It's a new week!! What are you up to?

I certainly hope this one doesn't get that big. If it does, we won't be able to have it here because there won't be anyplace to put all the cars. I have space in my field where we can put the cars and my driveway, which is long, and an access road that's at the front of the house but there's no on street parking on my narrow road.

I don't imagine we're going to have more than our group here and a very few others who happen to read about it.

I don't have any problem with working out swaps ahead of time. I've done a few of those myself. I'd just hate for anyone to get into the fix I was in at the last swap. I ended up with quite a few plants at the end of the swap that people had wanted earlier but I was holding them for other people.

Besides, half the fun of the swap is moseying around and seeing what everyone else has. The other half is just getting to meet everyone and talking gardening all day. No, actually that's more than half. LOL

and the third and fourth half........!

Cute critter, love your organized looking junk comment. I had my shed looking that way once upon a time but it is certainly pitiful looking now.

I am just about sure that I would win the Most Rocks category if there were a contest. Too bad that most coming from digging in yard area are the same as Hart referred to - limey, scaly things that shatter easily. So even though we have several very large piles of these left over from some excavating work that was done here two summers ago, my husband has to be a "Rock Hound" and beg rocks from others is he sees what he will be needing for projects.

My husand John used to do some rock masonry until it got to be too much for his back. He has built me a very lovely monument in the back yard that I will try to post a picture of at some point. He also laid a very pretty brick walkway in the house we moved from a few years ago. He is currently involved in building a soapstone walkway in from of our largest flowe bed out front. When it is finished it will make gardening in that area much easier for me because now the front of the area is steep and makes for dangerous walking.

For about two years now our whole front yard has been covered with piles of rocks, piles of cow manure and piles of mulch. I try not to say too much. He has about one hundred and one projects going on it seems. He has begun some digging work the past few weeks on the walkway and I am hoping that this will be the year that he gets it done.

Yippie for the plant swap. I am so looking forward to meeting all of you folks who I have been sharing my life life with for the past year or so. Going to be so much fun!!! Well, I am off to straighten kitchen. I got way off schedule today by coming in and taking a several hour long nap.

I bid you adieu.

Ruby

I've got some rock piles going now against the side of the house... DH said, won't the rocks kill off the grass there if you don't move them soon... I said that the grass was slated for destruction eventually anyway when I put a bed along that side of the house... and meanwhile, killing off the grass right up against the house will make it easier to mow the side yard (no need to trim against the foundation). He accepted my reasoning, LOL.

You go girl, Critter.

Ruby

oops, just catching up and realized I didn't post the picture of the urethaned rocks!
Holly, the pot in the first picture was one I made as a birthday gift for my husband several years ago - dwarf Conifers and one lonesome Lewisia and some moss left. I need to "spice" it up a little this year to go with the rest of the makeover for the front entry.

I'm going to start a new thread so that everyone can follow along on our front entry project.

Debbie

wow= they look like they went through a polisher or something, one of those rock tumblers. Pretty!

Wow Debbie-
I used to have a rock shop, and tumbled my own rocks a time or two- and those look just like they were polished! Lots quicker too :-
I use rocks in a lot of my containers (I have no yard) and they look so nice next to all the flowers-
I'm looking forward to keeping up with your front entry project!
Samantha

I got a new tree. The guys at work gave me a nice gift certificate for a local nursery when I retired. I went up the other day just to see how much was on it and they were so generous I came home with a very nice Blue Atlas Cedar. It's about 5ft tall. Had the hardest time trying to get a good picture with a background that would show off the shape and color. It's sitting in front of my Hew hedge.

Gorgeous!!

With the nasty weather comming I thought it would do better in the ground. 2 guys, 2 wheelbarrows, a shovel, and a digging iron. One planted tree.

OH, one "HUGE" wheelbarrow of rocks, Gee and it's just a little hole. LOL
You can't plant anything in this yard without a digging iron.

That is a fine tree HollyAnnS! Do you know the cultivar name? It looks like one of the 'Glauca' group.
At least your stones have flat sides to them, you could make a wall or use them for pavers.

Claypa, there is a picture of a small section of my red stone wall earlier in the thread. Quess where they all came from? These went on the rock pile behind the barn. We use them for all kinds of things.

Cedrus atlantica Glauca

I have a pile too, but not too many keepers unfortunately. Thanks for checking the name for me.

The ones that I don't think I can use get dumped in the neighbors driveway. I just wait till we have some rain and dump them in the closest and biggest hole. The part of their driveway closest to me is the best looking part. LOL
Helps them, helps me. They are really nice neighbors, too.

HollyAnn that is a beautiful tree ya got there.

I dont have much of a rock collection, just a couple of river rocks that caught my son's eye at camp one week, LOL.

I'm planting tomorrow and hoping for the best in this weird weather. If I don't this weekend, I'm going to lose stuff like crazy, and I'm out of spring weekends home. Here's what's ready to go in:

6 knockout roses
3 Bonica roses
2 Climbing Summer Snow Roses
1 Blueberry
10 White Chalice Daylily
10 spirea
10 dogwoods
3 redbuds
3 elephant ears
2 snowballs
3 cinnamon ferns
3 purple cone flowers
5 Clematis
4 Red Osier Dogwood
1 Red Dawn
4 pink pampas grass
about 60 spring bulbs
5 Purple Wintercreeper Vines
6 purple fountian grass
5 Ninebark
4 peonies


More is on the way. I'm picking up a couple of trellises in the morning for the clematis. I have some old grates that I'm going to let the roses climb. Some of my day will be spent trying to figure out how to secure them.

Blessings on you garden,
Elf

Elf, I hope the weather cooperates. It's supposed to be a lousy weekend.

HollyAnn, your tree is gorgeous. Love that color and shape. It contrasts very nicely where you've placed it, too. (Unlike the hart school of landscaping - "Hmmm, where will this fit and not be killed by the black walnuts/lousy soil?" LOL)

We decided it was too wet here to dig DLs this weekend at Nancy's.... I don't mind getting muddy, but I sure don't want to mess up her beds! Digging in too-wet clay is just asking for trouble, the way it compacts. And Elf, if you've got clay, don't be digging tree planting holes in this weather... your shovel will complact the clay around the edges of the hole, and when it dries it will be impermeable, like planting the tree in a pot with no drainage holes. You *might* be able to get away with it if you break out the edges of the hole with a digging fork...

I've got a bunch of things to get into the ground also, but I may just be potting them up or heeling them in somewhere until things dry out just a little. I'm hoping against hope here, but maybe we won't get quite as much rain with this system, and we'll get some planting time this week.... I've been known to plant in the evening with a light strapped to my forehead!

Gorgeous rocks/pebbles Debbie!!! How lovely.

Love your evening planting idea critter!!! Yeah, hubby told me that when he gets around to making a soapstone walkway in front of my largest flower bed, that he might insert lights in to the design. He mentioned being able to work at night also. But, I love your idea still. ha-ha Please send a picture.

Holly, digging at our place is much like yours. Rocks everywhere, and the shame of it, like Claypa, most are unusable. Oh well.

Lastelf, you got some real gardening to do. That is a long list. Truth of the matter though, is when I go and check on what all I need to put in ground, it will most likely be about as long as yours. Good luck to us. Gonna be worth it in the end.

Yep, I agree with everyone on calling this weather crazy, it is indeed. Today is rainy here. So far this morning, just a very light sprinkle. It probably won't start coming down hard until I have to drive somewhere this afternoon.

Anyway, it is getting closer to being able to do some "real" gardening. Can't wait, I just hope that my busy schedule will slow down some so that I will have time to spend outside as I would like. I am positive it is what helped save my sanity last year.

I hope that everyone will have a great weekend. Take care all.

Ruby

I did a lot of garden work last year after dark, wearing one of those headlamps (no, I am not going to take a photo of me with the headlamp on -- too silly, even for me!)... I was having a lot of trouble with migraines, and I was very photosensitive, so digging and weeding after the sun went down just worked out better, although the mosquitos could be rather fierce.

Hope everyone is having a great weekend despite the weather! I'm concentrating on "indoor gardening"... just potted up a flat or so of sweet pepper seedlings, and it looks like I have a couple flat's worth of basil seedlings also ready to transplant today... I have dirt (ok, potting mix) under my nails... I'm happy!

Elf you have a lot of digging to do today. Sounds like a nice list of plants. Did your Roses and Clematis come from the Co-ops? I ordered but haven't received mine yet. Holding off because of this iffy weather. I figure it will clear out and warm up right about the time I go for my shoulder surgery next weekend so the guys will be doing a lot more planting.
Critter, I was explaining to my son yesterday why I was mixing the dirt from the hole with the really good compost dirt from my garden. Explaining about how the roots will sometimes not want to grow out of the good soil, and become almost pot bound. I had him break into the edges of the hole with the digging iron and of course pulling out the rocks around the edges of the hole made space for the roots to expand outward. I use a section of my garden for plants to heel in while waiting until I'm ready to get them planted properly, too. Sometimes it can take me a while to decide where I'm going to plant something or I have to wait for a project to get done before I can plant in an area.
Ruby, I'm really looking forward to you posting a picture of your soapstone walk. The only soapstone I remember seeing was a soapstone stove that a friend had and it was beautiful stone. I hope you will be able to post a picture one of these days.

Its a pretty morning here AT THE MOMENT, thats all you can count on lately !
I've been fussing over the seedlings inside, (have zinnias and other things completely forgotten because my space is full inside) potted some hostas that were all chewed up underneath (voles?) (see thread in hosta forum; that is a very friendly forum!) moved foxgloves and columbines that I had to move, scraped up some excess concrete from work being done here and tried my hand at a few pots/stepping stones. Think I'll go get some pictures of my rocks and see if anything else picture worthy.

ooooooooooooooooooo Baabbbbbbyyyyyyyyyyyyy am I tired!

I got through about half my list. I had to make a run to pick up another trellis and an oblisk. While I was out I found this for those of you in the Baltimore area:

I found my first oblisk at DJ liquidators in Bel Air, and I've been checking the other stores for one. I was sent by one of the store to their newest location: It's north on Belair Road, just a couple of miles north or the beltway. It's in the old oak store and they still do not have a sign out fron, but there are lots of flowers out front. It's right before your get to the Mars grocery. Hear's the news:

It's all garden!

I was really bad. They had really nice perenials in 4" pots $3 each or two for $5. I bought $35 worth. I couldn't resist, and I promised myself that I wouldn't buy anything new before I planted what I had. Of well.

I confess: I have an addiction. My garden.

HollyAnn: I get stuff from all over. I'm a big fan of ebay, but you'll need to be careful. Here's the truth: some of the nicest plants that I have ever seen have come to my door from ebay. And: I've never had anything show up DOA. The best thing: Someone there always has the weird stuff that you cna't find anywhere else.

And I love the stuff taht come fromsomeone who is going to dig it out of their yard for me. Very cool!

Blessings on your garden!
Elf

Elf, I was asking about the Co-op forum here on the DG site. Have you looked at them? They just had 2 different Rose Co-ops one for southern grown and one for northern grown. They also ran a Clematis co-op, and ferns and several others. When I noticed all the roses I thought maybe you had participated in one of the DG Co-ops.

Wow! What a long thread--considering it was just started on April 9th! Aren't we all the chatty group here, or what?

Dravencat---------------

So! You got a job at HD in the Garden Dept. Congratulations! Also--start taking some kind of pills for stress because you will have a lot of it. I have worked at HD for 9 years. The first 41/2 years were as the "Greenhouse Lady". I ran the best Greenhouse of all the HD's around. I did an amazing job, as I knew all about plants. I am also the kind of a person that will haul and haul until everything is done. And what did I hear from management? That I am spending too much time in the greenhouse. Go figure!

However, at a HD, work is NEVER done. The more you do, the more they expect of you to do. Over the last years, there has been a huge downsizing going on to where nowadays, you may end up being the ONLY person in the whole department. For people that may not know it--the garden department consists of 3 different areas. Inside garden--Outside garden abd the Greenhouse (if a store has one). It is insane to try to give all the good, expected customer service when you have to cover inside, outside and Greenhouse garden areas. DON'T overextend yourself! It will get you NOTHING in the long run--except a lot of stress and high blood pressure!

I was in charge of the whole Greenhouse for almost 5 years. I WANTED to work in the Greenhouse! I went begging for 6 months to get hired to work in the Greenhouse, as I have had an enormous amount of experience in this area.

Back then, we had NO night crew and NO pack out crew. They would plop down a pallet of pots of supplies near the Greenhouse and it was up to me to unload it all and put it all on the shelves where it belonged. It was also not uncommon for a truck to arrive with 200 or more plants to unload from Florida, because the Garden manager had not bothered to keep an eye on what is coming and what could have been cancelled.
Geez! The manager should have handled this better! canceled the order or something? Not all the managers attend to what they are supposed to attend to. If they have an "eager-beaver" employee on staff, it will just give them more reason not to do their share. Some are good! Some suck!

Don't get me wrong! It is a pleasure most of the time to work for a HD, and it is NOT the fault of the Supervisor or even the manager that there are not enough associates to service all the customers. All this has come down from the headquarters in Atlanta. Nothing you or anyone else can do about it.

My advice? Pace yourself! Do what you can in the time you have. Do not overextend yourself, because NO ONE really cares anyway. Do your shift. Do what you can and then go home. Do not take any of the stress home with you--it will only raise your blood pressure. You ARE only a "drop in the bucket". If 50 plants die in the Greenhouse, it does not even equal the sale of one Lawn Mower. Plants are diddley when it comes to dollars!

Sorry if i sound negative, but I have been through the mill with HD. From the "Bernie and Arthur" days to the Bob Nardeli days. Now that he was ousted, I am hoping things will get back to more people-oriented policies in the stores. So they say! I am hoping it will.

If you work in a "busy" store--you will have more associates in it as well. I work in a very low-volume store, and there is NO way we can provide the customer service people expect. Sales dictate how many associates can be in a store. How many associates are in a store dictate sales. Get it? It is a never ending cycle--and all you can do is the best you can and NOT worry about it. In the long run--THEY don't care! Why should you?

You can D-mail me if you have more explicit questions.

Gita

Gita, Thanks for the info and believe me I have taken it to heart. I think luckily for me(for now) even tho HD owns the area its run by Bell Nursery so I am employed by them and not HD. There is a crew of three that helps take plants away from the trucks, water outside and take care of the trees and shrubs. I work mainly in the greenhouse and the flowers outside and it is a whole lot of work. I plan on working hard but not over extending myself to the point I hate my job, if it goes that far then Ill just quit. This is supposed to be for me to get out of the house and earn some money but mainly to have fun and see what direction I can go to from here since I still have a small child at home.
I think so far the worst Ive seen is people who ask your advise but dont like the answer you give them, one person who works in the garden dept. for HD dosnt like the Bell Nursery employees(she been really nice to me so far tho, shrug) and this awful weather. Im sure once the season really kicks in Im going to wonder what the heck I was thinking but Im taking this a day at at time. I cant believe they didnt have anyone to help you get all that stuff unloaded and set up, thats ridiculous.
At least now I know why its so freaking hard to find an employee to help you when your trying to buy, find or ask questions about something. The customer service went way downhill becuase they obviously dont keep enough employees on staff.
I just need to get used to being this active again. Im so out of shape I could be the blob. Im also counting on my perpetual perkiness to either annoy would be grouchies or scare the bejeezies out of them, heehee.
One thing I found funny is I have this baseball cap that DH got from the Matco tool guy that has an evil looking happy face on it with cross bones behind it, well the senior group seems to feel the need to talk to me more often when Im wearing it than when I just have it in a ponytail, LOL. Im still waiting for someone to say I cant wear it but no one has said anything yet.

http://www.stickergiant.com/Merchant2/imgs/250/acd890.gif

This is what the pic on the hat looks like

Dravencat--I will continue this with you in a D-mail.

Gita

I was so excited a couple of years ago when a Home Depot came to our area. It took about two trips there for me to decide that I would be using the good old stand by, Lowe's. Lowe's service upsets me at times too.

Sometimes I think that working at a nursery/greenhouse would be fun. One of my most relaxing things to do is to water plants. I go in to another world doing that.

Anyway, thank you for sharing some insider tips for shopping the big stores. Always allow your self plenty of time while there.

I hope that everyone will have a good and productive week.

Ruby

critter thanks for the night gardening image....sounds like the hats/helmuts they use in the mines! a lot of my relatives on my dad's sides were miners & my uncle gives tours in the exhibition mine in beckley....i'll have to see about one of those hats ;-)

sounds like everyone has lot's of plants & planting to do....i do too as soon as the weather cooperates....the wind is blowing pretty good right now & i don't see trying to hold things down and dig....perhaps tomorrow


happy monday!
lynda

Happy Monday, indeed.... I sure hope we see the sun soon! :-)

I figured -- new week, we need a new chatty thread. Please go here, http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/713132/

Lynda, they have the baseball caps with a light in the brim at either Lowes or Home Depot, I forget which. Would probably be a lot more comfortable than a miner's hat. LOL

too funny....all cameras would have to be hidden first!