, they are huge heavy round tubs with handles and I don't remember them being very expensive, they are 19 gallon, you can grow anything in them if you want to go that big. Someone else said to get a hold of some free pallets just hammer them apart which isn't hard, then hammer them back in the size you need.

Wally world had those on sale today for 6 something. I hit flea markets and consignment stores, and thrift shops to buy large pots too. It's a hit and miss thing. Today I got 2 large pots for a buck a piece and found old boots for planters. I even got a couple of toddler boots for hens and chicks.

I like the idea of those tubs since they have handles, but wouldn't I need to put some drainage holes in the bottom for it to work?

Thanks everyone for the recommendations!

:) Kim

I have a couple of them that I got at Family Dollar. I have drainage holes in mine. One has a banana tree and the other I have cannas. They work great for big plants and I also did one a couple of years ago before I put the banana in it, with marigolds, geraniums, purple fountain grass, impatients and a couple of other things. Can't remember, but it was beautiful.

Draining holes would be easy with a drill, not sure you could poke a hole in them. I have/had brugmansias in them and I didn't poke holes because I didn't want them leaking indoors in the winter. Usually except for a few years I am not sure after spring if we have enough rain to worry about it. At least the brugs were fine all summer, at least that particular summer....ok do I have enought qualifiers in that statement.....must be talking about Missouri weather, rofl.

Most assuredly it's MO. Even with the holes in the bottom of the tubs, it leak all over, I cut back on the amount of water in the winter for all that I have in them.

I also use the cat litter plastic trays for growing cuttings and seedlings. Drill a hole for drainage, they're not too big to move around and the depth is about right. Right now I have baby Redbuds, Mimosas and hollyhocks in one. Works great. Have lots of potting I'm doing as I will have a lot of plants for sale this spring and summer.

Ewwwwwwh! I have never read that Gray.....

The preservative(s) are part of military specifications for some shipments and products/items. There used to be a code on the crates, boxes, and pallets that had been treated, but I don't remember what it is (sigh).

I got a pallet with concrete blocks on it, is there anyway to know it would be ok to use? It came from Menards, course I don't know where it came from before that. It isn't made of the best wood I have ever seen but thought I would reuse it in some way.

We use pallets to make other things than for putting plants in. We have made stands to put big boxes on that I put dirt in for starting plants. We use them in the greenhouse. We also used them for making the chicken pen.

I wanted to use part of the pallet to make a dog house, but don't want to kill the dog, well sometimes it has crossed my mind, depends on what he chewed up that day...rofl...just kidding, just kidding, it is his adorable eyes that melt me right after I am furious.....

The only thing I would avoid is using it in my vegetable garden.

No, I went crazy and bought concrete blocks that weigh 27lbs to build a raised bed....rofl. DH said why don't you just plant in the ground....I could come up with 3 good reasons, don't want the dog watering my veggies...ewhhhhh, don't want the dog running thru the veggies, and someday when I am old I may not be able to get to the ground and up...rofl. Course DH replied laying all these concrete blocks will make us old before our time.... ;)