Where to start???
So many messes, so little time.
Here's the preform that I planted the tropical ferns around. Real bright. They are now located in the homes of friends. I have ordered numerous ferns for this area for spring focusing mostly on species that should survive.
i have the same pond one of 6 now?
thousands of garlic mustard plants littered the property- all gone now. Hand pulled when it rained which is the best time to get them.
Another new preform in full sun that will need help sooner or later and whenever I get around to it. We literally put this in the ground before the leaves started falling last October.
septic field mound??????????????????
Real attractive, huh?
What do you do with this other than to turn it into a prairie.
I'm going to layer this with thousands of pieces of newspaper to start killing off the grass this coming spring and I'll sink about 1,000 prairie plants in this area and I'll mix in native grass seeds such as little blue stem and such. That ought to cover up that septic field and in about 3-4 years it should look a little better. I was thinking a little footpath of stepping stones to the right of the mound and then cutting over the top of it to that kid's play house but who knows what I'll end up doing. I need to kill that grass and start from there.
Nasty, isn't it?
This is what is underneath everything.
Can we say heavy clay?
I started 5 of these raised beds. There is nadda zip nothing currently planted in them and I didn't even have time to level out and smooth down what soil was tossed in them after I built them all up with landscape bricks. Will they look like something in the year 2010?
Here's another phase of that particular raised bed where you can see some of that landscape brick tiering up to better define the space. It was fun digging down into basically solid clay! Just kidding.
Any ideas on how to hide these? I stuck that birdbath in there to try to detract from those eyesores and I have begun to plant hostas around to fill in the area. There are two Viburnums flanking the ac units. The photo doesn't show it but there are now about 10 more hostas in the area. This area is bright but full shade. Sun never hits those ac units due to the way the home was situated on the lot. Weird but hostas will work there. I need some plants that have some height to them that will flower in absolutely no sun and clay and work with the hostas.
More photos to follow tomorrow of what I am working with. Now do you see why I try to stick iris everywhere?
Good morning-
Here's more photos for you Doss! Have you fallen over in fits of giggles yet?
Here's a barren area that I sunk planters down into in an attempt to grow lady slipper orchids. I left the rims a few inches above ground to be able to ammend the surrounding soil at some point in time.
I'd like to blend those planter edges in to something to cover them up but what that something is I have no idea. I will be planting some sort of a native grass in and around those planters, maybe next year but most probably the year after as I have no idea what will make it in compacted soil on top of clay.
This is actually a small vernal stream however it only dries up for about a month or two out of the entire year. We are having this area expanded sometime next fall to enable more water to flow. The vast majority of the plant material down there is noxious. I have a list of plants that will work in this area however I need to clean out the ickies before I even think of adding plant material.
This area has also become the home to introduced rusty crayfish. Those will have to be dealt with also but my neighbors have ideas on how to address that issue and I will probably follow suit.
This was going to be my "Secret Shade Garden". I actually ordered about 500 native shade plants for here in anticipation of cleaning out the area. Well, it's become a joke around here as after we cleared my secret shade garden of the buckthorn and honeysuckle, it is now full sun. I had delusions of grandeur for this area in that I had a small birdbath that electric was run to and had a bench as well as patio stones delivered to get to the area that was to have been "shady". We cleared out that huge bush honeysuckle you see in the lower left hand corner and then several more of those as well as about 100 buckthorn and voila- shade all gone which I did not anticipate. Needless to say, a change of venue is in order for this area. You gotta laugh is about all I can say. I look at my "secret shade garden" and just shake my head. I used all of the plants elsewhere so no plant loss from poor planning.
Geez, equi you have your work cut out for you.
Remember I'm going to send you some ferns!
Cindy
Oops, photo to secret shade garden that's not so secret anymore was missing. Here it is. No, here it isn't as the prompt says it is not in j-peg format yet it is. Odd. Too bad as it was sort of funny.
Well, moving on while I try to figure out how to post the secret garden photo. Here is another problem area that was cleared of bush honeysuckle and buckthorn. It is now full sun also. I don't have any current photos but this area has now been cleared and excavated for a 3,000+ gallon acid bog. It will come around sooner or later. I will need to determine what to plant around the bog and this is the area where I would like to add that bronze bird figurine I posted a link to in another thread. I am slightly ahead of myself as I now have a huge hole that is about 14x24x2 and the liner hasn't even been delivered yet. I did select the iris I want for in this area but will need a ton of other filler plants around the bog.
We trenched down to the "hole" and have all the water from the sump pump set to empty into the bog. This was a major feat. All is ready to go after the liner gets delivered and set in sand. Then the truck comes with more sand and bales of sphagnum peat moss. The bog will look ok in about 2 years.
Here's an area currently being worked on but it is so representative of all the "woodland" areas here. We removed the blunt of the buckthorn and began to plant bareroots. It does look horribly desolate without all of that overgrown brush but it should be ok in about 5 years when it rebounds. Into these areas, I have been planting natives such as bloodroots, jack in the pulpits, violas, toothworts, heucheras, tiarellas, may apples, Dutchman's Breeches and scores of other native shade plants. Little strokes fell great oaks and sooner or later it will look as if I actually did something in all of these woodland areas. I have to admit these areas depress me because so much work has gone into them and they look worse than they did before we started.
Oh, that nice huge pile of retaining block needs to go. I broke my hand falling on it last spring and then I fell again the same week and broke my wrist in almost the same spot. Sports casts suck!
Ah, I resized it and I can post the secret garden photo! All I can say is that now there is so much sun here that I can plant many iris! An unexpected bonus! The nice big tree by the stacked up patio rounds was Rhamnus Cathartica... Buckthorn! It came down and the stump was painted with a chemical so it won't come back to mock me.
Wow, big projects! How much property do you have?
For your viewing pleasure we have a nice thicket of noxious weeds to include purple loosestrife, narrow leave cattail, and phragmites here on the north side of the driveway. I am getting professional help here as this is somewhat over my head. They are coming with backhoes to try to get this area under control sometime this summer before it spreads to adjoining areas that aren't totally infested.
I do have a sense of humor. This is a buckthorn that I did not cut all the way down in favor of "sculpting" it so it could accommodate a birdbath. I've "sculpted" a few others and am going to figure out how to mold and pour my own basins. Now all I need to do is take the first step in trying to make my own concrete birdbaths. I bought a book... does this count? Tee he!
This is a small orchard that currently has 14 assorted fruit trees in it. I ordered 4 more to add this coming spring and 2 more to replace the ones deer got to and stripped the bark from. I need to knock out the competition around the bases of the fruit trees by creating a ring of about 6'. I have ordered an indigenous clover seed to plant around the bases of the trees that will fix nitrogen into the soil and it will not need mowing so this should save the bases of my trees from the lawn mower.
Here are about 250 Immortal iris along a sidewalk that I'll be adding Salvia azurea to this spring. That should help out the die back of the iris that look so ugly when their blooms are spent by filling in and arond them.
Here's a birdbath I inherited that is surrounded by about 50 Full Tide Iris. This area looks pretty ratty long about June/July when the iris have died back so I was contemplating adding other plants here too. I do have pockets of decent areas on the property. They just need more work to get to a "Doss" level.
Here's an area I tried to get going. For some reason the iris failed that were planted behind the Daffodils. Gotta figure that one out and go for backplanting iris in the same area again. I had planted Dover Beach iris somewhere around a 100 of them. This blows my mind.
Oh my gosh, I was posting photos for Doss and completely missed people had posted in here.
Hi Tazzy, preforms are fun aren't they. I will have 4 in the ground and hopefully plants will be in the ground around the two newest additions by fall of '05. Here's a photo of one that I added plants to fall of '04. I am hoping it will fill in nicely in the years to come but it still needs more plants.
Hi Cindy, I had forgotten about your native ferns! Thank you so much! Here's a photo of what I try to do with the ferns in the woodland areas.
I have a few "pockets" of ferns here and there. They are all under leaves and about a foot of snow right now.
Hi Sylvi74, 5 acres. 2 are wetlands and natural ponds and one is currently lawn/house/mini orchard and the other two are woodlands. Yes, now that we know how many ickies and nasties are here we do feel as if we bought swamp land in Florida. This too shall pass.
I started beds up in tight around the house and I am thinking they are far too shallow. I will probably have to deepen them at some point in time but for now, the plants are establishing in them so when the beds do get dug out more, I can just add more plants. This bed has Solomon's Seal and Penstemon Digitalis in it. It is my intent to illiminate the lawn sooner or later and I will have no mow lawn right up to all the planters which will soften the look a little. This particular bed now has cultured stone edging it on top of the brick that outlined it. It's nice to take a break from clearing brush to work on areas like this. This is what gardening was SUPPOSED to be like for me. Needless to say irises are the high point in my life these days.
That's all I have for now. Will have to wait for spring to show more problem areas... there are many.
Equi-I'm impressed with everything you've got going on. Your description sounds like a friend of mine. She asked me to come look at the problem spot in her yard and when I looked around and asked where the problem was, she waved her arms around us and said "here!" The whole thing, in her opinion. I have been looking at 5 to 10 acre properties in MI, but they are either too expensive or too far from work. Lucky you to have all that space!
Equilibrium, I like the first photo you posted and the idea you have!! With that simple technique anyone can have a pond! Great projects you are working on. I'm exhausted just looking at all that work!! LOL
I feel for your friend. It is overwhelming and extremely frustrating to look around and see so many areas that are infested. You want so badly to jump right in and plant the "good stuff" but you can't quite get an area fully cleaned to be able to plant away to your heart's content. I am happy with as far as I have gotten. I'd just like to be further ahead than I am. Human nature to want everything "yesterday". I seriously have been chomping at the bit to "doll up" more areas but the going is slow and tedious at times and I am not getting to do all the "fun stuff" I had envisioned. Does this make sense? Seeing little "pockets" appear here and there is a big help and it truly spurs you on to keep plugging away. I am lucky to have all this space so close to two major cites however there have definitely been days when I longed for the nice un-landscaped suburban lot where I could have started from scratch with a clean slate and planted iris out the wazoo.
Well, I'm only part way through, but you have a lot more on your hands than I do. I've got half an acre and that's including the house. We also have clay, and so I know what your are up against - but I've spent a lot of time and money making it OK. Also we're on a hill. Also, we are on a corner and have a 24 foot setback from the street, so my planting areas are really compact. Your planting beds are really nice forms. You've got a good eye. You have a great opportunity to plan wide wandering paths that go around corners into different "rooms". It's how I designed my garden and it's worked very well, but I often wish that I could do it on a grander scale. I don't know from septic tanks and what the drawbacks are but the fence needs to be covered and you'll feel a lot better. It's basically not an eyesore. That's a great place to plant something invasive like morning glory. I love invasive plants where they will do me some good. The ponds are fun - I can recommend fish and bird friendly water products that will keep your pond from mucking up. I'll get the name later.
I've solved the air conditioner problem too. Your hostas are beautiful but they need to be about 8-10 feet out. Then you build a little yard around your air conditioners, large enough so you can get in there to service them and so they have breathing room. You put a gate in the side, perpindicular to the house. I've flanked it like you have with plants you can't grow but I'm sure loving the idea of the Viburnums next to those windows. Smells like heaven - They don't grow so well here. Then you draw one of your fabulous shapes around the whole thing and plant it with shrubs, hosta - you know various in a lovely bed. I swear, no one will even notice. The Hosta can go on the edge of the bed with your hardy ferns. :->
I've got camellias and big ferns in front of mine and the bed is under some birch trees where I have planted lots of daffodils. I'll see if I can get a picture, although I've lost a shrub, and it's not the best time now. There's a lot of meat here. Are you doing this all by yourself, and with how many kids?
I just knew you had a zillion acres. I love what you've done with the big pre-form. Are those logs? Since you have a zillion acres, I think that you are right and pushing out the planting areas from the edge of the house a LOT would be really fun. You are so good at laying out areas, I'm not sure why you constrained yourself here. An earlier project? Anyway I have some narrow paths too, but they are all at least three feet wide. The photo with the granite fountain is right outside my bedroom door. But here is a constrained path that I'm going to have to do something about. The Japanese Maple at the left (which was supposed to stay 8') needs to be moved and I need to put something else up there. You can get yourself in trouble keeping things too scrunched. And these planters are pretty wide. It has some smaller azaleas, some oak leaf ferns, astilbe, a miniature pine and some Ajuga, along with some pansies. (now that's something that's really fun - and you can do evergreens in your neck of the woods!).
I can't wait to get back to this, I'm jealous!!!!!!!!
Doss, what a lovely entrance to your home. I bet you can grow just about anything where you live. Can you?
Yes, We can grow just about anything. Aren't you in the same zone? Is the same true for you? There are some things that we just are too warm for. A lot of evergreens, lilacs, etc, die of the heat. We have an awful lot of horrible looking pine trees around here. We have redwood trees though. Most things like apples that like it colder, we have varieties that adapt here. We have to be careful with things like Peony's because our zone is marginal for a lot of them. But we substitute Camellias. Crocus don't grow very well but daffodils are fine, there are some strains of sweet peas which are specificially for hotter climates - the other ones mildew.. We have quite a mildew problem because our days are so hot and our nights cool, so I'm out with a good non-toxic spray once a week. We are very lucky. Not tropical, but I can still grow some zone 10a plants if I'm careful where I put them, and I can still grow some zone 8 plants, but we give them a little more shade. Some of the Dahlias suffer here, I'm slowly learning which one's are more wilt proof - I only began with dahlias last year. I love giving them to neighbors and friends. They are always blown away by their beauty and they last so long once they are cut.
But all in all, my goodness, it's a beautiful place. Doesn't get too hot, never humid, not too cold. But then we don't have all that space to grow hoardes of Iris in - and believe me if I had the space I'd join you Margie, or the amazing opportunities Equilibrium - or burden which ever day it is. In fact, this evening I was sitting trying desparately to pare down my list of cultivars I want for next fall planting.
And I just took another look at that picture, Time to put something in front of that hose bib. I did put some Iris in the narrow area between the lawn and the house this fall. For some reason they seen to do OK with the irrigation. But I'm pretty careful with water.
Any ideas what to replace that Japanese Maple with? I could put a smaller variety in, but it is a very big wall and I want something tall.
Doss, we are so much drier than you are...................hardly any humidity at all. We can't grow ferns like you do. Apples trees of any kind can't make it here. The only ones that do well at all here are made of copper or iron. LOL. Crocus don't grow here either, but daffodils do OK. All strains of sweet peas like it here......................and in the spring you can smell them in the air - - (if they are growing in the garden). Dahlias suffer here. Callas grow very well if they have only a few hours of morning sun, and the rest of the day in shade.
It gets HOT, HOT, HOT here. Not quite as hot as Phoenix.................but we still can make it up to 112-115. I love your more temperate climate over there. Nothing too crazy.
Have you thought about replacing your Jap. Maple with the hawaiian Bird of Paradise?
http://davesgarden.com/pf/showimage/605/
http://davesgarden.com/pf/showimage/17331/
They grow just about 7 to 7 and half feet tall. And they look prettier in real life than in those pictures. They look so classy and so graceful too. They grow here pretty nicely, but would like a little more humidity.
Margie
I sure love the daffodils that Equilibrium has, do you have a cultivar name? And thanks for the idea about the Bird of Paradise. Only problem I forgot to mention, is that this is on a North wall and gets zero direct sun. I've never seen one that tall here. I have two in the garden but they are only about two years old.
The idea of metal apple trees made me laugh! Do you have any? I do have tons and tons of Callas. They grow like weeds in my garden and I'm always pulling them out. How big is your garden?
That's whats so funny Equilibrium about your pictures. I have no idea what these weeds are so I'm not thinking that they are looking so bad. I guess beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I'm laughing at myself here - like bermuda grass and bamboo - or a patch of mint, all weeds. But I will take you at your word that they are "noxious"!
And right around your house looks really beautiful. You've done a really good job. It's a good thing that you have a sense of humor.. You think really big. I guess I can see that you would want to tackle it all but I'm overwhelmed just looking at it all. I think that I could only chew off a small chunk at a time. It looks like you've done that with the garden close to the house. You must be a firecracker energywise, including breaking wrists all the time. You'd think that the real problem would be the broken wrist and not the cast! LOL
First things first...
I am a tree and shrub person and I got all excited about Doss' Japanese Maples and the overall feel of her property having somewhat of a sophisticated Asian flair so here are a few "taller" trees and one of these might work to replace that Japanese Maple-
Silk Tassel Tree (Garrya elliptica)
Hop Tree (Ptelea crenulata)
Ponderosa Pine (Pinus ponderosa)
Hollyleaf Cherry (prunus ilicifolia)
Lemonade Berry Tree (Rhus integrifolia)
And yes, the Ponderosa Pine should make it and is indigenous to your area. If you want a not so tall tree, you might want to take a look at shrubs. I use them all over the place here now when I don't want something to grow beyond a certain height.
The Daffodil cultivar name is Thalia. I also planted those around my buckthorn "sculpture" and I have a photo somewhere of what they looked like when they came up but I couldn't find it to post for you. Rats! I ordered the Thalias by the hundreds from Van Engelen Inc. and found their bulbs to be big and well hydrated and most important- affordable.
Explanation on the preform ponds- two have biofilters on them and one has an additional underwater filtration. One biofilter is recessed into the ground so you can't see it and the other one will be recessed into the ground and hopefully you won't be able to see it. So my water stays remarkably clear. The other two preforms are in virtually full shade and will have nothing but small pumps with air stones to them to keep the water oxygenated. I will use mosquito dunks in 3 of the 4 preforms. One pond is a sacrificial lamb for the raccoons and I am going to put the rusty crayfish I gather from the property in it for them to eat so that hopefully they stay away from my other ponds. The other shade pond is going to have electric wire around it and the electrical has already been run to the area. I had it hooked up but kept zapping myself andit hurt so I shut it down until I finished planting. This pond is for tads and any toads that want to hop in for a dip before hopping out. There are several very small natural vernal ponds in my area that herps have been using for breeding that dry up and along with it go their tads. A friend of mine who is a herpatologist will be gathering and relocating tads from a pond that dries up to relocate them into that one preform of mine that I posted a photo of that has plants around it. He's trying to save the tads and is using my pond to do so. That is why those two preforms were added- one for the tads and one for the raccoons to keep them in their own area- hopefully. That is also why the edging material around that tad pond is so different from traditional ponds. That pond may seem small at only 200 gallons but it has a purpose so to speak as there will be people waiting to relocate tads that mature to other natural areas from it and of course quite a few will end up calling my place home. We're losing herps at an unparalleled rate around here due in part to lawn chemicals and outdoor cats and people are trying to help. There is a preform pond right up by a front door to my house and I couldn't find a photo of that to post but that pond is more of a frog pond however it was used to rehab a turtle that had a fungal infection and will be used again for any turtles in need of a "fixin". I have a photo somewhere of the last turtle in that pond but couldn't find that either. That leaves one pond for me and I am going with Wakins in it. Wakins will work fine in my area. So how about that, ponds with a purpose- tee he.
Time for me to go back and read again in this thread.
Oh shoot Doss, scratch my suggestions on the trees for you too. I just caught the no sun deal. I am thinking you might want to call that Las Pilitas nursery I posted a link to for you in another thread. Tell them you want a good solid understory tree/shrub suggestion and see what they come up with. They're good people.
Do you have any photos of what you did with your ac units? I live in a community that has covenants that do not allow any fencing but... that is in close enough to the house and I have seen other homeowners who have used decorative lattice in areas on their property and they didn't get pink slips on their front doors so maybe I can put up a little decorative gate. I never thought of that.
OK, they've been fed and are leaving me for the day to participate in some sort of a dogless (they use boys as dogs to pull the sleds) sled race where they have to rely on their compasses to get to their destintion- lucky them and I am liking the heat in this house but I can type a little more now that they are all gone. Yup, you hit it on the head Doss- rooms. You wrote this, "You have a great opportunity to plan wide wandering paths that go around corners into different "rooms". It's how I designed my garden and it's worked very well". To a certain degree, that is exactly what I am going for in the long run over here but only in the woodlands area. There is a great thread here at DG that I saved in which members created their own footpaths using a form/mold and I will probably go that route as what they did was magnificent. Interestingly enough, deer have created footpaths so I will follow what is trodden down and already compacted. One stumbling block is that I can't create any paths whatsoever in or within 50' of the wetlands on my property. It is a big major "punishable by death" (slight exaggeration) no no and the fines are heavy and I definitely do not want to end up in mitigation. Wetlands are protected and monitored and they use aerial photograpy to help them monitor. We can use woodchips to create a footpath (the only approved material) to gain access to wetlands to service them and even then one is encouraged to use only hardwood chips and definitely not pine or cedar for obvious reasons. Woodchips are not all that attractive in my opinion but it's all we can use. I set down about 30 stepping stones once into the wetlands and the guy from Watershed Mgmt was over here within about a month of me putting them down to let me know he had seen them and that I had to get them out fast before somebody from the Army Corp saw them. He likes me and helped me get them all out right then and there. I have a small natural pond in the wetlands to the north of my property and I was only trying to get easier access to it to release a lousy turtle in the future and the lousy turtle took off on her own for bluer waters anyway. I had ordered 60 more of those stepping stones to extend my path and had to cancel the order. Taboo to create a path of stepping stones and my hands got slapped. Could have been worse... I could have gotten caught after I bought and paid for 60 more stepping stones.
About the planting beds to the side of the house. Dilemma. I had layed out 5 bricks and extended them from the side of the house to show our oldest son how far I wanted those dug out. One problem, when we adopted him as an older child, he was cognitively challenged/developmentally delayed. He moved the bricks to work and forgot where they had been and how many I had laid out so that is the real reason why the beds are all so shallow. My husband was helping him and I had left for the day on an outing and when I came home they were very proud of their work so I left both of those beds shallow in favor of waiting until the plants outgrew them to say... "Hey, anyone think we should dig out a little more because the plants must really like their new home that you made for them so much so that they have outgrown the areas!" Needless to say that was the first and the last time I ever left those two alone to "help" me again. All of the other raised beds I did by myself. Our oldest had earned enough money to go to a local amusement park with his group from having worked on digging out two pond holes and those two side planters and was no longer interested in making more money! Figures! He's over 6' tall and strong like bull and I am just over 5' tall and don't have nearly his strength. I hauled every one of those landscape bricks myself over to the raised beds I was working on all because he had enough money to do his thing with his buddies! I dug them all out by myself too and they were considerably more labor intensive than the preforms.
Now I have to go back through the thread to see what Doss meant about "metal apples". This is fun!
Hi Doss, you said this, "I can recommend fish and bird friendly water products that will keep your pond from mucking up. I'll get the name later." I would be very interested in any products you know of because I can't use biofilters in two of those preforms.
OK- I've got the visual on this and I am liking it very much- "Your hostas are beautiful but they need to be about 8-10 feet out. Then you build a little yard around your air conditioners, large enough so you can get in there to service them and so they have breathing room. You put a gate in the side, perpendicular to the house." I can easily relocate the hostas and move them further out. The viburnums probably need to stay but that doesn't mean a small hip wall can't be added at some point in time. Bummer I didn't know you last summer when I had major brick work done around here as I am relatively sure the brick layers will not want to come back for a small job but what you suggested is totally doable and I think I will go for it. I have a photo somewhere of some of the brickwork. I did knee walls around a patio and hip walls by entrance doors. We topped them with sills. No problem to carry this concept over to the north side of the house to gate in the ac units and actually, I prefer to see repetition. Problem is that the bricklayers won't be interested in a small job so this may have to wait. I wanted a greenhouse so bad and couldn't afford to start one when I had the other brick work done. The greenhouse I will get someday will have the same brick that was used for the patio and on the house. I am kicking myself in the rear right about now for not making the connection earlier that the ac units could have been penned in with a hip wall and a gate for access. Now I will have to wait to add that until when the bricklayers come back to start the bottom 1/3rd portion of the greenhouse which will be the same brick that was used for the house and hip and knee walls- I might have enough money to start that in 2008 but maybe not. Glass and ventilation for a greenhouse was a lot more expensive than what I had ever imagined. I thought a greenhouse was going to cost about 3-4k- wrong! It never ceases to amaze me how I underestimate the cost of everything.
I am somewhat attached to the bricklayers and will not use any others. In one of the knee walls they surprised me with this little outcropping and they created other "ledges" in the hip walls out front to which concrete plaques could be added. I am sure they could add little outcroppings to a hip wall around the ac units. Photo below. The photo was taken before they added sills so the upper edge is unfinished in the picture.
That must be an optical illusion on that concrete walkway by the Immortal Iris because it is 4' 4" wide. I don't recall how long it was though.
I've made a tremendous amount of mistakes because of poor planning which might be what Doss was referring to when she mentioned this, "You are so good at laying out areas, I'm not sure why you constrained yourself here. An earlier project?". You think I have a good eye but I don't and when you combine impulsiveness with a woman and a shovel and shrinking funds to work with... you end up with problems. That might sum up what is going on over here!
