A friendly wave from a fellow Midwesterner

Hello everyone. I thought I would introduce myself rather than just come in blindly to the forums. I am gardening in zone 5A and started gardening off and on a few years ago..I thought this year I would start my prepper square foot garden...Ya right!!! Nope the drought had better ideas for me..so hopefully next year will be better..so this winter I can look for heirloom seed that I would like to add to my garden and seed storage.

I'm a wife of 22 yrs and a mom to a jack Russell. As well as a breast cancer survivor.
I'm not much of a crafter but would like to take up one someday.What I do enjoy doing is birdwatching and pretty much anything outdoors,genealogy,cooking/baking and canning,traveling.
Looking forward to hearing from you.
Autumn_Prepper.

Welcome! You will enjoy DG. Lots of good people with a wealth of information.

~~~~~~~~Waving hi to you and your jack russell from me, two poodles and one that might be maltpoo.
Love bird watching (feeding lots and lots of feeding) as want the birdies to like us as new neighbors.
Ah..yes..the drought..nuf said.
Stay strong and garden with us. have cookie recipes to share.
Marcia

Hi again..who is still at your feeder? I still have chickadees, red breasted woodpecker stops by, red breasted nuthatch, common nuthatch and various finches and sparrows. I haven't checked out the varieties of the latter, as they seem to have all shopped at the same feather store!! I think I will have to restock the finch food..and check the nyger..they seem to like that better than the black oil.
Really late on crafts, was going to try for a few $$ on concrete cast leaves etc..maybe next season.
Off to laundry
Marcia

Autumn_prepper, you almost sound like my twin, except that I have been married 29 years, and I have two Cairn Terriers. I do like to quilt, but that is my winter hobby, as gardening takes up my time in the summer. I've been square foot gardening for about 12 years now. If you have any questions, maybe I can help. I had a so so gardening year because of the drought. The only good thing about it was that I didn't have much problem with early blight.

As for bird watching, I love feeding the birds, but I am having a terrible time with the squirrels this year. Not just one, but at least five. They can't get into the bird feeders, but they sure do try. But I read about this idea on Dave's Garden a couple of years ago. You cut off the bottom of your Christmas tree trunk off (mine is about 2 1/2 feet tall), and cut off the branches leaving about a two inch stub for the birds to perch on. Then drill one inch holes all over the trunk (especially above the branch stubs, and fill with peanut butter and bird seed. The woodpeckers and other birds love it. I set the trunk out on the deck a week ago to get it ready to set it up and fill with peanut butter, and before I got to it, a pair of Downy Woodpeckers were on it pecking at the empty holes. Well, my problem is that the squirrels love the peanut butter also. They can eat everything on it in about 10 minutes. I added cayenne pepper to the peanut butter, and it didn't deter the squirrels at all. Does anyone have any suggestions?

Marcia, I think we chatted here on Dave's Garden a few years ago about the Daylily sale. I didn't make it this year, but I made a new bed that is 10' x 30', and it is all daylilies and irises. I can't wait to see everything bloom next year.


Karen