Planting elderberry, raspberries and today's garden.

57*, 30.05 in and steady barometer, 40% humidity, WSW 24 mph wind, fair

Today's Sky View:
The wind! YIKES. It sure is troublesome. Like that is news around here right? Last night I came home to my greenhouse in near ruin. It was barely holding together at all, two shelves had come undone as it was blown really hard and nearly tipped over despite the precautions I've taken. Luckily, they were two empty shelves that held only empty pots and now trays of seeds. I fixed it before going in and made sure it would stay together through the night. Its OK now and I even have seeds sprouting! So far I have Giant pumpkin, watermelon, dahlias, and giant red cockscomb seeds sprouting. How exciting!

Speaking of exciting, check out this bleeding heart!! Isn't she cute?

My berries galore strawberry is blooming already. It's loaded with blooms. Now if only the plant would be nice and send out runners for me. Since when do strawberries don't send out runners? If I'd known they didn't I would have bought more then one plant of this kind last year. They are so tasty and productive. Perhaps its a cross with a big strawberry and a alpine strawberry? That would explain the taste and the runnerless habit. That's just my guess.

Here are two more ugly tulips. I swear I'm NEVER buying box store bulbs again. They don't even match with each other. They were supposed to be an apricot toned mix. Apricot toned mix my butt. Its more like what ever leftover they found on the floor and swept up into a bag to sell mix.
Planting elderberry!

Step #1

Unwrap plant from plastic wrap packaging. It's ready to take off and grow! Nice roots too, make sure nothing is squishy or broken. I've got to say, these are the best mail order plants I've ever gotten (other then fruit trees). I was very happy with my Pinetree Garden Seeds plant order! I was iffy about ordering inexpensive plants as I've had bad luck in the past with other plant companies...real bad luck. but I was surprised and not disappointed at all with my order. I think I'm going to have to write Pinetree Garden Seeds a letter of appreciation.

Step #2- Plop that baby into a prepared spot in the ground, preferable where there used to be lawn (more lawn going bye-bye!!!). These guys like well draining but rich soil. The directions say to let it grow as it wills for the next two years only removing dead branches.

Planting raspberries!

Step #1

Find a spot in the lawn for your new raspberry bed.....more grass going good bye!

Step #2 Put the berry bushes into water to soak. I have 10 plants to soak.
Step #3 Start digging. My bed is 2 feet in width in full sun and well draining soil. It wasn't clay here, to my surprise, and water doesn't pool up in this area.
Step #4 Get Dirt. This is the free black dirt I go get from the community pile. I over filled the ancient wheelbarrow and tweaked my back dragging it over all the yard.
Step #5 After the new dirt is mixed into the planting bed, plant berries! A book I have says to cut the plants to a couple inches tall if bare root. I was afraid to do that but I took the plunge and did it anyway. I wanted to mulch it really well too but the free mulch pile was empty today. It will be refilled next week. That's too bad, I needed to do a LOT of mulching this weekend. But maybe that's good also, as I do have a sore back now.
Step #6? Wait until harvest and eat. I Might not get anything this year, but certainly next year will be berry delicious!

Weekend Garden Workout

57*, Barometer: 29.81 steady, 87% humidity, S 6 mph wind, cloudy

Today's Sky View

A sign of spring-- Bleeding heart budding up!

I have also noticed buds on tulips, creeping phlox, and on my pasque flower.

I have a lot to do in the garden this weekend. Today is iffy with rain and its quite damp but not cold. I went ahead and mulched the area around the new fruit trees getting rid of a large diamond of lawn in the process. I think I will grow my watermelons between the trees this year as there will be plenty of light---no need to waste growing space doncha know--as this is the first year for the baby trees. I took about 8 trips in the car to the giant mulch pile to fill up up free red mulch for just that area. Boy I wish i had my pick up still! It would be so much more handy for hauling stuff then my tiny hatch back! I feel the work out in my arms after all that. I should of stretched before, but always forget to. I was trying to do all this while dodging rain drops.

I need to go get free black dirt today too, as there is a fresh load out at the collection point for my veggie garden extension and for planting some flowers in an existing bed. And speaking of planting, I had to pick up some organic potting soil today so I can start more seeds for herbs, flowers, my GIANT pumpkins, and watermelons.

And when I get all that done, It's time to turn my compost for the first time this year!

The Beggining Of a Mini Orchard

38*, 89% humidity, SW 16 mph wind, light rain, FLOOD WARNING

WOHOO! Phase one of the mini orchard is started :). I need to lay newspapers/cardboard down and mulch this area but as its raining, I did good just to get out there and plant them. The weather is expected to only get worse all weekend and I couldn't wait to get these babies in the ground. But fruit isn't the only reason for planting these. These will help give a little buffer between us and the road, not that it's a busy road at all but it will help it to feel a bit more private.

I planted my little cherry tree yesterday morning, when we had a tiny bit of sun between rain drops. I planted it near the veggie garden next to the shed. It will fill this spot nicely. It's a naturally small tree/shrub. It will be easier to keep the birds from the cherries here anyway.
Osa didn't seem to mind the damp weather as she ran all over the lawn while I worked.

Chilly Today

41*, 76% humidity, NNW 12 mph wind, cloudy, FLASH FLOOD WATCH

Brrrr. I guess i was spoiled by the last couple of nice spring like weekends. No gardening today for me.

Weekend at Home

44*, 96% humidity, ENE 6 mph wind, cloudy

I spent the whole weekend staying at home with Mr. Hyper and Brandi. Its nice to relax once in a while and I definitely needed to relax a little bit. But even on my relaxing days, I have plenty to keep me busy from sun up to sun down.

I bought more lawn edging for more beds--the blueberry bed and Sasha's memorial bed. I played with the pup A LOT. She was having real puppy moments and being a brat all Saturday but was much better behaved on Sunday (for the most part), and I visited my neighbor friend who needed a shoulder. I met a neighbor while out walking Brandi. He said "So you're the one with the new hound!" He had a hound of his own and they have been barking at each other from across the neighborhood. I've learned quickly where all the hounds live around here LOL And we set up a hound dog play date.

I spent Saturday spring cleaning the kitchen from top to bottom, and I tried a new recipe-- Moroccan Chicken Stew and Couscous which was good but unusual. It made some icky chicken taste really good. You see, to try to save money instead of chicken breast I had bought chicken leg quarters. Neither Mr. Hyper nor I liked them. But in chicken stew, it took on a really good flavor. Not a dish I'd want to eat everyday but it is good for a change and my neighbor came over to try some. She liked it and she wants me to give her the recipe.

Just a weekend spent at home in a nut shell, its nice once in a while. :)

Fantastic Friday!

25*, feels like 15*, 63% humidity, NE 9 mph wind, cloudy, FLOOD WARNING

Friday, at last. Not that this has been a bad week (except for my grumpy butt syndrome yesterday morning) I am just glad the weekend is here. Having a WHOLE weekend off is exciting to me. It hasn't happened in a long while. This weekend I hope to hit the Heron Rookery about 20 minutes away, where the herons should be busy fixing their nests. I've seen plenty flying around in the area so I KNOW they are there. In other bird news, farmers fields are covered in birds, geese mostly. The air has been filled with their honking every time I go outside in the yard. Not birds, but that herd of deer I spoke of last week are still hanging around. Yesterday I even saw them in broad daylight near the road. They are getting brave. I KNEW I should of caged my young lilacs and blueberry bushes...... I guess I'm doomed to learn the hard way, always!

This weekend I will also be buying some rocks. It still irks me to think I have to BUY rocks. Any other time rocks would be all over the darn place and in the way. But when I actually NEED them? Nada. Still, it will be time soon to toss some seeds down in that spot, and I can't have them washing out to the street every time it sprinkles. I bet it will look nice too, when that is all said and done. Much better then that fake plastic bed edging I got free last year from my neighbor.

I'm also going to plant my seeds I was supposed to plant yesterday according to my seed starting schedule. Peppers, eggplants and brussels sprouts are on the menu for starting. Just out of curiosity though, I am going to calculate exactly how much a home grown pepper costs me from the seed up. I don't know if I'll like the answer, but that damn curiosity is itching at my brain again.

The Thousand Dollar Dog is in Trouble With Me, The New Job, And The Lions Of March

28*, feels like 18*, 63% humidity, NE 12 mph wind, cloudy, FLOOD WARNING

The thousand dollar dog is in big trouble. Mr. Hyper blamed the cats on getting into my ghetto grow light stand, knocking it down, eating my ferns, unpotting them, and eating most of the catnip plants soil and all. But I knew better. I was angry. I had been babying these plants, tenderly administering my love to them. I had put up barriers the cats couldn't cross to get to them and they have been working. But I did not count on Sasha to get in there and destroy it all. I have proof. Here is my evidence:

1) when Sasha's tummy is upset, she likes to eat grass. But, since she's indoors while I'm not home, she had no access to it.
2) She ATE my rubber tree plant the other day and the daylily seedlings in the ghetto grow light stand. These are plants the cats have ignored.
3) There was DIRT on close inspection this morning in her lamp shade collar.

No, this was not a case of the cats ganging up and going on a rampage. This was Mr. Hypers precious dog who can do no evil.... But I am giving her the evil eye this morning. *Sigh* I guess I don't need 10 cat nip plants anyway. I guess 3 will have to do....and maybe the pretty ferns will come back...but I'm guessing at least one is way past recovery.

In other news, I started my new job yesterday. I ran around like mad, in hyperactive sponge brain mode, trying to absorb everything I have to learn. Its great! There is so much I need to learn for this job, classes to take, surgical instruments to learn, there is no way I'm going to get brain bored here for a long time. At the end of my shift, I felt pleasantly worn and tired. Not the worn feeling of sitting at a desk all evening on the computer handing out a few supplies for patients all night, but physically, and mentally worn. It was exciting, I wanted to dive right in but I'm not sure of my place yet. This is completely new to me and I am unused to having to look to others for direction as I'm quite independent when working. And the great thing? I'll actually have weekends off and most holidays too! No more being treated like crap by co-workers. I told my former boss EXACTLY why I was leaving. And I told him why he had trouble keeping good employees. I'm not one to complain when I'm giving a task at work to do. While others drag their feet or snarl, i just DO IT. I think this is why they were taking advantage. It's a shame that those with good work ethics get walked all over, but I've drawn a line now. And anyone who crosses it from now on will face my wrath. I will never allow anyone to treat me this way again. I know they won't in this new place. I've worked hard to form a good relationship with everyone working there before the job bid came up, and the boss has her hands in the department always unlike my ex-boss who kept out of it and let a designated employee run things. Not that I need a boss over my shoulder, but it's others who need that guiding hand sometimes. Yes, I'm going to like it in my new job.

The lions have over taken the march lambs, just as I expected. Yesterday started out so nice but the temps dropped, by night it was in the twenties and we'd had sleet in the afternoon. Luckily, it didn't snow, and I can still see yellow lawns. But I know it's not over yet. I'm sure we'll get a March storm like always. Snow showers are predicted all the way through Saturday now.

Blocks, Rocks, and Socks

37*, feels like 30*, 67% humidity, SE 9 mph wind, fair

It's supposed to be 53* today later. I plan to take advantage of this nice weather, you can beet on it! I was thinking I should go to the heron rookery, to check out the nests today, as March is the best time to view the nest repairs without the confusion of leaves in the way. But Mr. Hyper, after seeing the pictures of the fun I had last weekend, wants to go with me to see the horses and the trail I had so much fun on. I have no doubt it will be a sloppy trail, with rapid snow melting, but that has never bothered me too much when I wear my boots.

Meanwhile, I've been cruising around my yard crunching through snow to get an idea of what I want to do with the garden this year. Mainly, trying to decided how large I should make the pumpkin patch. I could do a 196 feet block easy, or I could do a lot more but skimp on the soil additives which is NOT what I want to do so I think I'll stick with a 14' by 14' bed and if I need more I can expand as I go I suppose.

Reminder: If you haven't signed up for my Giant Pumpkin Growing Contest, please do so. It will be fun! Just drop me a line in the comment box. No experience necessary!

After I decided on the rough placement of my pumpkin patch, I decided that I am going to have to do something this year, seriously, about a problem area I have. This problem area is right in front of my yard, where the water likes to gather and spill over taking dirt with it into the street. I really like planting flowers there, and I have plans to throw down a mix of blue flowered seeds in the spring which I can't do if everything is going to wash away. So I decided rocks were my answer. I am going to surround the bed with rocks and level the bed out, so that it will no longer fill with water and spill into the gutter. This will involve BUYING round river rocks.

The thought of buying rocks is disturbing to me. When I lived in CA, the land was covered in rocks. Mounds and mounds of round rocks. Buy rocks? NO WAY. They were free for the taking, as many as you could carry in your car at once to build walls and borders in your garden. I don't have rocks here. Just MUD. And so it irks me........I have to buy rocks. Still, I would rather buy rocks then fake human made borders. Those bother me even more for some reason. They just seem so fake.

This means, I will have to dig out some existing plants to fix this bed. A daylily, a lemon balm, and whatever else is in there though the lilacs are on the high side of the bed, I wound need to move those I don't think. But this is MY fault as I didn't take the time to plan anything, I just plopped things in the ground willy nilly with little preparation.

So I'll leave you with some spring socks I am in the middle of making in my spare time....
I love this pattern. Its the only sock pattern I've done even though I have 3 books full of sock patterns. I really should branch out some I know. But they are so easy and comfy and I don't like tall socks anyway. I've always liked short socks or no socks at all!

Planted Today

32*, feels like 20*, 87% humidity, N 18 mph wind, light snow

So much for the taste of spring that we had last weekend! We are now covered in a blanket of snow again, with howling winds. it is said that this is the snowiest year in 30 years. All I know is this is the snowiest winter yet I've had since moving to Indiana. So, in protest and FAITH that spring will return in a timely manner, I sowed a few more seeds.

I sowed:

• Cabbage, Wirosa (2 pots) from a seed trader
• Nutri-Bud Broccoli (10 pots) from Pinetree Garden Seeds

I saw some cool things last night in the snow storm around midnight as I had come home later then normal because of the bad commute. 1st was a fox on the hunt. He was eating something. He looked up at me, thought about running, and then decided I wasn't going to bother him and continued eating what ever it was he had caught. Then, a bit later, I saw a large herd of deer. There were between 12-15 head in a neighboring farmers field. Good, stay there and quit eating my haunted lilac bushes! Why is it I never have my camera with me when the good things happen?

Update: Busy---too busy to blog? For SHAME!

1*, feels like -21*, 44% humidity, WNW 24 mph wind, fair, WIND CHILL ADVISORY, FLOOD WARNING


First, a warning: Blogger's spellcheck doesn't seem to be working right now for me. So proceed with caution if mispellings send you running for a red pen. Running with pens can lead to loss of eyes.


Ok, I admit to being a bit preoccupied latey between work, job interviewing, studying..... But this all has to do with Girl Gone Gardening's rules of life. remember 1) is live like you will be moving (no extra stuff you can't live without) 2) don't live where you are unhappy----life is just too short. And number 3....which I have always been able to follow well---- When you start hateing what you do for a living, it's time to find a new job!! (Because, once again, life is too short to do something you hate everyday). And while my job isn't a bad job, it's stopped being something I enjoy. I'm bored out of my mind with it. There is nothing more to learn there and I'm sick of the schedual--- working holidays and weekends because I'm the low woman on the totem pole. So, I have decided to shake things up a bit.

But while I wait to hear if I got the new job or not, (I'm pretty certain I did), here is an update on the growing ons of my household.

Peppermint seedlings--despite having frail roots when I transfered them into their own cells, all survived to my surprise. I'm going to have a million of them. Perhaps I'll plant them in the lawn...let them take over....wouldn't that smell fantastic when mowing? Of course, I wouldn't be able to use it for tea then, if the dog is peeing on em!!


Then there are the daylily seedlings- I lost four, which never really took off, yellowed and passed into the next life. I don't know why, but they were weak from the get go. I still have a healthy 20, despite one of the cats deciding to give them a trim. They must not of tasted very good cause they only ate the tips of a few of them. Can't say which one it is.......

Catnip is doing fine. 10 plants. I have been pinching them to make them branch so they will grow bushy. Guess who gets the pinchings? I have catnip junkies. Especially the young one, Osa who isn't so little anymore. Growing like a weed, eatting ten times more chow then I'd seen any cat eat, getting bigger then Freya with no signs of slowing the growth anytime soon. She is coming out of her shell nicely. She will be a very calm and mellow cat. I guess she's decided I'm OK and now loves to get under my feet when I'm trying to get something done but when I want to pet her otherwise she sends me on a chase first! Not the quickest cat in the world, shes one of those cats that has to sit there and 'think' about things first before deciding anything.

I couldn't resist a new violet....this one has very dark flowers. Not big flowers, but a very dark red that cought my eye at walldeath when I was there to get kitten chow. I know, shame on me!

Friday, I had a day off and took the opportunity to scrub up a few gourds that had dried enough. Most still have a ways to go before I can clean them up. I wasn't sure if the little ones would dry as they were not fully ripe when I had to pick them becasue the vine borers like that kind of gourd vine (the spiny, yellow blossomed kind as opposed to the fuzzy leaved, night blooming white flowered kind). Some have, some haven't. Wouldn't it be neat to paint a bunch of the little ones as birds and make a mobile out of them??
Of course, Osa had to nose her way into the shot.

Things I need to do for the new year--

23*, feels like 13*, 66% humidity, S 9 mph wind, fair

I spent 3 days sick (it wasn't a hang over after all, but a case of eating BAD SHRIMP at a party), and so have not started working on my new healthy habits for 08. These habits include everything from eating locally, exercising more (you will have to see my other blog tired soles for this) and getting back on the more sustainable lifestyle track--which includes fragility and saving money, and prepping for emergencies.

So I have some to-dos for the weekend.

1. Come up with a dinner menu plan for the next week (AND STICK WITH IT)

• eliminate fast food (or cafeteria food)
• eliminate more processed food
• cook something everyday
• cook/bake extra and save for future meals

2. Keep a running tally of foods used most and decide what can be bought in bulk and what can be preserved myself/ produced myself from local sources and the garden.

3. Shop at the Thrift Store first. If there is a need to buy something like new pants, scrubs, etc-- check the thrift shop first before anywhere else.

4. Make an organizing plan. Pick a room weekly to work on.

• Organize the house, get rid of clutter.
• Donate what no longer fits or isn't used.
• Organize the kitchen cupboards.

5. Plan for fitness every week. (again, I will keep this plan on tiredsoles.blogspot)

6. Plan out bill payment and savings!

• Work on ways to pay off the student loan and car loan.
• Make SURE some $$ actually gets saved.

Pumpkin Pie And Cranberries

41*, feels like 36*, 70% humidity, NE 7 mph wind, Cloudy

I have to work for the holidays, so my plan this year so I don't feel completely deprived, is to have it early. I'm making my Thanksgiving dinner Sunday. I WAS going to do it today but some idiot at work came up with an excuse to have the weekend off as well as the holiday and I was called in to work today. I know it sounds like I'm harbouring sour grapes but this guy is transparent. He was told that someone else had to have a holiday this year and that he would have to work (for a change) so a few days ago he claimed to injure his knee at work. He was walking around just fine, like normal. And this guy is one of those very whinny people who can't even get a splinter without making a big deal out of it. I've had injured knees, believe me if it was as bad as he says it is, he wouldn't be putting any weight on it at all. This all just in time for the weekend and the holiday.
So, once again I have no holiday and the holiday dinner I was going to have today is instead pushed to tomorrow.

OK, I can deal.........but I don't like it.

Anyway I got some things made this morning-

Cranberry sauce (See, I'm doing my best to avoid that high fructose corn syrup stuff) and pumpkin pie.

Tomorrow will be a busy cooking day for me. Turkey breast, bread, stuffing, mashed potatoes, deviled eggs, etc, etc, etc.....

Back To Work

The Bike Friendly Town of Chesterton

Well I'm back to work now. I took 9 days off as they asked people to go on vacation at the hospital. They are saying at work now that the hospital may not be completely open until January and that its a real mess still. The good part of this is that its so much easier to ask for weekends off to go hiking as there are plenty of people to cover for me and I plan to take full advantage of that. The hospital's insurance is paying our wages as the hospital isn't making any money to pay us. So what did I do during the 9 days off?

I took a long bike ride.

I also did some gardening as it looks terrible with all the dead, drowned plants. I gave up trying to grow flowers in one spot and bought a dwarf Arctic blue willow to grow there that can take drowning sometimes. I harvested my gourds and pumpkins. I am pleased with the number of gourds I have. I have about 15 small round gourds, 10 yellow warty pear shaped gourds, 6 goose necks, and one birdhouse gourd. I also have 3 pumpkins off my volunteer pumpkin vine. All in all, not a bad harvest for my gourds.

74*, feels like 76*, 85% humidity, S 6 mph wind, fair


# Of Japanese Beetles Liberated From Life Today: 174 (so far...man oh man, this is war!!!)

You know you are a gardener when........

When you have a garden problem and can't sleep all night trying to think of ways to fix it! That was my insomnia last night....




Here is a bit more lawn gone today... Actually hubby did some of the digging and he put my big rock here and set the big clumps of daylilies here too while I was at work. Now, I was thrilled he took an interest in doing some garden work BUT I had other plans for that rock and those daylilies (that need to be divided anyway...) Plus, they just didn't seem to look right here and the big rock was hidden in the middle. So I took matters into my own hand and removed the daylilies and the rock, dug out the center bit of lawn that he'd left, and added a couple buckets of compost from the compost bin. I planted the little butterfly bush, the lambs ears I had rescued and I put my bird bath here with a little rock to help hold it steady as it tips over if the wind blows hard. Sorry hubby, I know you tried, but the yellow flowers just didn't look right here.

I used more compost and I planted the shade plants I had rescued yesterday on the shady side of the house. It only gets a couple hours of morning sun and then shade the rest of the day. I put my big rock over here also. Tomorrow I will plant my baby hostas over here too and this weekend I will put down wet newspapers and then mulch. I also put my foam flower in there and my tiny crested fern as where it was it was getting too much sun and burning.


Tomorrow not only will I get my baby hostas in the ground, I will divide up the daylilies and plant them where I originally intended because they are tough and can take abuse like heat, bad soil, and street snow piled on top in the winter. Also I may bet my lilacs planted now that the ground has softened, and my hardy hibiscus that I had started from seed.

It's a good day--

85*, 43% humidity, SSW 12 mph wind, partly cloudy


For starters, the morning just felt like it was charged from the moment I woke up. I had more energy then I have had in a while. Chores got done, things cleaned out and put on Freecycle.org, and mulch was bought all ready for me to use tomorrow first thing while it is cool out. How can I not have a good day, even when at work on a Saturday when I would rather be home in the garden all day when I have a lunch with homegrown lettuce....(Vessey's Organic Lettuce Blend)

and some super sweet strawberries grown only half a mile away from home and picked only minutes before I bought them?Yummy.

Oh, and I bought a plant I found on a clearance cart at the same place I picked up the strawberries. Tiarella 'Pirate's Patch' . Foamflower is a native shade loving ground cover to the USA, but this is a hybrid cultivar that is supposed to form a clump with loads of white flowers in the spring, and burgundy leaves in fall and winter. I've never grown this before and I really don't have a ton of shade, but I will find a place for it in with my hostas when I make the hosta bed.

And to top all this, I have won Katie's 200 post challengehttp://simplekatie.blogspot.com/2007/06/winner-is.html ! WOOHOO! It's my lucky day. :)
From http://simplekatie.blogspot.com/

Early morning gardening

63*, 90% humidity, NE 3 mph wind, cloudy

Good morning, it is gray and humid today. I got up early so that I could get some work in the garden done. This time of year it seems like I never have enough time to get anything done. But I really needed to get some seeds planted before it is too late for them.


(This is the double impatiens hanging basket my Sister-in-law gave me as a late birthday present. Isn't it pretty?)

So the first thing I did this morning (after coffee) is put on my gardening gloves. I started by digging in a little cow poop in each place that I am planting gourds. I am going to have them grow up my porch like I had the cardinal creeper and Grandpa Otts morning glories last year. I then went ahead and planted 4 seeds by each post and with thin to the two strongest plants when they sprout. They are mixed gourds so I do not know what I will get. I Love surprises!

Next I put some manure by each of the plant hanger poles in my garden (there are 3) and I planted some cardinal creeper seeds by them. By the trellis, more poop and moon flowers and Grandpa Ott seeds. In a couple of my hanging baskets I tucked in a couple black eyed Susan vine seeds. I then scattered around various annual seeds-- marigolds, baby's breath, Flanders poppies, bright lights cosmos, etc.

With that done I started the transplanting of my winter sown seed successes. Yellow Scabiosa, Yellow Foxglove, White Foxglove, Purple Liatris, Peach Yarrow, Sweet Williams, Double columbine (which doesn't look like columbine seedlings so they maybe something else?) and a single rocky mountain penstemon. Most of the containers didn't sprout but just in case I tossed the dirt into the garden.


While I was doing this, I soaked my crested lady fern root that I had gotten bare root and free from the Audubon Workshop catalogue with one of those $25 dollar free trial coupons. I have great doubts on whether or not it will actually grow. It did not look like much at all and I am glad I did not pay money for it! I planted it in the ground and will probably forget about it. (Edit 5-10-07) see my list of mail-order places I will never shop from again on the side bar

With the leftover potting soil, I began to pot up my apple seedlings into 3 gallon pots. So far I have 3 done before I ran out of soil. I will have to pick up more this weekend. That's it for now, still no honey bees although yesterday I did see a bumble bee and a hornet in the garden.

The wind is driving me insane! And where are my bees?!

69*, 17% humidity, ESE 17 mph gusting to 30 mph winds, cloudy

OH MY GOD can you please turn off the ceiling fan now? Its been crazy wind for two whole days now (it was even worse this morning). I know this is your devious plan to spread those puffball dandelion seeds about BUT everyone is crabby, irritated and annoyed by this constant wind. Its a very nice weekend otherwise, and would be perfect for gardening, grilling, fishing or any other outdoor endeavor BUT the wind needs to GO AWAY.

I spent all morning working in the garden (and shopping for garden related stuff too, shame on me!). I planted the delphiniums, my Panorama Mix Bee Balm (the few that survived for me :( ) and the pathetic petunias I had started from seed (the survivors of cat, drought, and what ever else) though the wind may do them in. I also planted up 2 hanging baskets with the "Flash Blue" Petunias I had bought, and the mixed verbenas. Its too windy to put the baskets up.

And this bloomed-- Its an orange wallflower. I thought it was a weed but wasn't sure so I didn't pull it until I could see the flower. I'm glad I didn't. I like garden surprises!



So..what did I buy today? (Oh naughty me!) A bird bath---it was $10!, a bird feeder, and a hummingbird feeder (to invite my birdy friends). Then I bought a compost bin---FINALLY! I brought this stuff home right away and went to work. I have one section of the bin filled already by putting my rabbit bedding in it (yay! no more wasting the rabbit manure!), some generously donated grass clippings from a neighbor, and a little bit of hay. I feel so much better that I have a compost pile now. I spent more then I wanted to on it, but still cheaper then mail order....I have to have a nice looking bin here, not one of those open ones or just a pile though that would be easier and cheaper.

Then as I was sitting back enjoying my garden I noticed something was missing. Normally when I have all these flowers blooming, there are bees buzzing and pretty much everywhere checking out the flowers.

Where are they? I have not seen any, not one! The garden suddenly felt empty without their presence for I love bees and I would have hives if I could. Where oh where are you buzzing little friends?

Stitching Hell

60*, 68% humidity, NNE 11 mph wind, sunny

the weekend was extraordinarily nice, with sun filled days that reached the 80's. It was dry, letting my garden dry up some and was the perfect gardening or hiking weather......

However I had to work. It was exceptionally SLOOOOOW at work as well which irritated the heck out of me because I have the glorious view from my office and I could see how nice it was OUT THERE.

But I did manage to find something to do by working on my 'Floral Wreath' cross-stitch. The cross-stitching part is done, but I am in back stitching hell right now. Miles and MILES of back stitches. I must of worked on it for hours.... and I'm not even close to done yet.

Of course I have to work today as well...and again its a beautiful day, but at least I know it will be busy.

Tomorrow will be gardening day...I have new flowers open to show you. My poets daffies are blooming in force right now!

Good hikin', good music, good sunburn and southern cookin'

(Photo is the property of windigrrl one of our fellow hikers)
77*, 31% humidity, S 19 mph wind, mostly clear

Well I'm back from a MUCH NEEDED backpacking weekend with great friends.....

I feel alive, wonderfully wild, and happy. Nothing like a weekend like this to exhaust the body and rejuvenate the soul.


More later, I'm hittin' the showers and then I'm dining on a cold cold popsicle (it reached 90* in Kentucky!)

Packing for the weekend....

53*, 62% humidity, NNW 13 mph wind, sunny

Here I go, packing for another adventure. I leave Friday morning and I can't wait. Who ever said gardeners are rooted in one place? Not me! In any case I hope to see plenty of wildflowers where I am going, as well as sun and fun.

But before I go, I must top everything off with water including the critters (who we have a sitter for) and my plants indoors and out. I am hoping none of my plants will dry out and die this time but I will not be gone as long as I was in CA. I am also hoping my sitter doesn't have any trouble with my dog, who seems to have a VERY bad case of GAS lately. Really, I don't want to be gross here, but it will be VERY NICE to get some fresh air.

Out in the garden I shall water the seed beds before I go, and I hope the mourning doves leave my zinnia seeds alone. I caught one pecking around and eating my seeds this morning and I promptly ran outside with some bird scare tape that I have had since I moved from CA....(I haven't had to use it until now!) I hope it works and keeps busy little peckers from nabbing my future zinnias and sunflowers while I am gone.

Everyone, have a nice weekend!