Boy did I have fun yesterday! What are you doing this week?

First of all Buttonner lives not too far from me and told me about this. I finally got to meet her for the first time and boy did we all have fun. I knew I would recognize her from pictures I'd seen of her and Fritzy. But she found me first. She said that the sling was a big giveaway. I also brought a friend and my DIL came, too. We went to a Plant Swap and Gardening Workshop at one of our local Township Parks. They had several Workshops, Perennials 101, Garden Design, Composting, Culinary Herbs and Children's leaf printing and activities. First we did the Culinary Herb lecture. Then Buttonner won one of the door prizes and walked away with a beautiful hanging pansy basket. Then on to the plant swap. They gave you a raffle ticket for each plant that you brought (limit 10 plants). Then when they called your # you chose which plant you wanted from the tables. I got some really nice new plants to add to my yard and even though I thought that what I took were common they went pretty fast.

Nice haul, Holly! Sounds like a wonderful day.

I have so much to do this week I don't know where to start. SO finally finished the hen chalet, so I have to paint that. I installed a new storm door yesterday and the day before all but the two closer doo dads. I have to install those. Giving my poor hands, which are sore from drilling holes through metal and turning screws, a break today.

Some of the tomato seedlings are ready to go into pots. I need to get after the tent catarpillars, which are all over my cherry and crabapple trees. I have to do a little pruning to a couple of roses. And get started on some of that fine crop of weeds that have done so well with the warm winter.

Hi Hart, Your right about those weeds I think I could weed all day for a month before I got them all and then they would just be starting all over again. I had Ric out this morning planting, weeding and just cleaning up the old leaves that were still stuck in the corners. Then he went out to mow. Then I grabbed son Josh and put him to work. He moved a couple of large plants that were growing near my split rail fence and then went to work on repairing the fence. I have Roses that should be coming next week and I will be planting them on the fence.

Weeding ! always. Violets!
Probably safe for me to harden off some more seedlings, tho I must make sure I will check on them frequently- the first batch got in trouble last week. They can dry out so fast outside, esp if it gets breezy. Maybe finish the fence tomorrow for the veg garden, will be planting in 2 weeks or so. Should try to watch the maturity date so I don't gett all the green beans while we're on vacation. Had a batch of spinach cooked, it was the best I ever tasted, I swear.
Things are growing so fast now!!

Hi everyone, I did some weeding too today, nice Sunday to be out. Also dug up an old Butterfly bush that was near the front porch, it has been in the way, I had a few new ones that were ready to be moved that reseeded them selves in odd places. So one went to the other side of the window away from the porch, I love seeing the butterflies darting past the windows. The other in the back yard where I had hubby chop out a mock orange that had gotten out of hand.

Things are starting to take shape.

Holly,Glad to see you are getting help, you take care.

Hart, tent catarpillars, here they come again. When I was a kid I remember them being so thick crawling on the ground all the girls were screaming trying not to step on them.

Thanks for the new week chat thread!

Great haul! I'm glad it seems like more of us "local DGers" are managing to meet up -- what fun!

Miatablu and I had a fabulous expedition to Surreybrook Farm nursery last Thursday... fun just walking the beautiful grounds there & chatting, and we were reasonably restrained in our purchases, LOL. Then Happy_Macomb came up with her 2 delightful daughters for dinner, visiting, and splitting our box of tropical delights from Equil's co-op.

DH & I drove up to Pittsburgh yesterday, had a wonderful family celebration (a First Communion and also a third birthday) today. He's on his way home tonight, and I'm planning to stay on for a few days, hopefully bringing my folks back with me for a couple days at the end of the week (I've been tempting them with spring flower photos from our yard).

My folks bought a pink dogwood for a first communion gift (remember the "Legend of the Dogwood" that gets printed on postcards? Dad printed it out and framed it for her), and I had a lovely pink-blooming "air plant" that I found for our birthday girl when we were at the Leesburgh plant festival, plus I brought up a galangal division in a pot to keep the baby banana (also from me) in their sunroom company. So, plants and gardening entered into our day! We even did a little weeding in their new front beds... ;-)

So many nice weekends, or even weeks. Aren't we all glad spring is finally here, hopefully to stay this time.

Chris, I hate, hate, hate tent catarpillars. Aside from the fact that they completely creep me out, I've seen them denude a large wild black cherry of all of its leaves in one day. I can usually take care of the ornamental cherries and crabs in the yard but nothing I have will reach up into the large wild trees.

("Organic? Give me a gallon of that low yield nuclear tent catarpillar spray, please.")

I always tear open the tents with a stick when I spray and that mass of roiling, squirming catarpillers gives me the willies.

Yuuuuuuuuuuuk - they sound horrid, here I thought I had figured out all the bugs possible in VA after 4 years - guess not eh!? I am with you on nuclear stuff Hart - I tried the nice, organic route on all of my plants, when that didn't work I went to the serious stuff - I just started Roses this year so I am sure I will discover even more creepies and flying monstrosities and fungi that I don't wanna know what they are!
In FL it was easy - I was expecting bugs, but, I had a serious shock when I discovered "things" here in VA I had never seen before - such as Centipedes and Japanese Beetles - they are awful! And some truly creepy thingys I didn't even bother to identify last year that took over the Rose of Sharon, I just blasted them with insecticide and watched them die with glee! I know some insects are beneficial - I just can't get over the creepy factory - they ALL give me the willies!

I did plant some annuals this weekend, got all the planters and some pots on the deck started, rearranged the deck for more space, set up a plant rack for the C&S to live for the summer and room for me to sit outside and work/drink coffee/read when the weather allows for it - all my roses are planted and the week after next I finally get DH to lay the sod in the backyard! Of course with a stamp sized yard it won't take much - some days I am happy about no space, some days I am frustrated at not having any! Looks like I will have a bumper crop of Raspberries from the 3 pots I have on my deck - they are growing like weeds and my strawberries are flowering as well! So far this has been a productive spring, garden is coming along nicely, the entire inside of the house is nearly painted and within 6 weeks or so I can sit back and enjoy the fruits of my labor!

Thanks for starting the thread Holly. Yeah man, you did really make out well on Saturday. What fun. I was outside yesterday too. Felt so good to get hands in all that dirt. Yesterday I planted about 60 gladiolis and have about 30 more to do this week. I hope it is not too late to be planting them.

Today, I hope to put in two cannas that I bought a while back. I also have a few bags of caladium that I will be planting out front. I haven't been allowed out front much due to side walk construction. I will be doing more in back and side yard this year. John tilled up a small space for me yesterday and the soil was great. It was full of worms which I hear is a very good sign for the gardener. I also planted 8 calla lily bulbs in pots. By being in pots, I can just move the whole pot to crawl space of house next winter and not have to dig out of ground.

I started making note of things that I will be bringing to the plant swap and I have a good assortment. Some are indoor plants too that I have been rooting for the swap. There are a couple of things that I dont know the name of and will call upon some of your expertise later on.

Anyway, the morning is trying to get away from me and I need to get a runnin' along. I need to go to grocery store before I get outside playing. You all have a good week.

Ruby

I spent time planting as well & playing momma hen to the flock of five fuzzy roosters i got from hart...they are so cute!

Am expecting several deliveries of plants this week and in the upcoming weeks so i've been trying to work areas to plant.

I have bulbs that i need to plant & i will be using your idea Ruby with the callas & maybe cannas with planting in pots that go in the ground.

Have to wait for the school bus :-)

Lynda

Hi Lynda - I had forgotten that I had 6 calla bulbs from last year that needed planting too. Now that I re-think my steps this morning, I realize that I planted those in the ground and will have to take them up again next year. ha-ha Well, at least the majority of them went in pots that they will stay in.

I also dug up and re-planted what I believe to be iris that were way too close together. I was a muddy mess while doing this. I found loads and loads of grubs. What exactly do grubs do to the plants and the soil? Thankfully the ground was also full of earth worms.

I then watered the plants I planted yesterday and also gave some water to the other plants in our back yard. While I was doing this, my hubby was at the other end of the yard, planting several pots of Lily of the Valley. These came from his parents place and are something new in my garden. All of this takes place in my back yard. The majority of my gardening for the past couple of years has been in the front yard.

It has been a couple of weeks since I have been to the front. I was able to weed everything pretty good then, but I probably have some more weeds to pull by now. I am planning to lay down and take a nap and then go back outside later. I will go out front after the sun is down and possibly get some more bulbs planted out there.

I hope that those of us who are fortunate enough to be at home today are enjoying good gardening weather. It is 80 degrees here at the moment.

Ruby

Critter, I think we were remarkably restrained at Surreybrooke ;). I had just as much fun talking and browsing with you as buying. In fact I usually try to squeeze a trip in at lunchtime, so I head right to the herb greenhouse and don't really take the time to look around at the beautiful grounds. I'm disappointed that I had to run to class and didn't get the chance to meet Happy_Macomb. Maybe next time.

I mulched alllllll weekend. I'm a little stiff today, but boy does it look good! It makes such a difference. My husband noticed plants he'd overlooked before because they blended into the old much so much. I've got 5 things waiting to be planted, but was waiting for the last of the Jack-in-the-pulpits that I didn't get to mark to come up. I had just about given up on the last ones, but when I was weeding to get ready to mulch, I found them just popping up. Good thing I waited to plant, because that was the space I was considering for one of the new plants. I should have known that wasn't just a convient bare spot in my garden. Things are getting tight for new plants. I also enlarged the mailbox bed and planted the Plectranthus 'Mona Lavender' I bought Friday behind the Clematis 'President' I planted last year that is finally doing well there.

This will be a light gardening week because morel mushroom season is here. I don't want to start any projects that will take me into the weekend because I'll be walking in the woods for hours, peeking under mayapples, looking for those little devils. I hope its a good season this year. Maybe I'll just busy myself with my containers for the deck this week.

Everyone have a good week and don't forget, Mothers Day is around the corner.

Oh, that makes me want to come back early from Pittsburgh! I really want to come along on one of your mushroom hunts and learn to ID those delectable little morels... maybe they'll still be in season next week.... ;-)

Dad and I got caught up on a bunch of spring cleanup in the yard here -- nothing major, just clearing away winter dropped branches, rolling up deer netting from their shrubbery (they have a herd that just does unbelievable damage), mowing the lawn... hopefully I'll get some seed down tomorrow in time for a nice little forecasted rainshower to settle it in.

Ric planted my 50+ Pansies yesterday. These I grew myself and although they look nice I think I'm running to late for much of a show, next year I'll start several weeks earlier. I'm not sure they will even flower. It was beautiful yesterday and I kept thinking that before the surgery I would have been out on this kind of day from sun-up to sun-down. I've been doing a little light weeding but I get tired pretty fast and there is just soooo much I can't do yet. This arm in a sling is getting really old really fast. But I will follow Dr's orders, I will follow Dr's orders, I will follow.................

Holly, I had to see that you were posting this, I thought I was reading my own post from last year. I was so afraid that the graden would get so far ahead of me that this year would be impossible to catch up, but things are looking pretty good.

Give Ric a big pat on the back (with the good arm) for planting all those Pansies. And make a note in your journal about starting the seeds sooner next year. Just putting them out side might just give them the boost they need to get growing and blooming!

about pansies- now look, I'm not that much warmer than you, Holly. Do they live all summer in zone 6 or cooler? I always do fall planted pansies, and they live all winter and bloom whenever there is a warm spell. and now they are going nuts. I'll never plant spring pansies here. It's the only thing that blooms in winter, well, of very few. I get my pansy fix for winter then they die when it gets hot and I can enjoy all the other summer blooms.
off the soapbox now-- finished a fence around the veg garden, time to really decide whts going in there! gotta hurry up and get some Roma tomato seeds, or just get a few plants

Thank you for reminding me of Roma tomatoes Sally. I love those things. I planted several last year but they didn't do anything much. The small bed where I had veggies last year is now officially a flower bed. I began planting in it on Monday.

I am thinking of just doing tomatoes and some other vegetables in containers and see how well that will work. Which reminds me to put more potting soil on list too.

It sounds as though everyone is having some really productive days. That is great news. I have been doing a little bit each day. As I do one thing, I see ten more that needs doing. ha-ha

Anyway, I hope that the weather will continue to cooperate for all of us and that everyone will have a good day.

Ruby

UGH! I hate tent catplrs too. My hubby and I used to have fun getting them with his acetylene torch. HEE HEE.

Spent lots of time this week weeding. Had to move a path I had to the side entry of our shed, hubby said he'd use it well.....hasn't used it in the 2 yrs we've been here, so I'm taking my stepping stones and river rock to other areas in the yard.
I'm so glad it's finally nice enough to get out there. YEAH!!!

These darn things are everywhere this year. I found them crawling around in the bare soil in the vegetable garden. I think they fly through the air on the threads their tents are made of. Really.

Ruby, I just noticed your comment about grubs. Grubs will kill or weaken your plants and grass and then many of them will emerge as Japanese beetles. Might want to get you some Grub Ex or even better Milky Spore.

Question - I have seen Milky Spore in the "get rid of unwanted garden stuff" section in stores, what exactly is it, how does one use it, and what does it do?

Thanks for the reminder about the grubs. We have mole and voles terrible and the milky spore will help by killing one of their food sources. Plus I have 4 thumpers coming this week. Time I got my (you know what) in gear and get rid of these pests. My Roses came yesterday I ordered 5 climbers to plant on my fence, from the Rose Co-op. Ric is outside now getting everything ready. I will have planted roses pretty soon.

Bec, it's my understanding that it's a bacteria that kills the grubs but doesn't harm anything else. No pesticides or chemicals. You onlly have to put it down every few years. I'm thinking five?

Found this. Looks like it's better to apply it in the fall.

http://www.planetnatural.com/site/xdpy/kb/milky-spore.html

Thanx for the info - I have seen the little pests when I have been digging, had no idea what they were - now I do! :-)

My results from mushroom hunting, the first day I went out this season. Not as many as I'd hoped for. The group on the left of the picture is what I found and the group on the right is what my mom found. Not a great yeild for 3 hours of hunting. Going out again tomorrow. It's raining now which should help, but it needs to get very warm again. Also gathered up some more Jack-in-the-pulpits and lady slippers for my shade garden. Got a lot of planting to do, picked up some more ferns, hostas, annuals and herbs on Friday, but I'm way too tired after hunting mushrooms. Hoping for a better day tomorrow!

Thanks for sharing this interest miata. Cool way to spend the day.

Ruby

miatablu, What fun, I've never tried mushroom hunting. But I do love to eat them.
We'll I have had a busy couple of days and the weekend isn't over yet!!
Poor Ric, I'm wearing him out. Friday we took grandson JR to Hershey park. We have season passes this year for the 3 of us. Boy did we have a lot of fun. and Jr was so very good. I think we were there for about 7 hours and Ric and Jr rode all the kids rides. By the time the 3 of us got home we were one very tired group.

Sat, was plant sale day. Boy I can't believe I'm stilling buying plants and that Ric hasn't run screaming for the hills, since he has to plant most of them. Son Josh has been doing some of the planting, too and when I showed up with a couple more flats and a few small trees I think I actually saw him cringe. Ric and I got up bright and early. Off to meet some friends and spend the day at a couple of local plant sales and then to a rather distant greenhouse. Along with good company and a nice diner it was a very nice but long day. Here's yesterdays haul. A mix of annuals and perennials.

Holly, I had to laugh as I read that you saw your hubby cringe. My husband has been telling me for over a year to not buy anything new. Doesn't he know he is wasting his breath? ha-ha

I am hoping to get the remainder of the things I bought a while back in the ground this week. On Wednesday I will be having a tooth pulled, so that day is out for sure. I will most likely wait until next week to purchase a couple tomato plants. I usually also try to plant green peppers, but have so many frozen ones from buying them last summer when on sale, that i will probably forego the peppers.

While I was at Walmart on Saturday I bought about 20 bags of potting soil. I have quite a few more containers that need it. On Saturday I planted several packets of seeds. I am hoping that I will have good success with them. I also have loads of seed packets that I need to look through and decide which ones I will still use this year.

I am already planning for the spare room to hold some plants that I will be trying to keep alive through next winter. While looking at sales circulars in newspaper, I saw that Kmart has a 5 shelf metal rack on sale this week for $20.00 off. I am thinking of purchasing that and assembling next fall. I am hoping that the grow lights that I use will be able to be attached.

I was very happy as I checked on plants that are under lights yesterday. A couple of weeks ago I placed two sweet potatoes in water and they are sprouting now. I did this last year and when summer rolled around I planted them outside. We were actually able to get a small crop of sweet potatoes.

I started a few castor beans under light last week too but don't see anything yet. I hope they do well, or I will be putting out another please for castor beans.

Well, need to get up for now and get the day started. I hope that every one will have a great week.

Where are you Chris?

Ruby

Didn't go mushroom hunting yesterday. My mom and I agreed since it didn't warm up we'd be wasting our time. It really got got cold last night. I left all my plants I started from seeds out last night. Crossing my fingers they will all be fine. It's supposed to be warm all week so my mom and I are going to try again Thursday afternoon. A little rain would help, we'll see.

Got tomato plants yesterday- glad I did. I got a four pack of Roma, just what I wanted, and one Celebrity, only three left, and a grape, and a pepper plant for the heck of it. But like you Ruby, peppers were so cheap at the stand I cut them up and froze them. Whatever variety my closest produce stand uses for tomatos, I just don't like the flavor that much, and they seem to go bad quickly. Celebrity has been good for me.
Going on vacation end of July- I'm just hoping the tomatos don't all peak then. Need to look at days to maturity and figure out when I want to plant other vegges. In the forties here llast night and tonight, reminding us why we have a last frost date of the 15th.

Sally, I was thinking much the same thing about the frost date. My personal OK to plant date is Mothers Day. All the perennials are planted and the tree seedlings. But the Annuals are still in their flats sitting on the porch. By next weekend I may be doing the planting myself.

Yeah Holly! mothers day is a good day to devote to gardening. someday my mothers day present will be the liberty to spend all day playing in the dirt and not worrying about anything.....