Howdy from Perry Hall

Hello fellow MAGs!
Like many of you I am bracing for Sandy. I wasn't sure what to do about the iris, lily, tulip and daffodil bulbs I planted over the past two weeks. I just pray that they don't drown and rot! :(
I'm not new to DG, but have been away for a long time. Mostly growing african violets and other gesneriads. We moved to Perry Hall last summer, and now I have a little garden where I can grow stuff.:)

Looking forward to chatting with all of you. And, hope that I can finally make a Spring Round Up:)

Shanika(sounds like Monica)

P.S. Hi Gita! We are almost neighbors now.

Big ole welcome Shanika!!! Hoping some of the others can pop and and give advice while we all still have power - ugh!! I was going to do my planting this coming weekend so I'm no help what so ever....sorry about that..

Welcome Shanika!

I haven't had prior experience with storms like this (LOL -- who has?!), but I bet your bulbs will be fine, buried way under the ground, unless you are below water level and expect general flooding in your area.

Hi there Shanika, welcome back!! =) I'm with Happy, thinking your bulbs will most likely be OK. (like she said, unless you're below sea level). If it were tons of snow, they'd get through that, so some rain shouldn't hurt 'em; rain is just snow that's not too cold yet! < =D

Hi Shanika!
Nice to hear from you! Good luck with the storm!
Sally

Shanika, So nice to have you posting in the MA Forum again. Welcome. Hope all goes well for you during this storm.

Thanks for the warm welcome! :)
So, my husband says, "Honey, I need to dig up a little "trowel" in the front yard to try to keep some of this rain from coming up to the door." Naively, I said, "Okay babe" and went on about my business. Hours later, in the midst of all the Sandy drama, he says "Babe, come here and look outside!"(He likes thunderstorms and such). So I run to the door and look out in awe at all that drama. Then I look down at the front yard and see tulip bulbs scattered about the "trowel" that my DH dug up to protect our home. I say, "Honey? Those are my bulbs." He sheepishly says "Babe, I didn't have a choice". I don't know whether to hug him or hang him. LOL

GrowHappy--just sent you a "Hi" D-mail.

Gita

Sigh... I would have to hug him. There are more tulips in the world than Loves Of Ones Life.
But i would grumble under my breath after walking away from the hug!

I'm afraid a BIG HUG would be in order... and, knowing me, I'd giggle my head off, too. THEN you could propose, after weather conditions settle down, that you two, together, could put all the baby bulbs back where they belong! < =D

LOL, I love your suggestions!

Heeheee, thank you, but I can't help it, I'm a goofball at heart, and once I saw that and the sheepish look I would just have to giggle. And then of course I would **have to** appeal to his sweet side to "help me" put them back. ;) Just think of what a wonderful togetherness-time it will be!! =)

Most importantly though, in the days following this nasty storm, I'm very glad to see you guys are safe and secure. =)

Hi Shanika - I bet there are quite a few of us with stories similar to yours. These folks sometimes thinking that they are helping the poor wife, do things that in reality create extra work for wifey poo. I am with you and often don't know whether to blow up and spew out or to turn around and walk away for fear of doing just that. Glad to have you back amongst us.

Ruby

Hello Shanika, great to have you here. When Mike was securing things before Sandy hit, he did me a favor by rolling up my hammock and storing it in the conservatory basement. As an afterthought, he mentioned that he noticed my Florian pruner nearby and rolled it up in the hammock. HUH??? What an odd place to stash it LOL. Yes, I am one of those gardeners who habitually leave tools out in the yard... I wonder how long I would have been searching in frustration for that pruner if he hadn't thought to mention it.

LOL, Aspen, I have a visual ( sort of because I don't know what you look like) of you looking for those pruners. This could have gone on for quite a long time! You would have probably purchased another pair and then found the missing one when he decided to roll out the hammock next summer!

You are lucky on this one Terri. Last May and June I spent a great amount of time packing up pretty much the entire contents of our home in order to have carpeting installed. I haven't yet totally unpacked and there are a few things missing that I cannot recall where I put them or if I put them somewhere. John was asking for a set of pruners yesterday and I cannot recall the last time I had a pair. I am sure if he were to back track a bit he would find that he has left his set laying somewhere, as well as my set too. We were really good in the beginning of the summer with keeping up with the two pair we own. Here it is, summer behind us, but no snippers. Dang!!!

Ruby

With my track record, I usually end up just buying another one of the thing that I just can't seem to find, only to finally find it sometime after the purchase was made and used - I seem to end up with multipes of shovels, rakes, pitch forks, trowels, weed diggers, gloves... LOL

I tend to be a terribly scatterbrain and leave things lying all over the place, so I started carrying around a 5-gallon Home Depot bucket with me while gardening, and whatever I'm not using at the time gets plopped into the bucket, then plucked back out again when I need it... well, for the most part. But the nice part is, clean up is a whole lot easier; I just roam around where I've been working, carrying my little bucket with me, plunk all my goodies into it as I find them, then I just have 1 thing to carry back inside when I'm all done. (after they've been hosed/scrubbed off and dried, of course). ;) Of course, this only works for the smaller items... for the bigger ones (shovels, garden forks et al), I use the wheel barrow if I've got more than a couple at a time. I have to try to be organized like that, we can't afford to be replacing tools like I know I can lose 'em!! < =D

Need a signature here... "I'm only organized because I'm so scatterbrained". =)

Susan---

You need a shed! For the bigger stuff, The mower, Garden tools, fertilizer bags, extra pots, etc....
Gita

I do, I really doooo.... but, Alas! I also need a bigger yard to put a shed in. < =( Meanwhile, I must rely on my Ultra-Superior (haahahahaahaaa... cough... gag) organizing skills to manage with what I've got. ;) heeheeheeheeeeee

You are so cute speedie!!!! I can identify with the scatterbrain tendencies very well.

Ruby

I can honestly remember being 5 or 6 years old, and my Mother telling me "You're so scatterbrained you'd lose your head if it weren't attached!!". It's not gotten any better in the 40++ years since, but thanks to DH, I have learned that the best way to manage it is to be as neat and tidy and lazy as possible. =) (don't want to have to put out an APB on the trowel come Spring, so I'd better keep 'it in the bucket 'til I'm all done!) < =D

I really like your idea Susan. I might think of doing something along those lines next year. For a while I wore an apron while gardening and was able to carry along most everything I needed that way. Somewhere along the line I stopped wearing it and am now paying for it in terms of things not being properly returned to their homes. Hate to say it and really don't know how to break it, but very often I am running a losing race because there is another gardener here who sabotages my attemps due to his scatterbrained ways. Don't see things changing too soon though, so I will just continue to do the best I can, and keep my mouth shut the best I can.......

Ruby

We will get you both His and Hers Home Depot buckets, then you can point and giggle at "He Who Must Not Be Named" when he comes into the house with his bucket empty, while yours is full of freshly washed tools. < =D (Sssshhhhh, don't tell him I said that!!!) ;)

Oh he would find another use for his bucket or leave it laying some where it shouldn't be. If I hear "have you seen?" once a day, I hear it at least half a dozen times a day. Oh yeah, like I am in the habit of following behind you and putting things in different places other than where you left them....I have learned to totally ignore "have you seen my?" because like clock work, as soon as the words are out of his mouth.....he locates whatever is lost.....usually. One day last week he had to back track all the stops he had made the day before due to losing his garage keys somewhere. This meant going to two different towns which are in two different directions from our home....thankfully found them in a ditch beside where he parks his car at his job.

I will admit to making a pretty bad mistake while packing up last spring to have carpeting installed at my home. I took all the keys to the several china cabinets I own and packed them away somewhere that we haven't been able to locate since. One of the cabinets needed to be open and we required the services of a lock smith to open it. Still haven't located the keys, but I haven't finished unpacking either....so there is still hope.

Ruby

I'm laughing Ruby- I've heard that at times!! Mark could not see some food item, in the cabinet where it is always kept, and where I immediately found it... HAHA! So lazy, he just quit looking too soon (My guy that is...)

Oh yeah your cabinet keys are in the dreaded Safe Place!! Once on a family car trip many miles and many states, my dad put the travelers checks in a Safe Place....we were about the live on PBJ for days to have the gas to get home. Mom was Not Pleased and failed to see the humor, whatever there might have been to find.

We have so much freedom to travel these days with better cars and credit and bank machines. Amazing.

It must be a man trait LOL. Mike constantly asks me where his shoes, hat, and cell phone are - HUH, why would I know where HE left something??? He also does what Sally's Mark does - if he is looking for something that I normally take care of (like food storage or office type supplies), even when I explain exactly where it is, he starts bellowing that it isn't there. I'm usually in a different part of the house at the time. I then need to go upstairs/downstairs whatever, and point it out right where I said it was, right under his nose....

True story - we have friends that bought an old house and started rennovating it. When they were working on replacing old electrical wiring, they found a set of engagement/wedding rings behind the light switch plate in the master bedroom. They contacted the previous owners that they had bought the house from - they were elderly and had moved to an assisted living place. The husband said that 30 years ago, he and his wife had gone on a cruise. She didn't want to chance a theft of her rings and wanted to leave them at home. He decided that they needed to be hidden in a "safe place" while they were away. When they got back, he couldn't remember where that "safe place" was, and never remembered or came across it in all these years. It became one of those family "legend" stories that husbands and wives tell on each other as their eyes roll. He was so thrilled to finally have the mystery solved and the rings back!

Oh Terri how wonderful they got them while they could still enjoy them!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am laughing so hard because I am the one who puts things in a safe place and can never find them. I am still searching for an item. It's not small either. For the life of me I can't find it.

I love the story of those rings!

Oh dear, we need to help Jan find her car.... < =P

OK, with these "new" braces, I've lost about 20 pounds now and can no longer wear my wedding ring 'cause now it's too big... don't let me forget where I stashed it "for safe keeping", ok y'all!? < =D LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!

Susan--

Go to a jeweler and buy a sizer. it is a curved piece that snaps onto the bottom of the band
and tightens the fit. Here:

http://www.easycomforts.com/EasyComforts/DisplayItem.aspx?id=311718&cmp=compare_shop&SourceCode=30509000001&CAWELAID=1191148862&catargetid=1554432156&cagpspn=pla

Shanika I thought of you today.
I rounded the corner and found Dear Hun parked in a chair with the legs set in my flower bed, on the sunny side of the house, reading his book and basking.

He does not realize there is NoSUchTHing as bare earth. THere is only earth which is always in some stage of something growing either on top or below!!!

SIGH

Hahaha. The car is just fine. It's something else.

You could put your ring behind the light switch, speedie!

Lol, Sally. I can picture dear Hun basking. It was a gorgeous day!

Speaking of basking......I am off very shortly to be in the sun, whether basking or not. I have waited some weeks to tend to a cabinet that was blown over during Sandy and many things were broken. Will need to don some thick gloves in order to pick up pieces of glass. I don't remember piece by piece all that was in the cabinet, so I am hoping that anything that broke wasn't a favorite of mine. I should know shortly though.

So glad that others know of what I speak.......I too love the wedding ring story. My goodness....thirty years later.

Sally, I did much the same as your dad did with our vacation funds one year. We were traveling in two different directions. Money and every thing all set for one direction, plans to stop by home on the other direction to pick up funds for that part of the trip. Only problem is that I couldn't remember where I had hid the money for second part of trip. We spend most of a whole day until I finally found it under......guess what?........a potted plant. This was thirty five plus years ago folks.

I actually wrote a friend who is a clairvoyant yesterday on Facebook and told her of the missing key in the pottery frog....in hopes that she can possibly give me some direction in where to look for the china cabinet key....will let you all know if I find it.

Ruby

Sally, I second that Dear Hun musing. My husband stepped all through my newly planted bed today! I could hear the peony and japanese iris planted just beneath the surface screaming bloody murder! Time for me to school him on the varying stages of growth! Maybe I'll just buy a white fence and put it around the bed. Should keep the neighborhood kids from riding their hotwheels across my bed. Grrrrr!

Good thing y'all don't ever see me tromping around THROUGH my bed of Alyssum and Petunias, you'd probably shoot me! < =D (yes, I do hear them, "Ouch, Oooch, Eeeech!! Hey ya tub o' lard, get offa me!!") I tell them, Peyton Manning style, "Shake it off, rub some dirt on it!". < =D LOL!!!!!!!!

tee hee Suze
Actually, I got more cozy with cheap tacky white wire garden fence when the kids came along. I don't like the look, and doesn't really stop anything from intruding, but it DOES tell the uninformed that it is a garden..
Hope the peony and iris just felt 'firmed in ...well"
8 ^O

"Firmed in ... well", that's good, I'll remember that! =) I agree, I hope so too. Maybe they're just feeling like a freshly swaddled baby now. :)