Forgot to say the grandmother's sister that lives in LA and one of my first cousins live together. They are aunt and niece. My first cousin the niece is also has her 16 year old granddaughter living with them. By profession she taught special needs children for many many years. Then after she retired from that she taught at the prison for several years. So she is well qualified to help with the autistic son.
Also forgot to say that I'm doing the same thing you are doing Marilyn except I just send my photos to icloud and it automatically downloads them to my laptop and also to my ipad. I then use Picasso to edit etc. and save. It's much faster using icloud.
This message was edited Apr 28, 2015 8:30 PM
April is Awesome!!
My DH stayed home from work today, and we put out 32 bags of mulch, pulled a bunch of weeds, trimmed the huge bottlebrush, and put down fertilizer. I planted some annuals, and we are exhausted!
A tiny daylily, "Sunshine Superman" coreopsis, red Drift roses, "Belleza" gaura, and coral Drift roses, with society garlic and Daylilies.
happytail your yard is looking good!!! Now you can enjoy all of your hard work. What do you have planted between the coleus? I just can't see it well enough to tell.
Marilyn we had our dinner tonight to celebrate Cameron's life!!! Sure wish that he could have been here with us but he celebrated with Jesus and that certainly tops us. We had a chocolate chip cookie cake and he would have loved it. When he was little he would go tell our waiter or waitress that it was someone's BD when it really wasn't so they would come bring a little cake and sing Happy Birthday!!! I couldn't help thinking of all those dinners tonight.
Genna I hope things go well for your friend, Lana, tomorrow.
I can relate Genna. Yall would really have laughed at me trying to figure out how to transfer the photos from my Android. Jimmy came home hit the settings icon and something else and they finally transferred. I had worked at it most of the day.
I tried a new place for my pine straw and I like it. $5.50 a bag delivered from Mandeville to Central.
Hugs to Yall Sandra!!!
happytail your yard is looking good! You are way ahead of us.......... I have lots of iris blooming, a few salvias, and my knockout roses are covered. It will be a while before I have an DLs blooming.... especially if we keep dipping into the 50s.
Elaine, I don't know if I ever told you, but my friend Lana did not have the test you were referring to - this is not an elective surgery. She had a biopsy - months ago at this point, and it was malignant. She had first hoped for a lumpectomy, but with the type she has, they recommended a double mastectomy, so that is what she is doing. I didn't know that there are like 20 different types of breast cancer.......
Jeri, we have soooo many pine trees in our area but I never seen pine straw for sale. Odd isn't it. I would go out in our woods and try to rake up some but I am afraid I might find one of Kathy Ann's friends..... or get covered in ticks! :(
Cool here this morning but the sun is shining and it looks like it is going to be a beautiful day.
Hope everyone has a great one!
Genna
Happy tails your beds are beautiful!
The guys are here today working on my walkways. I'm so glad to get this done. They are doing a good job!
I'm also going to have them edge the front for me every other week. They are doing the yard across the street this summer so they are only going to charge me $15 as they will just do it when they doing the yard across the trip. No extra trip involved.
I think they now sell the pine straw bales somewhere in LR but I can't remember where..
Jeri, the coleus is kinda between the society garlic. They have gotten huge!
Hap, you are looking very pretty !! Looks like you are ready to just sit back and enjoy yours !!
Back from Birmingham again, still no cast. It is going to have to go over his hand, and they said no cast until Dr. Kitric approves it. The bone is still in place and there won't have to be any surgery required, so that was good news. I did spell that name right, but you pronounce it like "keylick" He is a very sweet soft spoken man, I really like him. I know if there is any way, he will let them go ahead and cast it.
Genna, all the Lowes around us have pine bales
Sandra that's good news that they want have to do surgery! I'm assuming the bone is healing even though they don't have a cast on it. I imagine any kind of movement really causes him pain.
It seems the pine bales are really becoming popular. I really like the way it looks in the bed and I think it good for the soil.
Sandra, I know you and especially Jerry are happy they won't have to do surgery again on his arm. I am also glad you are pleased with the doctors there at UAB. I think it is a fine hospital, but you can get a not-so-pleasant doctor anywhere even if the care is good. They probably re-set the bone sometime while they had him in surgery so at least it is 'set', and they can cast it when he gives the go-ahead.
Happytail, your gardens are just beautiful. And that is a lot of mulch! I refreshed a portion of my pond bed the other day with a couple of bales of pine straw, and I still have a couple of bales left, but I probably need more to refresh. We put out some last fall, but after all the snow I will likely need some more on top before the end of summer. The dog runs through a couple of spots in the driveway bed and it always seems to thin out. The Lowe's nearest us has the pine bales too. They seem to be getting smaller than I remembered. Everything else does too though.
It's been cooler here too. Was in the low 70's yesterday and beautiful but the humidity was really low so in the shade it was actually cool.
My friend Lana's surgery went well - now it is just waiting on the lab results on the lymph nodes. If no cancer in the nodes, she will take a pill chemo at home. If there is cancer, she will have to have IV chemo. She had a really rough night last night and didn't get much sleep, but hopefully they are getting her problems under control. They say she will still come home today if they can get her bladder spasms under control.
I haven't seen any bales of pine straw at Lowes - guess I just haven't been there at the right time. Does a bale do about the same coverage as a bag of mulch?
Sandra, glad Jerry won't have to have another surgery. Hope they are able to get that casted soon because at least that will keep him from bumping it, etc.
It is a amazing how the low humidity changes the feel of the air temp! The humidity has been really low here as well and it is SOOO much nicer! They said last night it should be drier air for several more days. I could sure get used to this - but I know it won't last.
So very grateful that it's not necessary for another surgery for Jerry but sure wish there was some way for him to be more pain free.
I'm glad that things went well for your friend Genna!!!
I think there may be more straw in the bales but there is also sticks and pine cones and with my OCD it drives me crazy until I get them all out. The bags are much cleaner and not a whole lot more expensive!!! What I get from Clegg's is about $3.00 a bag more and they charge extra for delivery. The pine straw has a much brighter red coloring to it then Gomez but I don't really care about that.
All the Nicholson's are swimming upstream to our family reunion(Williams-Nicholson Reunion) this weekend on the Natchez Trace just out of Jackson. We all meet Sunday at the Riverbend turnoff from the Trace. The family meets there every year on the 1st Sunday of May. Jim & Ashley won't be with us but I'm bringing the rest of us there.
Please pray for my crazy husband!!! He tripped over his discharge hose from his trailer yesterday and fell backwards to the ground of the rig. A piece of steel jammed up into his back between his rib cage and knocked him out for a couple of minutes, of course, he didn't go to a Dr. The safety guy cleaned up the wound and bandaged him up but I'm worried that it's not clean enough and he has nobody to change the bandages. He planned on continuing to work last night but after sitting around for a few hours he got stoved up and called in that he couldn't work. I just talked to him and he was eating breakfast and said he felt a little better today but I didn't even ask if he was gonna try to work. Just bouncing around in his truck would be unbearable much less pulling on the hoses.
Goodness Jeri! Hard to keep these men safe. I talked to Jeff this weekend and Justin fell off his skate board and chipped a tooth, sprained his wrist and had 6 stitches in his chin this past Thursday. He uses his skate board to go to class some. He has been skate boarding since he was probably 4 or 5 so he's very good at it. But someone had pulled a hose across the sidewalk he was on and it was in a crack and he didn't see it. But when he hit it it stopped the skateboard and he flew off. He sent Kristi a text and said he had chipped a tooth and asked who he should go to. Then gradually all the injuries slowly unfolded! He had already had them all taken care off. His wrist is in a splint. He was checked to see if he had a concussion but he didn't. But it will take Jim a lot longer to recover from his injuries than Justin!
Hate to hear that Justin got hurt and you have that right, Charlotte!!! Jim doesn't do bouncing well any more!!! I'm glad he took off last night but with him saying he is feeling better now, I would be willing to bet ya that he is working this afternoon.
Ashley was re-certified and got her job back at Blue Bayou and they start Sunday so that is why she isn't going with us.
Jeri, that really sounds dangerous! I hope he has someone at least check it to make sure it isn't becoming infected.......... these men think they are invincible, but they usually wait until things are BAD before they seek help. :( No changing them I guess........... Your family reunion sounds awesome! We used to have a small family reunion for one part of my mom's family in May, but they haven't had it in several years. It was just held on a Sunday afternoon - but it was fun to see everyone. I am just about to the point that I think we should schedule something similar for Leigh and his siblings and their kids. We only see them at funerals and weddings - and even then most aren't there. I have threatened to pick a place and a date and tell them months in advance and see if anyone shows up. My former SIL and her family have a specific weekend every year that they all meet up and go canoeing........my kids have really missed out on not getting to spend time with cousins.......
Charlotte, sorry to hear about Justin's injuries....you are right, he will bounce back much quicker.
I will bet Jim is working too, but at the very least can you talk him into a tetanus shot?
Yes, Justin will recover and still be riding that skateboard !
It was 58 degrees when I walked the dogs this morning! Wow, that's cold for here.
I use mulch because I am allergic to pine straw. It breaks me out into tiny red bumps.
Jeri, sorry about your husband. Gotta keep these men out of trouble.
Lol, Sandra, we are both wrong. He didn't go to work but it wasn't by choice. There was no work!! The price of oil has them slowed down terribly. My oil well filed bankruptcy last month, if you can believe that but I did get a small check today and it's a subsidiary of Exxon so unless things get way worse I'm pretty sure they will recover.
Jeri, is Jim still way down in Texas working? I thought he was hauling gravel, did I dream that?
What did he say about his wound?
Jeri, I hated to hear about Jim's accident. Too much of this thing happening lately! I do hope he gets a tetanus shot at least. I was reading about this the other day, and especially older adults need to pay attention to this and get up to date on their shots. When I fell on pavement a few years back that's the first thing they asked me at the ER, and they gave me one. Y'all have fun at your reunion. We used to have one too (my Dad's side), but due to some of the elder ones having health issues, and after my cousin's death, and the rest of us so busy, we've slacked off. Need to do it again though.
Sandra, hope Jerry is feeling better.
Charlotte, that was quite a tumble that Justin had on his skateboard! I can't imagine why someone would put a hose across the sidewalk, and hope it wasn't something malicious. I see a lot of kids on skateboards on college campuses these days.
It's going to be a beautiful weekend here. Hope the rest of you have great weather too. Enjoy!
Jim has the motor home in Luling, Tx but he runs all over from San Antonio to Corpus Christi hauling sand. No, he won't even now discuss seeing a Dr. and he is back at work. He is crazy!!!
Jim did go buy a back support wrap to hold him so the bouncing doesn't hurt quiet as bad.
How is Justin doing now that it's been a couple days. They always say the 3rd day is the worst.
The picture you posted of Jerry with that thing didn't look like he is as badly bruised as he was at first. I hope things are starting to improve for him!!!
Yes, his bruised arm is much better, today makes 2 weeks so it is time for it to be better. The other one doesn't feel quite as well today as it did yesterday. You know how it is, some days are just better than others !
I don't think it was malicious Elaine. The tooth that he chipped was a back tooth. He had to have a crown put on. He knew how to get all of his injuries taken care of but the tooth. He didn't know what dentist to go to. Jeff is guessing ground his teeth real hard are something as he was falling. Skateboards are an easy way to get around campus. Jake fell on his last year and totally shocked him. He had not fallen in YEARS!!
I've been trying to get my back yard whipped into shape. I worked on planting my pots on the deck yesterday and cleaning up all the mess I had just put on the deck as I brought plants outside for the summer. Got things arranged better around the koi pond and did several hanging baskets and a big metal stand thing with a planter in the top. Spent a small fortune but it's looking much better. I have a metal screen I hide the water hose, etc and I had put those half planters on the top of it several years ago and tried to get ivy to grow but that didn't work. It finally occurred to me to plant some succulents. I did that yesterday and it looks good - just hope it works. I put new coco mat liner (by the roll kind) in the big metal stand last year and the birds ate every single piece of it!! There was only a small amount of it left that the dirt was sitting on! This time I bought 2 of those 32" preformed coco liners. It's a big planter and it takes 2 of them overlapping at the bottom. It seems that the preformed liners are less attractive to the birds. I'm trying to put some permanent things in a lot of my big containers. It put a small size bright green hosta, a coral bell, japanese fern that had been in it last year, a variegated grass, Then some begonias.
The last two years my impatients got that disease where all the leaves just fall off. So I'm trying to give them a rest. I have 4 planters on my deck steps I usually plant with impatients. This year I bought those begonias that have little rose looking blooms. No the non stop begonias but a regular landscape begonia. They look good. I put some house plants things in a big pot I have on the corner of the deck. A tall pink plant, a bright green one and one with two shades of green leaves. I just left them in the pots and stuck down in the dirt! Then added some color on the sides.
Jeri we did a cross post. I haven't heard anymore from Justin but kids have a way of recovering quickly! They just seem to take it in stride! He wasn't even going to tell them about all his injuries. Kristi had to dig it out of him!
The last three years, impatiens have had a problem with Downey Mildew. And the disease can live in the soil for up to three years without a host. So if you had it last year, you will probably have it this year, even though your plants may have been fine when you planted them. The New Guinea impatiens are not susceptible to the disease, so you can plant those.
Happytails I like the new Guinea impatiens but they never do that well for me. I think they may need more sun than what they get in my back yard. I've had the Downey Mildew for 2 years so I'm just not planting impatiens for a few years. The crazy thing is they used to just come up all over my yard! I would pull them up by the wheelbarrow load. So I went from the overtaking my yard to not growing at all!
They are though with my walkways and the patio. I should have taken a before picture. They pulled up all the brick and relaid them. Roots and limbs breaking and falling had caused lots of bricks to pop up making it very hard to walk on parts of the brick. The stone walkway they also pulled up all the stone in that area and relaid them. There was also a section in the patio they pulled up and redid. They are going to come back after the first of June to check to see if any need to be leveled or redone. The first photo is of my big container under the pergola. I was pleased with the way the big metal container turned out. I had a Texas Star hibiscus in the koi pond and it always blocked this planter. I pulled it out of the pond and have it sitting in a container of water. I haven't decided exactly where I'm going to plant it but it was just getting to be too much trouble for the pond.
Beautiful Charlotte, looks like they did a great job for you ! I saw an empty pot in the curvy part, is there something in there that hasn't shown up yet?
Sandra I have too many containers! That's one reason I'm planting perennial things in a lot of them. That container I usually have caladiums in. It's also not quite in the right spot. It's supposed to be a little closer to the curve and more to the right. I have a bunch of bulbs but haven't planted them yet as it's been so cool. I don't usually plant them until the first of May. They just want grow until the weather warms up. I have a bunch of planters I put caladiums in. I saved my bulbs from last year and bought another bag at Sam's. Then the nursery close to my house I bought some things from had lots of loose bulbs and I got some more from them.
The Downey Mildew has been terrible. We threw away about a hundred flats of them that first year it was around, and then didn't even take any last year. This year has been better, but those who have had it in the past still can't plant them. Yuck, they just turn to mush.
This is a container I copied from Gardens Oy Vey last year. They showed a picture of one they had done for someone and I realized I already had all the things in my own yard so copied it. I need to make up several more this year. I have plenty of stuff to use in my own yard. It loaded sideways! The fern should be at the top. The ragged leaves are from the hail we had recently. It did a lot of damage to some of my hostas.
This message was edited May 2, 2015 8:46 AM
I guess I had misread your post above these I bought you said you had filled all your pots !! I haven't made any pots this year, not even a petunia ! I finally got finished mowing (both yards) yesterday, now I can start cleaning out the beds and edging next week. Since Jerry's Mom is at Glenda's I didn't fix her any pots, so I am just not going to plant any annual pots this year. I have enough to do without having to water pots. You won't believe it but I don't even have a tomato plant. Have you done your garden yet Charlottes?
Sandra it was me! I didn't make it clear. I meant I filled all the pots under my pergola. I seem to have pots all over my yard! Some of them I just need to put away. I'm getting ready to go to Home Depot in a little bit and get a bunch of mulch. I need to put mulch down around the sides of my walkway and make things look a little neater. Just going to do the edges of beds as there is no way I could even begin to mulch all the beds in the back.
I planted 4 tomatoes, sweet basil, cucumbers and what the label said was okra at my garden yesterday. I said what the label said was okra. When I started to plant it I realized both the cucumbers and okra looked alike. I actually think the okra is a cucumber. Oh well guess I'll have a lot of cucumbers. I would like to plant a few okra. That's all the vegetables I'm planting. I have planted a bunch of lavender and I bought seeds for cockscomb, zinnia's and sunflower. I plan to get that planted this weekend. It's going to mainly be a cut flower bed this summer.
I need to mow the grass this afternoon also as I plan to start trimming azaleas and some other stuff and will have a huge pile in the yard by the street. So much to do this time of year! The guys edged the other day so at least that part of it is done. I just hate edging!! It's so much more work than mowing.
Pressure washed the porch today, which has been on my list for 2 months. Glad to have that out of the way.
I spent a good portion of Saturday and Sunday working in my large round bed. I FINALLY finished! Well, at least the cleaning and mulching. But, I need a day with no wind to spray the outer edges of the bed really well with RU and then I plan to spray the gravel drive that circles this bed. Most people can't even tell its a "drive" because the Bermuda has covered the gravel, but I plan to try to kill it all out and keep the gravel perimeter in hopes of it aiding in keeping the bed clean. I have never had this bed cleaned out and completely mulched this early. My goal had been 4/30 but I didn't make that but at least it is done.
Can anyone identify the plant that is bloom in the first photo? It is in another bed and I am pretty sure I got it at a RU but I can't find a tag or remember what it is. The second pic if my Arms Wide Open iris in bloom. Sorry both of those loaded sideways. The other photos are of the bed that I have been working on for the past month. I celebrated being thru by driving to Cabot with my sister yesterday to get some fresh strawberries. So I will be putting them up this evening instead of working in the yard. I still have a long way to go in the yard - but this was a major step in the right direction!
That looks like amsonia to me Genna. Your bed looks great. I know that is a lot of hard work. I've been doing the same thing in my garden and flower bed next to the garden. I had planted all the okra, tomatoes, etc a couple of weeks back but I never finished planting all my flower seeds and had not finished weeding the perennial beds and re-mulching in those. I ran out of mulch yesterday but I did get everything weeded and put down newspaper and/or cardboard under everything. I was also short a bale of straw for the veg garden so got that put down. I needed to put some systemic on my azaleas and gardenias so did a few little chores like that before I tackled the weeding, & got the bird feeders cleaned & filled. All those little things seem to take up a lot of time to do.
I think Kathy Ann mentioned this on FB, but have some of your perennials been slow to start this year? She was talking about her crepe myrtles. My buddleias have really been slow. I was about to think a couple of mine were dead but they finally put out leaves. and they really do have some dead branches on them. My newest 'Lo and Behold' really looks bad. I'm thinking about replacing them. I don't know if the winter got them or what. We did have that late freeze (wasn't it early April?) and I was a little late cutting things back this year so don't know if that affecting them or not.
Your bed looks really good Genna.
I worked on my beds some yesterday too and I'm getting ready to work on them some more this afternoon.
Elaine I lost my favorite buddleia this winter. It had gotten damage (uprooted) from the heavy snow we had a couple of years ago and had been just hanging on by a thread. I'm not going to replace it. I don't really have room for it. I have a several dead branches in my redbud. My huge fig tree is always late leaving out but it seems to be later than normal this year. It looks like it might have some dead wood in it. Will just have to wait a while and see if it leafs all the way out.
I bought 4 tomato plants and got them out. I did find a sun gold. I also got all my flower seed planted yesterday afternoon.
I also have a couple of pieces of furniture I need to paint today.
My buddleia has been slower putting out this year as well and I did lose one, but it was in my abandoned bed - where that amsonia, or whatever it is, is at. That bed has been totally taken over by grass and I am just going to Roundup almost everything in that bed. I have already moved out all my DLs that were in that bed. I just have that amsonia, a small dogwood, and another plant that the names escapes me at the moment. I am going to dig it up and spray around the others and start fresh on that bed. But, it literally might be fall before I get that done. Next on the list is to straighten up the foundation beds and remulch them....... I am really bad to work here and there and yonder and never finish ANY of it. So I have just forced myself to stay focused on that bed. I have done a few things that came up here or there but I made myself go back to the big bed. I also have some tomato plants and a few peppers that I need to get in the ground.
I am planting cayenne peppers this year for the first time ever because I want to make some pepper sauce - not sure if that is the right word, but the peppers with vinegar over them. I love it on turnip greens and it is so hard to find in the stores here. Just thought I would attempt my own. My mom used to make it all the time, but I really have no idea what all she did to it.
Charlotte, I meant to comment on how great your backyard looks with the work that was done. I know you are happy to get it done. Your planters look good too. I didn't plant very many this year either. I had one that already had some salvia in it and I stuck a couple more things around it. Put some things in 3 other bigger pots and I have one more large pot I may do something with eventually.
I always put some red geraniums by my front porch and that's done. I just put the pots inside some bigger decorative pots and that's it. In the fall I can change it out with mums or whatever. I keep bark mulch in the bottom of the big pot as filler. Makes it easy to move around and I just put other pots on top of it. I used to plant impatiens but they got to be too much trouble. I remember when you started having trouble with yours, Charlotte, and that's when I decided to try the New Guinea's again. The deer munched on them that year, so that was the end of that experiment.
Thanks Elaine. All the mulch I bought is to put along the side of the walkways to hide the sand and to give it a more finished look. I'll take it up into the beds to where it will blend with the plants. I still have lots of loose sand on the stone that will take a while for me to get rid of and for it to settle in good. I turned the sprinkler on last night and discovered they had cut a section of my sprinkler line. They came this morning and fixed it. They had cut it by accident in the same area but a different type line. This was a bigger line and I thought it had electrical wire in it. But then I remembered today that the electrical wires from the shop to the meter are actually in metal conduit. My backyard is just a maze of stuff underground! The telephone line even runs underground next to the fence.
I'm going to be pleased with it all with I get all the mulch down and the sand cleaned off. Next I need to prune a little on the azaleas. Always something.