Brown Booger days are HERE!!! :-)

Okay, it's official! Spring has sprung, and it's not just teasing either. It's 62° right now and I just spent most of the afternoon cleaning up the flower beds around the patio area. Took up the leaves, tilled the soil a bit, put down real mulch around the perennials, pruned the clematis which has leaf buds all over it, and now it looks like there's going to be some green things before long at all! The pulmonaria that I was worried about has bunches of new growth and the 'Crimson Fans' (Mukdenia rossii) that I planted last fall has pips and so do the hostas and not only are there tulips and daffodils up, but so is the lily-of-the-valley! And the best part of all is I'm tired, my back hurts and I'VE GOT DIRT UNDER MY FINGERNAILS!!!!

I'm a happy, happy girl. :-)

Kylee

Oh, and I found the little turtle that disappeared from my little fairy garden last fall. He had fallen into the hole in the side of the tree and got covered up with soil and branches.

It's a good day. :-)

It IS a good day! I have dirty fingeranils too.... :)

You bet! And I had to go straight from the garden to the shower for the first time in months with the clothes into the washer on the way through - Good ol dirt - -- LOL

Ahhhh I can't wait to get home and start digging. It is still cool up here in Alaska. Nothing better than an afternoon shower after gardening and taking a nap on the couch.

Yep. My back is hurting & after I decided I'd done enough, I saw a few weeds and one thing led to
another & I started weeding again but w/o gloves. Now my hands are sore too. But my soul is soaring
and I've got new pansies planted and some of the beds cleaned up. Awhhh... spring.
Tam

I planted a few violas, too! I'd been putting them outside during the day anyway, and I figured I'd just put them in the ground and if it gets too cold at night, I'll just cover them.

Not quite booger days here in WI yet. I did shovel some snow off my lawn and back on to the driveway to melt tho.

Nice short sleeve weather here today.

Got a lot of cleaning up done outside but no tilling.

I poked around with a piece of re-bar and we are still frozen 2 or 3 inches down >:(

SO to be able to hear some kind of mechanical noise today I fired up ol Thunderpony and went for a nice ride .

LOL Kylee - You may have won the "best thread naming" contest!

I'm twitching here too! I spent the better part of the day yesterday outside pulling down nightshade and poison ivy. I'm hestitant to start uncovering the babies since we still have a lot of cold nights coming, but things are peeking up all over the place. I planted a lot of bulbs (something like 400 if I remember correctly) and I added hellebores last year. The daffs and scillia and chionoxia should put on a show for me this spring. The hellebores are staring to perk up, and I have one flower bud. I don't think that me checking it every day (ok, twice a day) is speeding things up.

We're supposed to get some rain today, but if it's nice for a while I can clean out the deadfall from the walk in the woods.

Yesterday was really windy here, and a gust kocked over the thingy that I had my winter sowing tubs in. Nearly all the lids stayed on the containers, so I'm hoping they will still be ok after a good flipping.

Stacy

Thank goodness for living in good old up-north Minn, I don't have a back ache yet or any dirt on me. It will be April 10 or so before we can or should do any gardening.
It is 26.6º at the moment & not expecting to much more today.
Have a great day!
Bernie

Greetings from 3b, We are supposed to get 6-16 inches of the white stuff this evening, but in the last few days we have had 40+ degree temps so the snow pack is going in the right direction. It is nice to hear that most of you are open and working outside cause I know my time is coming soon. Ken

Snow, then rain, then sleet, then snow. About 1" of whatever on the ground. 32.5º at the moment.
Bernie

We can all relate to Brown Booger Days! Kylee, that's hilarious!

We've had a lovely couple of spring-like days here and although there's still lots of snow elsewhere, above my septic tank (always the first to show signs of life) I have some green shoots coming up! Woohoo! Hems and bulbs. Won't be long now .....

Sandy

Well, it reached 70° today! Thunderstorms rolling in right now. We've already got water laying, so we don't need any more rain, but we're going to get some. We were helping our daughter and her fiance at his house today and they had been cleaning out the attic of the garage, that the previous owners had left stuff in. DH and I had been talking about making a cold frame and I said I'd like to get ahold of an old window for it. Well...guess who found a couple in that attic? YES!!! So, went to Lowe's and got peat pots and hinges for the cold frame so when DH gets home tomorrow night, he can make my cold frame! I'm so excited!

It's supposed to get down in the teens by the end of the week, for the low. I'll have to cover those violas for sure! We'll only have a couple days like that and then it will warm up again.

I saw a red-winged blackbird today. Now THAT'S a sure sign spring is here! :-)

My first sign of spring was seeing the male cardinal yesterday in the feeder and his head and breast were getting quite red..

Are you saying the cardinal changes color a bit when spring gets here?

Yes, he's not as bright red in winter. Not sure when all this takes place because I don't see him too often. I think I saw him about a month ago and his coloring was rather a drab red or orangy red. Yesterday he was bright red again. I know I'm not confusing him with the female, because I see her more often.

My goldfinches are turning yellow too - just noticed yesterday. Kbaumle - I looked up Haviland, OH to see where it is and I am so surprised you have so much growth already. You are way ahead of my yard over on the eastern side of the state. I've got hellebores in bloom and 1 little scilla - its the prettiest blue. The crocus and daffs are up a few inches and so are a bunch of other spring bloomers - I've now forgotten what I planted.

I got gardening books for Christmas and one was on evergreens. I learned that the best way to contain the size is to root prune them - so I did all my Chamaecyparus tonight. Sure do hope it works because I cut through a lot of roots. I'm going out to put Hollytone on them tomorrow and finish planting my species daffodils from last fall - ahem. But regarding dirt - I really think I am abnormal, I just love it. Loved your post - it made me laugh.

Oh, I love dirt, too! I love the SMELL of it. I always have, even as a little girl. When I would ride with my grandpa on the tractor, I just loved it when he was plowing. This winter, when I was potting up some things, I made my DH sniff the bag of potting soil, it smelled so GOOD!! LOL!

I don't think we're way ahead of you, really. Most everything still looks pretty mushy, brown and dead. It was only when I got down and cleaned out the leaves and looked closely that I saw a lot of that green stuff. Our tulips and daffodils are up about 2-3 inches and the crocus I planted in the yard are just peeking through the surface. I really was surprised to see the hosta and lily-of-the-valley pips, though. It seems too soon for those.

Someone sent that rain & cold back here Sun. Oh pooh. But I did get my place spruced up a bit on
Sat and it felt GREAT to be playing in the dirt. Ahhh... I feel hope that spring really will come & come soon.
Tam

Yesterday no snow on the ground today 26º and the following,

"MnDOT( Minnesota department of transportation) is advising no unnecessary travel in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area as a winter storm whips through the area."

I did get out and prune my cherry tree on Saturday.

Hey Beaker_ Ch, I wonder if a cardinal ''changes'' color because the sun is at a different angle now. I've also ''noticed'' the cardinals more. We had an inch of rain yesterday and a strong west wind today. It's been too wet to step into the beds and garden. I got ready to plant peas since my fence is on the edge and found two almost empty packages. Oops.

The snow has stopped.

That is soooo awful. he he
Snow booger days?

Billy, I haven't a clue why the birds change color, but I think it may have something to do with camouflage and predators.

Al, we really needed this snow. We've had so little this year. Difficult to move though; wet and heavy. Yes, definitely snow booger days!

Back to dirty nails, has anyone heard of a product that you rub on your hands before playing in the dirt and all the dirt and crud washes right off? I can't remember where I saw this; maybe the Yankee Trader? I was wondering if anyone uses this and how well it works?

I have used one for several years called Farmer's Friend made by Burt's Bees. It's like super thick Vaseline and it has a touch of lavender and other goodies that are supposed to be somewhat bug repelling. You only need a dab to throughly rub into cuticles and fingertips, then rub any leftover just rub into your hands. Soil washes off much more easily.
http://www.summithut.com/catalog/remap/product.asp/pfid/7260/ I seen this available at hardware stores, too.

If you have nothing else, a good hand lotion works pretty well.

Moby, that's it, thanks. I think I'll give this a try. I'd be especially happy if my nails didn't look like crap all summer. Now if I could only find something that would prevent all the scratches, cuts and various other wounds suffered while gardening.

Its the weirdest thing here - its warmer OUTSIDE than inside the house! I just checked - its 68F outside
and its almost 8pm. And the snow is supposed to get here by Fri.
Tam

Same here. We were under a tornado watch nearly all day and now are with a high wind warning. And it IS blowing hard. I looked some more around the yard and put more mulch down where I'd missed last fall, in preparation for the 18° temps due here later in the week. I've got lots of perennials just poised for bursting into growth.

Dicentra
Heuchera
Pulmonaria
Echinacea
Tree peony
Coreopsis
Columbine
Artemisia
Daphne
Hardy geranium
Sundrops
Hollyhocks
Thyme
Gerimander
Veronica
Lamb's Ear
Shasta Daisies
Yucca
Maltese Cross

I planted a couple flats of seeds tonight, too. African daisies, three varieties of marigolds, and globe amaranth. I need to get more seed starter medium and I'll start my tomatoes tomorrow.

You know beaker that I have had excellent results with soap and water after they get dirty. Hee Hee Hee

I wear gloves, so I don't have much of a problem with getting dirt off my hands or out from under my nails. I do have a habit of sitting or kneeling in the dirt, though, so all my gardening pants and shorts have brown butts and knees.

Well, I always start out with good intensions but, it seems like I end up not always having my gloves on. Then it's 20 minutes trying to get all that dirt from underneath my nails. Planting bulbs is especially difficult wearing gloves.

Same here, beaker. Or I get a hole in one of them. I got a free pair of rubber coated gloves from Smith & Hawken last year and by the end of the summer, they had a hole in one finger. I duct-taped it. I love those gloves! LOL.

lol Kylee - I have a pair of good leather ones that I love, and two of the fingers have coaches tape on the fingers to cover holes. The ones I wear most often I bought at Walmart - they have leather on the palm and underside of the fingers, but the finger tips and the back are a really flexible nylon weave. They've held up without any holes for a year so far. Enough to protect my hands, but pretty flexible. I wear the leather ones for chain sawing, major shovel work, etc. I can kill a pair of the cutsie cloth ones in a week or less.

I've been looking around and found a product called YardGlove that sells for about 10.00 for 4 oz. I kept looking and found another product at Ace Hardware called Invisable Glove at a much more reasonable price. Has anyone used these products and do they really do what they claim?

Yard Glove--have used that...found foil sample packs at a nearby garden center. I rarely use gloves. Its good--but if you are going to be putting your hands in and out of water it may not last as long. For me it would be most effective in the spring and fall--less use of water then. Helps to follow the directions (gasp...) and use enough to thoroughly coat your hands and work it in around the nails. I keep rubbing until its all soaked into my skin and has 'dried' It has beewax in it which likely helps to create a barrier that washes off easily later.
I'd have never tried it if I hadn't spotted the cheaper samples .
Haven't seen or used the Invisable Glove...but maybe you could compare the ingredients?

I make soap and sometimes salves and lotion....makes me think I could make something similar by using a combo of beeswax and lanolin w/ some nice veg oils....but its a ways down the list.

I don't go without gloves anymore. We have so much glass in our dirt that I was forever pinching a finger and running for a bandaid. The nylon backed rubber coated ones fit so well that I rarely have to remove them to do something barehanded. My hand aren't all dried out either. Thank goodness they ''invented'' them.

Hey I thought we were supposed to have a freeze last night? There was a little thin ice in the bird bath out in the open but not even frost in the back yard. Yay - oh well I covered up the tree peony buds and primroses for nothing - now it will probably get me tonight. I am so glad I wintersowed or I would not be able to stop myself from driving up to Bluestone to get a fix in person. As it is I went and checked and my marigolds germinated in the open with no covering on them - good goin'. And the Unwins dwarf dahlias have now germinated also.

I am so proud to say I've already had several brown booger days this spring - LOL - I will never be able to blow my nose again without thinking of this thread and laughing.

All good here, too! I had put some overwintering things out a couple of days ago, so I covered them with garbage bags last night, but I don't think I would have needed to. I didn't cover the Boston ferns and they're fine. They're right up against the house, which helped, I know, but still... It's supposed to get down in the 20s again tonight, then warm up again.

You live close to Bluestone???? *jealous* Are you also near Lowe's? (The family-owned nursery, not the chain store.)

Kylee