Shall We Introduce Ourselves? -Part 2

Hello Scurius,

Am in midst of ongoing family emergency, too, and can't come, but wanted to welcome you to DG and to wish your gathering much success. It's great to see this happening in our neck of the woods.

Noobie, glad to see you found this thread - all kinds of warm, funny kindred souls here. Very glad to meet you all.

karen

Hi all, I am back. Messy house and a few casualties on the plant front, 21 year old looking after house was unable to lift her eyes to some of my baskets, or look at the floor!! So with some heavy watering, a little "whispering" they are now back on track, I will need to replenish some of the ones that suffered an unfortunate demise for lack of moisture, but it was better than I expected.
Whenever y'all wanna get together count me in, I work from home and my schedule is pretty much my own!! Don't know how many plants I will have to share, but I will have Tomatoes!!! I will get some Herbs started here soon so I might be able to bring some with!!

Welcome Home...Becky!!! Sorry to hear about the plants...but you'd think a 21 yr old should be able to figure that out...I mean they can vote, drive, and drink by that age...LOL

Ahem, the driving part I am not too sure about - she managed to get hit twice in hubby's car!! (Perk for looking after house, driving the Mustang) But as long as the house was still standing and the critters looked well taken care of I do not care!! I just grumbled, got out the vacuum and mop and got to cleaning, took care of the plants on the deck, watered, watered and watered, gave them a few encouraging words and most of them are looking better already now that "Mommy" is home!

TWICE?!?!?!?!?! OMG!!!!!!!!!!!! In 25 years (showing my age here) I've only gotten into one "scraper" that might have been my error (although the ins. co. says "no") - in a parking lot, no less. The other times - 2, I think, literally someone ran into me...i.e. McD's drive thru and while stopped at a red light. How the heck did she manage to get it twice while ya'll were gone only a week? Of course the drivers up here have much to be desired...guess I shouldn't say much!!

I have no idea, good job Hubby ain't too concerned, he wants and needs a new car this year. :)

I took a quick look at my plants again today and it looks like some of the ones I thought had bit the dust are actually coming back, I had to do some heavy pruning and poured water on them, but they are amazingly resilient. The one hanging basket I thought was a gonner is up and blooming again, all I have to do is cut some leaves and dead stems!! Yhuuuu!

This weekend I will replenish the annuals that bit the dust and life and my jungle willl be back to normal! :)

Arlington resident, male, 40s, MG, VNPS, looking for gardening chats, esp. natives, woody plants, invasives, is this a good place? Looking forward to Blacksburg next week!

M

Hello I finally found my home.....

I live in Centerville and is my first year with outdoor gardening. Finally I have babies I can talk to and nourish and see them grow...lol. I seem to be spending all my spare time and spare $$$ ( if I have any) on my lil green corner.

I started with sowing Sweet Peas and Cardinal Climbers . They are growing slowly but healthy. Planted few Hostas, Sedum and Helichrysum .

Hope to learn and share with everyone ...........

Keep smiling Tweety:):)

Welcome Tree and Tweety!! You'll like it here...great bunch of folks here and many of the other forums!!

Hi y'all. Treestwrdpot my prickly pears are blooming now too. Very pretty picture. That's one of the native plants out here in the hinterlands. At least I assume it's native. It grows all over.

tweety12, I remember when Centreville was nothing more than a firehouse and a handful of old houses. Guess I'm dating myself here. LOL I grew up in Manassas.

You'll both have to head out to the plant swap planned for this fall in Litttle Washington. It's a beautiful drive. Tweety, we can get you some plants to help get your gardens going. And Tree, I can bring you some natives from out here in the valley.

Hart,
Manassas eh? Went to HS there - then moved down here to the Stafford area 7 years ago. Can't believe how things have changed in Manassas!!

Tell me about it. When I was a small child, Manassas had a population of about 5,000. You knew everybody in town and their cousins and their cousin's dog. LOL

Did you go to Osbourn?

Bec I forgot to welcome you home. Glad your plants are okay.

I'm wanting to know where all the folks from PA are?

Tam

What a warm welcome . What else could I ask for , I knew i had come home. Thank you.

Thanks for the lovely offer Hart, would love to come to the meet. Where is it and when?

And yes Manassas ,Centerville and Chantely are all one big happy family now. small pockets of residential complex's mushrooming in every nook and corner.

And Hart I am trying so hard trying to become friends with my neighbours who dont even acknowledge my colourful Pansys...sigh talk about knowing everyone in town and their dogs....lol . Times have changed.Sad Sad

Glad meeting all of you , have a good weekend its sunny and bright here.....

Tweety

Tam,
I know we've got folks from up that way...just haven't seen them "here" of late.

Hart,
Yes graduated from good ole Osbourn HS - *cringe* 1982

Chantell - you're a spring chicken! I've got my 30yr reunion next year.

And Tweety & Hart - welcome! Sorry I sounded so grumpy. You'll
love DG!

Tam

Cringe, cringe!? You young whippersnapper! I graduated from OHS in 1968. LOL

Tweety, shame on your neighbors for not admiring your pretty pansies! Darned Northern Virginia yuppies! LOL

a ways south of youse guys, but in the fireing line - the land prices are going up - along w/property taxes.

spoke w/a farmer who said he had moved to his spread in 1941 when his father bought it. When his father got older and talked about selling it - he bought it so he would not have too move!

Haven't been in the DC area for years but can only think of the price.

Warm and sunny ain't the word for it, I had to water the "jungle" today in the worst way, my deck tomatoes have reached a height of 5 feet now and they needed water!! IT WAS HOT!
I can proudly announce that all my plants are "back to normal" after the vacation (minus a couple) with some heavy watering and TLC!!
I need to get some pictures of the madness, my deck is completely covered in plants, they are growing like crazy and my water bill has gone up!! :)
Hey folks, age is just a number, I felt 60 when I woke up with the flu this afternoon (oops) and now I feel like my normal self again!!

Spring chicken....ah, I love you!!

Becky - hope you're feeling better...I don't have the flu...but dang I can't wait for the a/c to be fixed tomorrow. Sooooo HOT!!

Dyson....

anywhere in the DC/MD/VA metro area is ridiculous. We bought our home in Glen Burnie for under 160k just two and half years ago. It has now more than doubled in value....and it's just a cape cod. Our realtor keeps saying "sell, you'll make a HUGE profit...." Our response is "and move where?!" We can't afford anything else in this area. New homes START between $500k and $1 million, depending on where you are. Even older homes are slowly moving towards the 300k mark to start. You can't even get foreclosures or HUD homes for less than $250 to $275.

We are kind of glued to this area until my stepson goes to college, otherwise we would have moved somewhere less congested and less expensive long ago.....

Chantell, you still have no AC????????????? OMG!!

That has to be the pits, literally....mine has been working overtime the last few days, and I know you are just down the road from me!! I hope you have lots of fans!! If it gets too bad, put a big bowl of ice in front of a fan and cool off!! ("discovered" this trick in MT, where it gets hot for a week)
Good luck! Hopefully it won't cost a price of a small island to fix it!


Becky

Updated pictures of Norway, deck, garden gone wild and C&S mania!
I keep "discovering" more and more plants I just "have to have" (indoor ones) and the kitchen which at one time seemed large is shrinking by the day!!


http://beckysobsession.spaces.msn.com/PersonalSpace.aspx

Becky,
Thank you!! Going to check out your pics when I get home...heading there now as the a/c guy has arrived to replace the compressor.

Just got back from vacationing on the Outer Banks. Had some cool rainy days and some nice ones too. Alberto came in on Wed. with heavy rain and some gusty winds that blew a piece of sofita off the vacation home we were renting.

It was a nice relaxing vacation and I did get much needed rest.

Tammy, I think my cactus is setting blooms!! I'll post a picture when it does.

I did come home to my first bloom of Clematis Betty Corning

This message was edited Jun 22, 2006 8:57 PM

Beautiful Pic!!!

Hi All,

I'm moving to Alexandria on Monday! I've lived in Arizona for the last 10 years, and I'm glad to hear that I won't have to give up *all* of my cactus!

I can't wait to be a Mid-Atlantic gardener too!

Eva

Welcome Eva!! Many of us over "here" love the cactus from your neck of the woods!! Just bring em with you...I don't think we get nearly the selection you do...so shop prior to headin' this way...LOL

Eva, there are some wonderful posts over in the cactus forums. I think Chantell is our resident Virginia cactus lady. LOL

Welcome to the Old Dominion.

hart...you are so funny!! Sadly, I know very little about cactus...but certainly "hanging" out over at the C & S forum has proved educational!! Learn something every day over there!! Just curious, hart, how does these type of rains affect your PP? I've only got a couple out there in the ground....I was cringing over all this rain all at once!!

Maybe I should have said she's kind of prickly. LOL

Rain doesn't affect my prickly pears at all. Of course it probably helps that my (cough) soil is more rocks than dirt and drains dry again before you can blink.

We haven't gotten that much rain this weekend either. A little bit last night, harder rain today but only about an inch.

Plant them where you have the worst, most infertile, dry as a bone awful dirt where nothing will grow except rocks and they'll be happy as spiny little clams.

Yepper...my kids WILL tell you that I'm prickly alright...LOL Thanks for the info on the PP's

It did rain all last night here......Hope Hart got it aswell.

Welcome Eva. This is a great place and real helpful folks. I am learning everyday and hopefully will soon have pics to share soon.

Happy Sunday to all...Babies are happy today......:):)

Mercy...bring on the rain!!! At this point sadly I'm less concerned about my cactus outside then I am the outside temps...a/c went out again last night UGH!!! Actually the ones I have in the ground should *finger's crossed* be ok...I put at least 4" of Granny Grit (small gravel) beneath the roots of the outside cactus.

I just checked the gauge. We got some more rain last night but the gauge is still only showing just under and inch and a half. Not the six inches they were predicting.

Chantell, I don't know how you stand it! Do you have a fan? Put a bowl of ice in front of the fan and let it blow over the ice. That will help a little bit.

Or go buy a cheap window unit.

RAIN, my god we had so much the planters look like an aqua culture experiment!
Chantell, hart is right, the fan and the ice is something I used to do in MT for the one week per summer it got hot! No need for central air there! LOL

Guess what we did when we were poor students in Dorm with no AC .

Soaked towels dripping wet and put it on the window as curtain , ofcourse with paper under it to soak the dripping water.

Also try wet sheet between the fan and yourself as a screen works wonder.......

Good luck Chantell, hope you get your AC back soon. I would be screaming murder by now...lol

We only got 3/8" since Fri!!! They keep warning about floods but nothing close! I'm hoping we get a
slow steady rain all week so perhaps we'll get caught up a bit.

Tam

PS: We spent the first year at our farm w/o AC. It was a scorcher too. We saw an awful lot of movies
that summer! (Movie theaters sure keep you cool)

Ya'll are great...thanks for so many COOL suggestions...oh bad pun eh? Thankin' God above for the cooler temps brought on by the rain today...and asking please to let the a/c be fixed tomorrow at little to no cost. Yeah...I know...crazy thoughts...but I believe in thinking positive!!! It's a matter of telling the 80 lb rottie of mine that I DON'T want her in her usual spot at the bottom of the bed...OMG!!!

Hi, everyone. I feel terrible that I did not follow up on my invite to people to get together at my place. It's been one drama after another down here and I had no time to log into DG to catch up with all of you.

My sister had a health emergency early in June and I spent a week in PA with her. I came home to a plumbing emergency and weeds that could not be postponed. After a grueling week in the garden weeding and trying to make up for lost time, I had to pack it up again and head for the Outer Banks for family vacation. Friday, the evening before we left on vacation, our antiquated, rusting septic tank, awaiting imminent replacement, collapsed into a rather spectacular sinkhole. I was able to arrange for a contractor to replace it the following Monday. Unfortunately, that was the weekend the Deluge began. The ground was too wet all last week to support the necessary heavy equipment; so the septic tank replacement had to wait. The contractor called us in NC and said they'd start on Friday.

Not knowing whether we had working plumbing or not, we came home a day early. We arrived late Friday night to discover the total annihilation of our back yard. The contractors destroyed ten years' worth of naturalized landscaping and left us with a denuded patch of large, gaping holes crowned by a new concrete septic tank the size of a Volkswagon. There are huge dirt piles, mud everywhere, crushed perennial beds, shattered trees, and a missing rock garden that it took me years to build. Even my potted digitalis was dead, although how it got in the way I don't know. Our yard smells bad and looks worse. Trees not actually flattened by the machines were rammed and sideswiped. We will probably lose most of them. These are 50'-60' tupelo, oak, maple, sweet gums and pines. The dogwoods must have been vaporized because there's no trace of them anywhere, unless they are under the piles of mud and dirt. To top it all off, we are now being told we will also need a new drainage field for the septic system. This means they will be back Monday morning to tear up anything they might have missed on Friday in the name of installing a new leach field.

I don't know when I will have a back yard that is functional again so am going to have rescind my invitation to meet here until later in the fall, assuming there will be something out there besides mud by then. I am very sorry.

All that rain turned my veggie plot into Frankengarden. We had nothing ripe when we left except lettuce and a few oversized radishes. There was definitely no visible squash on the bushes. My husband came in this morning with a crookneck squash the size of a Kleenex box. Too big, really. I am on my way back outside to harvest all the produce that sprang up in just one week. Amazingly, none of the green tomatoes that were on the plants when we left have ripened.

I hope I have time to catch up with the various threads later today, when the heat drives me back indoors. If I don't, I hope you all have a great Fourth.

sciurus