March 2012 in like a lamb!

But right now, not so much, it is snowing, yesterday it was 72°! It's not sticking to walks and streets, but it's in the grass for now, it's 36° right now and gonna be 46° at 3pm. I took a photo a few minutes ago.
But, this will be a Winter, (or lack of..lol) to remember thats for sure, I think it snowed twice!

Yeah, for years it always seemed like tornados mostly go thru rural areas, like fields and destroy barns and stuff but now it seems like they are coming right thru towns unfortunately. I was watching the mayor of Branson and how pitiful it looks. You kinda know all the tourism of Branson, big names and wealth but did you know it only has a population of 10,500, it's still a small city. - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Branson,_Missouri If it wasn't for Branson, Missouri's tourism would be down there. I used to marvel in the World Almanac how Missouri's tourism was up there from Branson, fortunately, tourism adds nicely to the state's revenue. I am sure Branson will recover in plenty of time to entertain people this year. I'm sure misery isn't limited to Missouri, poor people. By The Way, misery and Missouri don't rhyme, so you know!

Here is my newly started Spider Plant starts and some Wandering Jew starts made the photo too, in the back, they all look like they want water, I'll water them soon.
Will

I made the trip! YEA

It's not very far from Tulsa, your closer to Branson than I am. Would you still like a Rose-of-Sharon start, Crit? I have a big cutting in a pot but it doesn't have foliage right now, not sure if it took. I could send you a piece of this ROS though.

I took some photos of where I plan to put all the rocks I got. I'll probably stop doing that eventually, getting free rocks is against the law I think, a friend says I'm going to jail if I keep doing it, he's just teasing me, he's a rock stealer himself, he was telling me a good place to get Shale rocks. Anyway, it looks like I got enuff rocks to do maybe half right now. These rocks look so much better than just black landscape edging. I'm not taking the edging up, it needs to be there to keep the mulch in, I'm just covering the edging up with rocks. I plan to put rocks on the inside of the edging too but I want to put down weedblock first in there. I took a photo of them before I unloaded them out of the car, I think that was the first time I had passengers in the backseat, buckets of rocks, 3 buckets in the front and 5 buckets in the back! I knew I'd find a use for empty kitty litter jugs!

I downloaded some more pics from the 16 megabyte internal memory of my camera to the computer, so I just wanted to share another 2 geese photos from way up on a hill we climbed at Squaw Creek NWR, all the white is geese. My old camera is pretty wimpy on the memory card, it's only 256 megabytes, most new cameras hold much more, 4 or 8 gigabytes, about 16 or 32 times as much as mine.
That is the main parking area for onlookers, there's maybe 5 cars there, not many visitors to the park. It is only 5 minutes or so West of I-29 in or near Mound City, Mo. Lots of picnic tables but there is no camping there. If I'd known that climb way up was so steep, I don't think I'd have done it, you almost need a rope to tie to everybody in case somebody falls! But, the view from up there was spectacular.
Oh, and there is definitely no hunting there, if you get out a gun just plan on going to jail! They do have managed hunts there at certain times though. That water in the back is like the water suppty to drain and fill the water basin at certain times of the year I think.




This message was edited Mar 3, 2012 12:17 AM

It did.

Yes Will, I would love a ROS start. Do you know what color it is? My address is in the address exchange.

Not going to say Thanks 'cause I want it to live, but you know what I mean. ^_^

Great Crit, it is the traditional pink flowers. Here is a photo of it before I had to cut it considerably because it was too close to the house.
You know, we both can't have bad luck, I bet it lives just fine for you!

I don't have a pink one so that is PERFECT!

Great!
Where can I find the address exchange? I did a DG search for address exchange and still can't find it.

Exchange Address:

http://davesgarden.com/address_exchange/

Thanks Rusty. You have to be in there to view it, I put the North Pole, just kidding!

LOL ..... I keep the address exchange and a few other links in a folder I made for DG stuff and put it in my bookmarks.

Final my peach tree blooming yesterday very pink and a lot of it... Hope it won't get windy blowing again as last year windy blew all of the flowers and no peach at all... Cross my fingers for this year!

Sorry Rusty, winds kicking up tomorrow. Wind advisory already out for tomorrow. Hopefully they blossoms stay on!!

Ack! These winds, every time I would like to spray paint a shed outside it is gonna be very windy! The temperature is supposed to be decent - 72° but a 40 mph wind won't be good for spray painting, I'm not really wanting to paint my glasses! I forgot to look at my Peach tree, I didn't know that about blowing the flowers off. I don't think mine is blooming like that yet though.
I only noticed my Forsythia had big buds.

That's a good idea, Crit, I put it in my favorites too now. I oughta do that with Garden Watchdog, every time I want to look at it, I have to search for it, I'll put it in my faves too next time.

Here is my 2 dumpster dives of Shumard Oaks from the state nursery, planted at my grandparents' house, what they look like recently. I photographed that Black Hills Spruce in the foreground too hehe, I planted it too, it's came from Lowes about a year after the Shumards in 2004 but it has grown tremendously too. I impose plants on folks!

I've been reading to keep up, but get off the computer early to get housework and exercising done. Soon I'll be walking around town as soon as the sun comes up. I walked a half mile yesterday waiting for DD to drop the kids off. Before that I got the house vacuumed. After everyone left, I walked the yard to see most of my tulips poking thru, then I sat on the porch and just listened to Spring blow around me. I saw a robin too! I also have a new small stack of flower catalogs to look at :o)

The tornadoes have been just terrible! I've thought about a lot of people lately and am glad no one has damage. I fear what our weather will bring this year. If we don't have a tornado I will so count my blessings!

I mixed up a batch of sweet dough the other day and made rolls out of it. Yum! I could keep the dough in the fridge, so I made two batches. It felt good to do something other than the computer :o)

Today I go to DD's for the day, so I have to get offline early again.

Have a good day everyone!

I just saw this article about spiders working together to build tall webs and webs that cover whole fields. Makes me shudder!!

http://www.gadling.com/2012/03/06/spiderwebs-blanket-australian-tourist-stopover/

Wow, that's amazing. I saw that too at Yahoo - http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow/thousands-spiders-blanket-australian-farm-escaping-flood-165958059.html
They are trying to escape floodwaters it says. They also have a photo of them doing that in Pakistan. Man, that's creepy! I have a phobia or something on spiders, one is okay, but like that?!
If I fell on all that or was pushed or something, I'd lose my mind!

Tornados are a scourge. Now, when the wind is really howling and blowing hard at nite, you think sometimes, "is this it, is that a tornado?". The victims of tornados must sleep with one eye open for awhile.

Sally, don't sweat being busy.
We have until Monday to organize outside, the city is on us again. I have already started doing stuff in a big way. We got us a neighbor (or neighbors) somewhere that is giving the city a tonguelashing about us. I'm gonna have to go around to all the neighbors and give out lollipops or something! Maybe that neighbor felt shunned when I didn't go to the door last Halloween, when his kid was yelling "trick-or-treat" in the dark, the porch light was OFF! I have no doubts that we can avoid being fined. It's just not easy starting out from a mess and trying to do some real decent landscaping in a few days. It'd be different if you were going from a clean slate to being landscaped, then you can tell there is progress being made. When you already have many years of accumulation of just stuff, and some half finished projects in AND out, already in place, it isn't quite so easy and fast to pull off completion by one's self outside, in a few days. But, I should be able to do it, I'd be suprised if we get fined. I'm not the type to thumb my nose at the cityhall and just let fines pile up, I like to avoid, not rebel. I have alot to do by Monday, but, it's under control, I've already been to the landfill yesterday and emptied the full trailer and filled it back up on the way back with a yard and a half of cedar mulch. What stinks, is there is stuff I'd like to do but not until it gets warmer, like spray paint the shed and do some planting, which I may need to do by Monday now. I'll have a heck of an after photo in a few days! Oh, how I miss a rural area! Not that I'd have a mess, but I could work outside at my own steenking pace!
Oh well, such is life!

Pepper,
Yikes! I've never seen anything like it!

Will,
Smiling. I would freak if they were poisonous. I would do a lot of shrieking and brushing if they weren't. Either way, I'll just look at the pictures :o)
We go to bed with trepidation, but we hope we hear the tornado siren or the weather radio alert!
It sounds like ''natural'' messes. I'd complain if garbage was blowing in my yard, but not because someone couldn't get a shed painted in time. Show them the paint and tell them it's as good as done.
Smart move bringing back mulch :o)
It's easy to pick up pots and set them pretty along the wall. Stack any wood all in one place, and I can't imagine what else is a mess. Anyway, there is a way to make it look neat if it can't be hidden inside.

Hi all,
Yeah, it's all items strewn about and just a disorganized look, no trash. Our front and back yards are the only ones in sight with a fence, nothing of ours blows anywhere, even if there was trash. In our case, it's alot of leaves still on the ground. They couldn't blow anywhere but I'm sure it looks bad, I raked up another 5 yard waste sacks today. Today, I also put down about 60 feet of weed fabric.
I'd say total, I have 25 bags already raked up, there's at least another 15 or 20 to yet.
Thanks, their proud of 1 and a half yards of mulch but it's easily worth the $64. In the photo you can see the cedar mulch waiting in the trailer and the new 60 feet or so of black weed fabric in the background to the left. There's just alot of stuff still sitting around. The bad thing about what to do with all my non-decorative black pots is they're full of dirt and something. The bad thing is if I knew what was in them, if worth keeping or not. I can't tell what's in a lot of them because there's no foliage yet. What I'll prolly end up doing is just getting alot of it outta sight until a better time to deal with the stuff.

So far, I'm happy with the plants that are popping up so far, this should be a good year for plants.

Thanks for the words of encouragement, Sally. There will indeed be some of that hiding.

Ahem.. edited to say I think I was wrong about bagged mulch versus bulk mulch. Out of curiousity, I went to homedepot.com and looked up what a bag of mulch goes for. There it is $3.47 a bag for 2 cubic feet of mulch, so 1 cubic foot, (which is easier for me to figure, is $1.74). A cubic yard is 27 cubic feet, so 27 x $1.74 is $47 and another half of a yard of mulch is $24 roughly, $71 total plus tax for bags!? I must be wrong somewhere! It is almost the same as getting it in bulk like I did! I had to hook that trailer up and all that! Anyway, I never was good at math in school, I think I was average at best. Is my math right? Can anyone help?
I deleted out the part up there where I declared bulk mulch was so much cheaper than bagged mulch! I'm gonna have to tell this mulch guy my findings! I am likely gonna need another 1.5 cubic yards of mulch, I'm gonna tell him $50 total plus tax or the deal is off!



This message was edited Mar 8, 2012 10:35 PM

29°/44°/31°
Plenty of sunshine. Winds NNE at 10 to 15 mph.

Will,
Those black pots, neatly lined up will not look trashy. Surely that isn't against city code. Same for the rest. Line it up, stack it, and hide some of it till you need to use it.

I don't do math. It confuses my brain, LOL. YOur figures sound right tho. It doesn't seem fair that the transfer station charges so much for what is obviously free to them.

It's Friday and I don't have the boys over the weekend. Time to get some things done outside! I really need to clean out the garage. If I can find the pots I need, to put astilbe in, the job will get done faster. I have so many taquetti that must have come from seed. It's time to share with the neighborhood. The phlox is getting out of hand too. Trouble is, I love every seedling that grows, LOL!

Will, can't you get mulch from the city? I thought they gave away mulch all the time.

Plenty of sunshine here too. Ironically, it's in the 70's most days next week, (good weather, but we only have until Monday to straighten out the yard, unfortunately). And Sunday is 100% chance of rain they say.
I raked some today, until I ran out of yard waste sacks. There's alot left to do, but it's under control. I even did some spray painting on the black plastic landscape edging today. I've had an aerosol can of beige rustoleum for years and I finally thought of something to do with it so the edging kinda blends in with my roadside rocks! This way, I'll feel better about not using so many rocks. I got a photo of the monstrosity below.

Here is my 'Red Haven' Peach tree buds, they haven't bloomed yet. You can see alot of the items in the background that I'm gonna put in sheds and in the garage there.

Yeah, the landscape materials place gets mulch and stuff much cheaper I'm sure. I believe they use a dump truck to get big loads then they sell it retail.
I'm prolly gonna tell him you can get bags of mulch for nearly the same price, with no trailer, soil and rocks are prolly the same too.

I took a photo of the side of the shed that I plan to repair with a new 4 x 8 sheet of wafer board, that side is by far the worst of all the sides. A sheet of wafer board will be enuff to do that side, the walls are only 4 feet high, I'll cut the board in half.

You need pots, Sally? I have plenty of pots! Hehe.. that's maybe half of them. I've been asked what I collect, I should say pots!

This message was edited Mar 9, 2012 9:12 PM

I just threw away a bunch of mine. I wish we could recycle them at the recycling centers. I hate throwing them away but I had more than I need.

Oh, I just saw that I didn't upload a photo with the rocks I used!

I wish you guys were closer to me, I'd LOVE the black pots!!!!!!!!!!! I gather what I can from the gardening centers, but can always use more! AND, I live in the country and can put them anywhere I darn well please! lol

LOL. I would put my pots everywhere except my dad would kill me. So I try to keep some so I can put new plants in them til I find homes but the rest are given away or thrown away.

Sure, I'd give you some pots, Crit! About 7 years ago, I aspired to start a landscaping business, I acquired all this stuff and pots was one of them, I probably have 200 in different sizes.
Then reality happened and I was unfortunately taking all this stuff with me, I didn't want to part with it. Luckily for me, I've always been able to somewhat store them, I just didn't have an immediate use for them.

The landscaping is real busy in the backyard and will look a bit messy until someday. Here tho, when a neighbor doesn't really care for you, you kinda get your knees chopped!
A pessimistic, hateful eye from a distance probably sees a bunch of clutter and trash. I hope I am here to go out there when the yard inspector comes tomorrow, I'll add something like, "I know the neighbor doesn't like me, but I've always been working on the yard slowly but surely". Then again, I'll probably just be like, "yes sir (or ma'am), no sir (or ma'am) thanks"! Lots of stuff probably just looks like trash scattered throughout the yard. The filthy clear plastic sheet that was still over the waterpond looked like trash I'm sure and I like to leave the labels on retail plants, that prolly looks like trash everywhere and that old dilapidated shed prolly raises eyebrows and I plan to repair it when finances and everything allows. Here's a few photos of the backyard in progress. It's not fast enuff for somebody I'm afraid! I won't get all scathing or anything on the neighbor, unfortunately, we just don't speak. I'm okay with the interest, I don't let it get to me or anything, it is a challenge! Someday, this yard will have gone from "worst to first" then what will they say?! I'll never be fined, I know what to do to avoid a fine, pick it up a little temporarily.
Yesterday, our friend said something funny, she says, "look, he done dug holes and put the buckets in holes". Stuff must look all messed up..lol I put the buckets in the holes to try to keep the Bamboo roots in control..haha!

And running around getting pots that have blown everywhere is a fulltime job here! lol

Does anyone know if a Peony can be dug up and put somewhere else? There is this nice Peony in my friend's yard that is in full shade and I know it could be alot prettier if it was in the sun.

Here's those, "buckets in holes"..lol I just laughed before I told her why!

The above photo wasn't such a good photo of inground buckets, here is a better one from the other day. That chair is back under the table, I was raking..lol
Several plants from Pepper are doing foreground duty in that pic with the weedfabric. Ever seen so many yard waste sacks full of leaves, and I'm not done raking!?
There's that black mulch, I think it angered folks!
I might dig that Peony up today, it rained so the ground is soft.

Well, Bad New for my dog Rusty is put to sleep and gone to Dog Heaven now....

Sorry to hear about Rusty.

Awww, what happened to him? Sorry to hear that he is gone.

Will, peonies are tough. Dig it up and if it's big enough and you want more split it. Just make sure to have 3-5 eyes per division or more.

He got meaner and snap my dog JuJu... So, he is 9 yrs old and I never forget about Rusty where I got him in Calif and adopt him in 2003... So, I can't handle with him anymore that he get meaner....

That's too bad. You did what you thought was best even though it's heartbreaking.

Thanks, that Peony is big and old. It shouldn't be a problem to be sure and get that many eyes, it is neglected there, around the corner by itself, my roommate says she doesn't like it, but I do.

You should do a row of it. Big impact that way.

It's not easy to make a decision like that with a pet. My friend here would rather have a problem pet than deal with it. I told her I don't want to take the carpet up to reveal the hardwood floors while that cat is here going to the bathroom on the floors, he'd ruin the wood. But, the floors might already be stained from years of that cat and other cats soiling in the past.

Good idea on the Peony, thanks, I might be able to do that. It should be sprouting up thru the ground soon, so I'll know where to dig.
Maybe a row about 5 feet long?

I started 72 pellets in my nifty Jiffy Greenhouse today, 4 rows of Sugar Snap Peas, 7 rows of tomatos and a row of Cat Grass. Here's my nifty Greenhouse in all of it's glory!
Will

Here is my new $8 GardenPlus water sprayer from Lowes, it comes in handy for spraying the heck out of new starts since you don't really want to pour water on them, I'm always afraid I'll uproot them myself. I saw an Ortho sprayer being used for that purpose in a video online that I watched on how to start Spider Plant babies, thanks Picket Fence Nursery in Iowa! This sprayer is more Ideal, it's smaller than a one gallon sprayer by more than half, it's cheaper and it doesn't have a hose and nozzle to break like my Ortho sprayer did. I only intend to have water in mine, no chemicals. It's more for a dirtier area like a basement or mudroom because it's apt to spray walls if you're not careful, like I'm not..lol

Here is Rudy the cat looking on, she is very photogenic!

This message was edited Mar 13, 2012 8:27 PM

When you plant the peonies try to plant them close enough that they can support each other some. They look better if they are holding each other up. Just try to remember how big around they tend to get on average and plant that far apart. I think they get about 3 feet around. I think. lol