A Gardeners Forum Forums Members History Forum Life 2005 Garden Chores (part 2)

Thinking that I'm going to have to get some solid edging for the next tier I decided to use what I have as far as bentwood edging up there to reinforce the lower edging so that was the big chore today other than sweeping up the fallen leaves. I know it's crazy but I can't wait for sunday. That is going to be so cool. Then there is cutting up the tomato plants when they finally finish producing and mixing the clay and compost there for the other winter interest things I have coming. This is going to be really cool.

Well I watered everything, but it looks like rain so that may have been wasted effort lol. And then I got the compost mixed in with the clay in the bulb bed that made me a happy camper. I have what look like 16 wild garlic plants working good so it looks like I got all most 100% germination off of the seeds. That is really really cool. Of course they are alittle more spread out than I originally intended but that's ok. I need to get back out there before it rains and sweep up todays leaves but I am taking a break lol. I just have to have my forum breaks.

Well I finished up the leaves and got a happy little pile out of it. So that is a very good thing. Now of course I am going after the gravel that has migrated onto the concrete in the driveway. It needs to go back in the big hole that becomes a mud puddle when it does rain. So that I quit getting my feet wet when I empty my garbage on rainny days lol. Funny how I always find a way to be outside so I can enjoy my flowers. The yellow snapdragon is really starting to bloom. The red is looking alittle sickly. I haven't a clue what to do for it. It sits right beside the yellow so they get the same everything. Why one would do well and not the other I just don't know.

It didn't rain so watering the plants to day wasn't a waste which makes me feel like less of an idiot but we really need a good soaking rain to get the snapdragons going really well, and then give the seeds I just planted a real good start on sprouting. Tomorrow if I remember, I want to plant the second group of lettuce seeds. I sure hope this works. I've had the most awful time trying to get a crop of lettuce. And I really love lettuce.

I'm always afraid to plant in the fall. I'm afraid it'll bloom before it's suppose to and then I won't get blooms in the spring when I'm suppose.

Last year just before christmas we had 70-75 degree temps then in a couple days time had a white christmas. So anything that would have sprouted would have died. Some of my re seeder did just that too.

As far as a fence TK where I live it would end up costing a fortune to do as they regulate the size and area that has to be fenced. I just think good lord we are good neighbors. We keep our dog contained. Theirs runs all over and they complain. GET A GRIP. They are control freaks. Dog is here today as usual. She cant help it she is old. I understand that and she should be able to enjoy her last days of life. Her health is not well. But they need to have some understanding for others. I would love my dog to be able to play with my son too. But they complain.

Life is too short to sweat the small things. Just gets real fusterating at times. Even if my dog is running even my son knows to come home and get the scooper if she happens to mess any place other then out yard. I see him running across the back yard fingers holding nose and scooper in hand. LOL They don't even have the manners to clean up after theirs and they complain about my dog barking. She is barking at your dog not in your yard. DUHHHHHH They can fix the problem by keeping theirs in their yard. I don't blame lil Lilly, other dog in her yard playing with her boy, while she is on a leash. I'd do more then bark. I can just imagine what those barks say. lol

The pansies look great. I am glad I did it, but now I am back to watering the container plants every day! :p

I got bulbs to plant this weekend. They are going to be beautiful in the spring. I cannot wait!

Oh I had to add this one in regards to the same neighbors. Yesterday morning at 6:45 their little boy 3 years old came knocking on my door, in a diaper wanting to see if he could have something to eat, cuz he couldn't find his mommy. I walked over and couldn't find a soul. So I brought him home fixed him and Gwendolynn (my daughter) some toaster pasteries, and called 3 times before I got an answer. They were asleep and the alarms didn't go off. I had asked him if mommy was in bed and he said no. She had fallen asleep in the basement with her husband watching a movie.

How scary that would be for a little guy. They realy need to reconsider complaining about my dog! :rolleyes:

Wow people that self absorbed usually don't notice the problems they cause others.

The poor child will probably grow up just like them. Either that or the complete opposite.

I think I'll take a walk about the garden.

Poor baby -- and my inlaws give me a difficult time because I put our dog in her crate when I am mopping the floor. Crazy thing, if I leave her out, she goes behind me licking the floor. I guess Lysol tastes good or something, I just dont want her getting sick.

Goodness Karrie.. I know it sounds mean, but I'd call animal control if I had a dog that was constantly in my yard that wasn't mine. We have leash laws here. And ya know what? The animal control guy, is my neighbor across the street..lol. And while it may sound mean, that poor dog sounds like it's neglected, and that's even worse.

I haven't done much in the yard as of late. Other than harvest tomatoes that are ripening. I have a LOT of green tomatoes now. Well, the tiny tim ones anyway. A few romas.. I can't wait till they ripen! And I have blossoms on the brandywine.. so hopefully, I will get to see tomatoes out of those.

Yesterday, I cut up a jalapeno pepper for the kiddo that we'll just call Jaws. Well, ends up both of us forgot to wash hands afterwards, and both ended up with stinging eyes, really really bad. Eye wash didn't really help. I wasn't sure what to use to get rid of pepper burning in the eyes.. but after awhile, holding the towel there, it got better. At least 15-20 minutes of pain in the eyes. UGH.

I think just flushing the eyes with running water for a few min. should help, that is if you can keep them open long enough while in pain - OUCH!!!

Hey Meg, sorry about the eyes. That was a real painful experience I'm sure. I never thought about having to do that. I guess you can tell I don't eat hot peppers. What are you planning to do with all your green tomatoes?

My tomato plants have pretty much dried up and although they are still trying to produce fruit I think they are done. I'll definitely have to put them somewhere it is easier to water them if I do them next year. Maybe I'll use some of my freebie pots and put them over on the side of the weed patch I'm not allowed to garden lol. I am so bad.

Today I moved a Hollyhock seedling from the front container around to the back bed where I have more of them planted. It was getting overgrown by the watercress. Those things really do take off. The got pretty crispy during the 90+ weather but once it started to look like it would cool down they came right back.

The spider mites in the front container also seem to have taken a holiday. I'm thinking that with out the marigolds being so overcrowded that the plant was able to fight them to a standstill at least. I'd prefer they are gone for good but I have my doubts. Marigolds are suppose to be pretty good at fending for themselves so I'm hoping that's what they did.

The seeds that I ordered from 2bseeds have arrived and this evening I'm probably going to try and get the dusty millers in the front of the bulb bed where I have that one lone specimen lol. He's been lonely long enough. I'll only do a few seeds so that if they don't come up in the spring I'll have some more so I can try again. And I think one of my friends wants some so I'll try to save some for her too. I don't know how many came in the package so I'm not sure if I'll have enough.

Then I need to look up when the coral bells need to be planted. I'm thinking it's fall but I am usually wrong about information I try to memorize so I'll check that before I get out there with the shovel lol. If it is fall I'll probably try to do it sunday after I pull the finished compost out of the bin. Although I maybe asking to much of this old body since I'll have to mix it in with the clay first before I can plant. But it'll be a good day no matter how it turns out.

Yep I was wrong the coral bells like the standard indoor 6 to 8 weeks before last frost ... so there is another one for the east facing window this winter lol. I don't know exactly how I'm going to manage all this come spring but I'm going to try lol.

I did get out there and water everything which was good. And I also noticed that the celosia that I was thinking would lie dormant until late spring and then come up have decided that they like the weather just fine and have decided to try and come up now. That was not the plan lol.

But it does explain why they weren't sprouting for me. I was planting them when it was too cold soil temperature wise. So now I know to wait awhile before direct sowing them. Atleast they don't need to be done indoors. but I do want some early spring color so I plan to have a house full of impatiens and mini snapdragons. They can bloom as early as Febuary and last much longer than the early blooming bulbs so that is what I am shooting for.

Boy this post got long lol.

So just about everything I planted with an eye to sprouting in spring has sprouted now except the bells of ireland. And the one thing I wanted to sprout now for next year isn't even showing it's pearly whites. That the the Hollyhocks that I planted in the back. But I do still have the ones from the front container. The sprouted very well so that will work out alright.

I was thinking today, wondering really, how much I would have spent in potting soil if I hadn't been able to compost. That second tier is requiring 5 inches deep 18 inches across and 31 feet long of compost to make a bed that will be good for my plants. That must be one heck of a lot of compost vs potting soil. I wonder how much money I saved by doing it this way. over 20 cubic feet I think. Is that right? I wonder how many of those 16 qt bags of miracle gro that would have been?

Well today I cleaned up a space for the "found" potting table and spent some more time sweeping the gravel towards the mudhole and then adding somemore height between the mudhole location and my little garden prep area. It's really comming along well. I'm so please with it. And it's really silly but that's the way it goes. Tomorrow is compost turning day and I can hardly wait. I won't tell you about all the plans I have for tomorrow because then I wouldn't have anything to post tomorrow but I am really looking forward to it.

Well the rains came. All 30 seconds or so of it. So I just had to go see how my earth dam was holding up against the mudpuddle. And the dam seems to be doing fine. But one good rain and the mudpuddle is still going to make a lake that I can't get across to empty the garbage. so I'm thinking of doing a ditch that it can drain into and building up the center part so that I can get to the dumpster lol.

And I couldn't resist so I turned the reserve pile and was very disappointed it isn't composting at all really. But then I went to scrape some litter from between the retaining wall and a junk car and guess what. The leaves were just wet enough that they came out in a big pile so I added that to the compost pile for adding to the bin when I take out the finished stuff tomorrow. Boy howdy won't I be disappointed if it isn't finished lol.

Did the compost turn first thing this morning even before I had my coffee. Now that is absession lol. But I've my coffee and my forum break now and when the first cup of coffee is done I can take the broom and bucket down and clean up the potting and parkinglot areas. My goal is to have a big pile of leaves ready for Thursday so I have an excuse to turn the bin again lol.

And of course the parkinglot and back lot look much nicer when I keep after the leaves.

hooper...you and Nana wear me out working so much.
You outside and Nana with the kid chores and cooking.
Good excuse for me to be so tired all the time!

Cindy

lol. If you think this is working all the time you should have seen me before I became disabled. I was doing something all day long. Couldn't stand to be idle. I've had a nice long break so now it's out the sweep up lol.

What kinda coral bells did you get Hooper? I still need to look and see if I can find some caramel coral bells, the orange ones. Ya din happen to find any of those did you?

no I didn't and I looked for them too. I was able to find the americana and the ruby bells but that was it. I'm not really sure about the color on the americana it wasn't specified on my package. But I have heard that they are suppose to be more hardy than the original types so I thought I'd better get some lol.

Here is a list of what I have for my garden for 2006:

1. Allium 'Sparklers' mixed colors (full sun)
2. Alpine Sea Holly
3. B I can't read the rest of the tag so this one is going to be a big suprise lol.
4. Babies Breath (full sun)
5. Bell peppers mixed colors
6. Bells of Ireland
7. Calendula
8. Cannas (full sun)
9. Carnations (full sun)
10. Celosia
11. Cleome, Spider flower
12. Cockscomb, Blood Red
13. Cockscomb, Pink
14. Cockscomb, Plum
15. Columbine (partial shade)
16. Crepe Myrtle, Dwarf (In a pot outside)
17. Dianthus 'evening loveliness'
18. Dusty Miller
19. Evergreen, Dwarf (groundcover likes shade non invasive.
20. Gladiolus (full sun)
21. Green onions
22. Helleborus x nigers ?Christmas rose?
23. Heuchera americana (Coral Bells or Alum-Root)**
24. Heuchera ?Ruby Bells? ** (Coral Bells or Alum-Root)
25. Hibiscus, Hardy Pink
26. Hollyhocks (full sun)
27. Hosta one is sum and substance. the other two I haven't identified yet.
28. Impatiens, rose Parade Red (partial shade, shade)
29. Ipomposis
30. Lettuce, Butterhead
31. Lobelia 'Cardinal flower'
32. Lobelia 'Chrystal Palace'
33. Lunaria (money plant) needs moisture
34. Malva Zebrina**
35. Marigolds Maroon (full sun)
36. Peonies (full sun, partial shade)
37. Portulaca (full sun)
38. Rain lilies
39. rose, Miniature
40. Royal Poinciana
41. Tomatoes, cherry
42. Tomatoes, roma
43. Salvia 'Blue Queen'**
44. Salvia Mixed colors
45. Salvia Purple
46. Snapdragons, Mixed colors Miniature * (full sun, partial shade)
47. Snapdragons, Yellow, Miniature
48. Snapdragons, Red, Miniature
49. Statice 'Art Form'
50. Statice ' Sermon'
51. Straw flowers
52. Zinnia (full sun)
53. Basil
54. Chives
55. Coriander
56. Dill
57. Garlic, Wild
58. Oregano
59. Par-cel
60. Parsley, Curled
61. Sage
62. Thyme

Isn't that cool? I'm going to be working my tail off lol. Thank heavens I have approximately 3 more months of composting I can pretty much depend on. Right now I'm taking a break before I get out there and plant some dusty millers in the front of the bulb bed. I think the color contrast between the green leaves on the glads and the green stocks on the allium and the silver foliage on the dusty millers is going to be really pretty even before the flowers bloom and that is part of the goal I'm working towards. I'll also have the early blooms on the miniature snapdragons in there for before the leaves and stems get going on the allium and glads.

I'm pretty excited about that bed because it will be the first design effort I've made. Hope it works out.

Woohoo I've done three trips out to the garden and it is barely noon. And I don't need a nap yet. I think I'm doing very good today. This trip out the dusty miller got planted which was way cool. I had to dislodge some of the volunteer green onions from there home but I have plenty so I'm not worried about losing them. I hope the dusty miller take that is going to be soo cool. I also gave the shade bed a good mix while I was out there. It still needs work before I can plant the lobelia. I'm hoping to be able to do the cardinal flower in the back and the chrystal palace in the front of the bed along with interpercing the chrystal palace with the peonies and hosta. As usually the original planting I did was way sparse. Anyway I'm excited can you tell?

Wow -- and I thought I was doing good just clearing out nandina roots yesterday. I worked a few more hours on them and almost got one section cleared out. I only have 3 more areas to go, just waiting for the sun to pop up so I can go out there and get started, house aleady cleaned, dishes done (by hand, of course), sneakers on. Im packin' my shovel and hand trowel (sp?), water bottle, and towel to sit on because I will be there a while. I am determined to invade atleast one mound today.

You did very good going after invasive roots. I can't kill those silly mimosa trees no matter what I try. But I just keep trudging. Today I think I'm going to see if I can get some of the chrystal palace planted at the front of the shade bed. It can't hurt to try right? lol.

Needless to say I woke up this morning and moving was very hard. My ankles did a good imitation of walking on crushed glass until I got going good. But I've learn and on days like this I take the cane with me. That way if I stumble I have something to help me regain my balance. I just don't bounce like I used to.

Woohoo, I got the chrystal palace planted boy are those seeds small. Much smaller than the portulaca. I just had to tip the bag up and shake it and hope for the best. I may have to look for some starter plants of that next spring at the local nursery. If this seeding doesn't work.

Well I attempted today to clear the rest of the mound of nandinas and boy my hands are tired. I had a difficult time opening a jar of peanut butter. My arms from wrist to elbows are tight. I am going to try again tomorrow -- didnt get too much pulled out today -- those things sure are stubborn.

Malinda