Spring fever already...

great weather here hope to get out and do some clean up

Here too. I cleaned out 5 beds over the weekend. In between, loads of laundry I am hanging I am weeding one that is getting over grown with grass. Its the bed I acquired last summer when they put the walks in out back. They took what they dug up for the sidewalks into the center of it. Grass and all. Guess round-upping the thing didn't take care of ALL the grass. Oh well, it is giving me a work out.

Although the daffodils haven't opened yet, they will by the end of the week. Meanwhile, I've got hellebores, crocus, snowdrops blooming with flower buds emerging on the Hepatica and Epimediums. I did start removing fall leaves last week but hauled away some more all afternoon. Hoping to work outside all day tomorrow and that should get the beds in the backyard done. Then I'll have to tackle the wild lower garden which generally takes a full week. Ugh. My Indian hawthorn has flower buds and should open up by the end of the week a well. Definitely tee shirt weather but I didn't break a sweat today. Maybe tomorrow.

Tomorrow I will definiately be back out there. I still have 7 beds still with winter leaves and such plus 4 off the five done over the weekend to weed. This is the earliest I have ever done any of this so I know that by the time things start arriving I will be done with cleanup. I have been oh so impatiently waiting for this stuff to begin. I took some pics, not loaded yet and my show is starting. sorry but NCIS......................

Love NCIS!!!! The original with Mark Harmon of course, but the other is ok too :-) I'm afraid to do too much outside, fear I'll jinx this beautiful weather! Of course we got chickens last year, they were too little to do much damage to the flower beds last summer but they have totally rearranged my mulch...they're lucky they'r so cute and provide eggs!

I see daffodils and tulips peaking out at me all over, can't wait for them to bloom!

Hey Ladies ...Great weather ahead Yay... cece ,Im gonna clean up some leftover leaves and other deris today....Its a real toss up what to do on a beatiful day,ride my motorcycle,clean stuff up,work down in the woods,I love running a chainsaw...a small one,and burning brush....Dang what to do what to do ...good thing its stilll dark out...hahaha

Everyone make it a great day

I'll be working outside all day. Have to take dgd to school stop at the store. When I get home old grubs go out and I will be out in the yard all day................. High of 75 today. and sun and blue skies. I'm not wasting a moment of it.

Tam the bike ride, if I had one, would do it for me. Haven't been on the back of motorcycle in years. Ed almost bought one last summer but changed his mind. Darn.

ahh..what to do what to do..Yesterday was nice too,I did drive the Go Fast Cadillac...we met for lunch,and the dh was waiting for me and he hopped out of his car an Said you wanna drive the V.....oH baby...I was doing 80 before I hit 4th gear....wheeee...I slowed down real quick...didnt want too...

You are so much fun Tam. Too bad you live so far away.............

We would spell trouble.....in CAPS...LOL...fun,fun.. ; )

Will be outside all day today. Hearing the cranes flying way overhead (love that sound) and the robins chirping - all the music I need.
DH made an observation though yesterday. While the temps for the next week are heavenly, he mentioned that it was a warm spring back in the 90's and then we got literally dumped on with snow about the 3rd week of March. Without power for a week and roads impassable for a couple of days. I'll rest easier if we get through the next couple of weeks without more cold weather. Not that it's going to deter me from garden cleanup...

Oh I know, My Mom keeps telling me you shouldn't be doing that..... It always snowed on Grandpa's birthday March 22nd. Told he it hasn't the past 3 years so it WON'T this year. Grandpa is in a position to make sure of it and Daddy right u[ there with him. It will NOT snow.

Oh but Tam trouble used to be my middle name...........................

I m pretty sure it was horrible Ice here for us that fine March day....Bad Ice...I know kept thinking I should not be doing this yet...Making us get all excited ....warm weather...

cece capital T....hehehe

cece - glad you have someone looking out for us. :)
I came to the conclusion yesterday that the plants and bulbs were going to sprout regardless of whether I clean up leaves or not. And they'll look worse for having been buried under leaves. Squashed daffodil or Virginia bluebell foliage is pretty sad. I do wish that it was a little cooler though to slow down the accelerated bloom time. Crocuses and snowdrops have given up already and the little twin flowers are coming up with flower buds rapidly opening. I did hear on WGN weather last night that warm March temps are always followed by snow. Oh well.

I haven't done anything with this bed yet and look what I found yesterday.....

I didn't do any of the clean up I thought I was going to do. The arbor I ordered came in and I decided I can put this together. Looked at the instructions and though child's play. HA! Had me so frustrated when I'd get one side together and start on the other the one I finished would pop back out. Then I could get one side to meet flush like it was supposed to............. Finally went and got the trusty hammer.

Then THEN when I went to put the screws in at the end where the directions said to put them in I had 6 holes and only 5 screws. THEN it was too heavy to stand up on end and had to wait till Ed got home to help me put it in place!

Here isw the final product. Doesn't look like much standing up but really irritated me. When he got home and saw the hammer he said, Oh God Cherie what did you use the hammer for. The directions called for a screw driver only. Hee Hee................

Forgot the picture. Sorry

I will plant Fragrant Cloud Honeysuckle on it when it comes in.

This message was edited Mar 15, 2012 10:00 AM

Nice! And it looks well-placed.
I always enjoy the little surprises where the small bulbs decide to grow. I'm sure with all of my digging over the years, the little bulbs often get displaced and pop up. Of course, some self-sow and that's even more fun.
OK - now I'm hoping for rain. The poor daffs get a little mopey by late afternoon with the sun and warmth coupled with dry dirt.

cece,If all else fails ...IT`s HAMMER TIME...LOL...I love it....

my butt is draggin 4 feet behind me today....Did some raking,got a whole traailer load,sticks and limbs and leaves...still have a 1/3 to do down here ,and up behind the garage....set 2 mole traps..Gave the dog a bath on Thursday,she played so hard yesterday,got hot I guess .....and went down into the greenslime covered wetlands and LAYED DOWN.....OH...MEEE...I should have gotten a photo...She is a Swamp Dog....LOL..she loves it out here...Oh and she found frogs...Oh Boy Oh Joy...hahaha,till she tastes one...hahaha

Hoping to spend the day outside see what else needs done ..before I have any fun...going to start out in the Bathroom...sponge off the mud ,apply hoping the last coat of mud...This has been awful...what project to work on ... : ( Gotta get that bath done, get the ceiling painted,then we will be fine to wait,still need to pick out paper,,,No one here in town carries paper...well Columbia House interiors...$$$$ its bad enough Ill have to spend at least $200 on paper ....dont want to spend more...Its Flower Season,I need some leftover $$$ for Flowers....

Cant wait to see what everyone works on this weekend...I ll have to carry my camera around today...Have agreat day all...Tamara

My butts dragging this morning as well. Self induced though. Went to see Jon Stone Band last night and ended up staying a tad too long and dancing a bit more than what the body is used to lately. Oh my aching feet, legs and back.

I really need to get serious about cleanup outside. If its going end up dumping snow eventually so be it. I have been lazy waiting to see if the weather will turn. I did 5 of the beds but the one is getting filled up again with wind blowing the leaves from neighboring beds into it. time to get them all gone.

I need to un-stiff these muscles. Quick.

sounds like you had fun though...I love to go dancing,honky tonk...Hey anyone know where I can get long fiber sphagnum moss for lining baskets,I need bulk..??? for the potting chairs..??? anyone ??

Nope I don't. Gave up looking for it a few years back. Have you tried at any Nurseries? I never made it to a nursery to check. I take the easy way.....if its not close well. I don't bother.

I've seen the coir basket liners and have even altered them to fit. Nice thing about those is sometimes you can get a second year out of them. (I'm cheap!) Otherwise, it's been a long time since I bought a bale of sphagnum moss and I had to search around for it then. Maybe a landscape center? A nursery that sells hanging baskets? Of course, so many nurseries now bring in baskets already done up rather than doing them on site. I'd sure let my fingers to the walking before setting out on a quest. Watch the dust from the moss when working with it as it can cause some health problems with some folks.
Today is raking the front yard of all the sticks and leaves and putting down the first lawn fertilizer of the season. DH found some chicken poop lawn stuff rather than the chemical stuff. What a guy! The stuff comes out of WI. Our oak trees soak up so much of the nutrients and water from the soil. I'm sure our neighbors will love us when we put down the fertilizer. Payback for one of them feeding raccoons. (I'm evil.) I'm hoping we'll get a little rain later since we've missed all of it over the past few days.
Off to rake.

cloudy, where is they sun I was promised. Even as she is saying sunny and high of 78, told the t.v not here where's the sun here. Milwaukee can't hog it all.

We had your sunshine cece till later.... ; ) Dont know what the day is going to be like yet hoping alll sun allday,FOR CECE TOO...

OK So I wont go out of my way to look for the longfiber moss....LOL...That way I wont breath it either...Didnt know that,I know Pearlite is harmful to breath...acckkk

im thinking ,well Id love to buy coco liners,but I need a dozen or more,Ill ck at the big boxstores..Want to keep m y cost down,as Im donating these potting chairs,Im going to have chicken wire,potting soil,paint and labor in them...
i was thinking I could use landscape fabric....as the linning...what do you girls think ??

i need to go get weed and feed...I burned up my lawn last year,ooopppps,now areas are trying to fill up with crab grass an weeds ...I made a mess,sprayed weed killer was spose to rain ,and Never did all summer ...Oh meee..I put winterizer down in the fall,it helped, it is looking better,except for the weeds now..LOL

If you're not in a big rush, check out http://homeharvest.com/storeinfo.htm or Farmtek/Growers Supply. The latter's website currently undergoing maintenance so can't get there to copy link. The first one does carry sphagnum, etc and looks like they ship out of East Lansing, MI (which isn't awful in terms of shipping costs).
Haven't used landscape fabric for this application before. The landscape fabric has a tendency to shift a bit and securing it to hold the weight of the soil and plants might be a bit tricky. It might have a tendency to shred from the weight. Or it could work for a season.
Sunny and warm yesterday. Luckily we got the chicken poo put down yesterday and had some light rain very early this morning. Do wish the temp would drop a bit though. Forsythia and saucer magnolias are blooming and flowering almond should be blooming by the end of the week. The weather does keep me hopping with the cleanup though.

The early Spring weather kind of caught me by surprise. I tend to leave a lot of dried plants standing all Winter for interest plus extra seeds for the birds.

Things started growing so quickly, though, that yesterday I was out trying to trim dead plants from between the Daffodils, Tulips and other plants coming up. . .kind of a pain. . .my fault, though, for being lazy about it. When I cut away the dead Nepeta I realized the new young Nepeta is already growing quite well. It's pretty much the same thing all over my yard.

I also haven't stayed on top of the dead branches on the lawn that have fallen all Winter (We have a yard full of large trees). My husband picked up some a day or two ago and I picked up more yesterday, but it's going to take a while to catch up.

I just read an article saying that because of the warmer Winters and early Spring, we'll probably have more weeds, invasives, and insects.

I never cut anything back or down, ON PURPOSE! It strengthens hardiness. Yes it is a pain to clean up this year with everything growing so early but I just kinda deal with it. At least they aren't dead.l The way I look at it isn't laziness so much as extra protection.

I like that! I'm not lazy. . .I'm just protective. Thank you cece!

yw I learned laziness early on............. lol Actually It was Melinda Meyers who said that was how she did things;
Some call it lazy, for her case it could be over worked, but I call it protection. That's my story and I'm stickin' to it

Morning All! This weekend I got 3 of our 6 flower beds cleaned up, did some antiquing on Saturday (bought nothing but it was fun!) and took a trip to Mennards on Sunday to buy a ton of wood! We're going to build a white picket fence around the veggie garden so our chickens can't get in.


CindyM, you said you got the chicken poo down, where do and how do you use the chicken poo? This past winter I just tossed it into the veggie area thinking I'll rototil it in sometime in April. Read that 'fresh poo' isn't good for the garden and there's gotta be enough in there now. Stopped tossing the newer stuff there. Looking for options to use up the poo as it shows up (someday I'll build a composter but don't have one right now!)

Ah - insects. We've had mosquitoes for two weeks. Noticed it when they snuck in an open window before I thought to put in the screens.
The fertilizer is called Chickity DooDoo from Unlimited Renewables, LLC in Lake Mills, WI. It's a 5-3-2 made solely from poultry layer manure. I think DH said it was about $7 a bag at Menards. It is somewhat pelletized and, even though the package says it doesn't have an "aroma", it does. They have a website but I haven't gone there yet. Says on the package that it can be used for compost/manure tea as well. DH put it on the lawn for an early gentle feeding and I'm wondering if it would work for a garden bed fertilizer since the nitrogen isn't too high. Have been moving away from chemical fertilizers. Not that I'm going totally organic but something a little kinder to soils.
nuts - It sounds like your garden is more architecturally interesting than mine in winter. :) Some things I do cut back, others with colorful leaves like Epimediums I don't cut back until spring but then it's a race to get it cut back before the flowers show up. I wait to cut back my few pathetic roses until I see leaf emergence in the spring. The lower garden is much more challenging - nothing gets cut back in the fall but with a bigger area with bigger plantings, it's a pain during spring cleanup.

Good news is that I have 4 chickens and the produce plenty of poo.... so no need to buy any :-) And yep, what the girls produce is plenty odiferous! I think I just need to get the hub to build a compost bin so I can use it in there, I'm told that putting chicken poo direct from the hen to the garden is not good for the plants (it's too something; acidic maybe?). Tossing it in the garden area during the winter months is ok as long as you stop 90 days or so before you do any planting. We have an old dog run that's filled with weeds and some grass chunks we dug up to create flower beds, that's where I'm tossing the poo for now.

I've always heard that fresh manure is "too hot" but, chemically, not sure what that means. I do believe chicken poo is one of the mildest as compared to cows or horses but it still needs time to cool down. I'm experimenting with worm bins (indoors right now) but doubt they'll ever keep up with my need for the poo.

Green or fresh poo ,Yes will Burn....Rabbit poo is the only one I know that you can apply it fresh.. Also you want it to compost first to kill off any weed seed in the poo...or you will have Lots Of New weeds to deal with. Just make yourself a nice pile and let it age....I used cow poo my stepson insisted...I could Kill him now ....Oh its composted....whatever...chickweed, Jimsonweed, oh mee.....It was not composted Fully...Live an Learn...Id love worm bins...to cool...

I can also attest that deer poo deposited direclty from the deer's back end to my garden will not burn either. The damage done by the deer's hooves and teeth however are another matter! :)

frahn - agree with you on the deer damage. Had one step on a new-last-year Epimedium. :( It did send up some leaf shoots so maybe it's ok.

My silly neibor was feeding a herd of deer, and the other neibor is suffering from it...Deer poop and them eating all landscape plants,and hooves tearing up...I hope they dont shuffle over here to eat ...Crazy woman...I dont think she fed them this past winter...I think he told her...she was bad...LOL

The deer got into my yard this winter and nibbled on the tops of an azalea and took a couple of bites of rhodie leaves. I usually cover up my azaleas and Pieris with a teepee of tree branches, kinda disguising the plants so the deer don't eat (much).

The wintersown tomatoes came up last week.a few years past if anyone would of suggested such a thing was even possible(no way). Well I'll wait and see how it works out.
Anyone thinking thoughts similar