Hi Alice! I'm Rhonda and I Live in Eastern Iowa just south of you. We met last summer when you offered a Ligularia on Freecycle:-) (Thanks again for that lovely plant!) There are a few here-but most seem to lurk.

Rhonda

Hi Rhonda! Do I remember you and am anxiously waiting to see if the darling clematis you gave me will come back in the spring, think I found just the right spot for it.

I planted a baptisia in that spot we took the ligularia from.

So glad you spotted this, know you know how to WS and have lurked here, don't remember ever seeing a post of yours.

Did you manage to get any rhodies or azaleas yet? And have you WS'ed anything? Hope to see more of you here. I just fished out one of your emails and put it in my address book. Well that was a huge hassle, I wanted to back up my address book in case it crashes again and finally got it.

Hummm, here's a WS from NW Iowa, close to the Missouri River. This is my first year of WS and I can't wait to see the results!!! I'm up to 199 jugs - even have my DH dumpster diving with me :-) ...

One thing for sure, it sure takes the depression out of this 40+ inches of snow and wind and cold winter!!

Happy WS'ing.
Beck

Hi nbacres, thanks for weighing in. You are clear on the other side of the state, and not many Iowans are there?

40 inches of snow sounds typical for where you are, don't know what our total is.

Sounds like you might have lots of room for lots of plants!

I'm in NW IL just on the other side of the Mississippi. That's close to Iowa anyway. Part of my land seems to be in a Z4 pocket, but most of the garden area is Z5. This is my third year of WS and I really love it.

Rock Island for me. Spend about as much time in Iowa as Ill. Lived in Iowa more than Ill. My three kids live in Iowa. Davenport, Muscatine, and Stockton.Amature Photographer so I travel a lot around the country taking photo's. Retired for number of years so usuall have time to go places. Problem now the wife is getting so she cannot travel, so have cut back on trips. Still do day trips though. W.S. for 3/4 years now Gardened forever.
jim

More people close than I thought, RI is really close. Well I found Rhonda again on the count thread and decided to bump this thread so we can share what we have planted and how things are going for us. Thanks all for your input so far.

Rhonda, I didn't sow anything today. Mixed a huge batch of soil. I want to figure out a recipe that incorporates my peat and will probably have to get some perlite if it isn't too expensive, need all the compost I have. My soil is going too fast, and I have containers to change this year and new larger ones to start.

After mixing the soil, I burned holes in 15 pepsi bottles standing on the front porch, one candy container. Then tackled my new large pots. When I pulled off the sticker warning kids can drown (oh my), yes, I suppose they can, it said drill here, don't have a large enough drill bit and didn't want to go after a bigger one. So I used my woodburner and punched all the way through to the shank, then worked that around a bit. Done. Then cut up the pepsi bottles. Progress.

Here's what I've sown so far, varieties only, some of the annuals I shouldn't have yet:

Coreopsis, Rudbeckia Cherry Brand mutant, Canoe Birch, Ultima Morpho Pansy, Columbine Blue Star, Verbena Tuscany Burgundy Eye, Columbine Nora Barlow, Tithonia, Poppy Livermore, Poppy Scarlet, Cimicifuga, Columbine McKana's Giant Yellow, Euphorbia Summer Icicle, Eryngium, Blue Pimpernel, Shirley Poppy, Lavender Lupine, Verbena Bonariensis, Daddy Blue Petunias, Adenophora Bulleyana (ladybells), Larkspur Giant Imperial Mixed, Aquilegia flabellata, Viola Sorbet Yesterday Today Tomorrow, Limnanthes douglasii, Salvia Blaze of Fire, Blue Bachelor's Button, Honesty, Siberian Wallflower, Johnny Jump Up, Gaillardia, Forget-Me-Not Mixed, Rhubarb, Viola Blue Perfection, Blue Jay Delphinium, Blue Bird Delphinium, Lupin Band of Nobles, Alyssum, Alpine Columbine, Butterfly Bush Mixed, Strawberry Sundae Pansy, Delphinium Bicolor, Delphinium Pagan Purples, Prairie Smoke, Aconitum (Monkshod), Celandine Poppy, Bottle Gentian, Jack-in-the-Pulpit, Virginia Bluebells, Purple Milkweed, Butterfly Weed.

More to go including more of some of the above.

What have the others of you sown so far? What are you learning or any tips to share?

Hi Aliska! Thanks for bringing the thread back up. Sounds like you are going to have a ton of planting come this summer:-) You will be very busy! Nice list, too!

I have been sowing mostly shade perennials so far, to fill in all the shade I have. I'm going to go shopping for the shrubs this spring-I can't wait. There are so many different colors of Azaleas and Rhodies, it will be fun choosing!

My list so far is: Multiple types of Digitalis, Heuchera, Aconitum, Aquilegia, Clematis (of course!), Campanula, Astilbe, Dianthus, Toad Lily, singles of Doronicum, Polygonum, Primula, Anemone, Lobelia, Aralia, Cyclamen, Spegelia, Bergenia, Gillenia, Panax, Geranium, Actaea, Aruncus, Tiarella, Cranberries, Katsura tree, Magnolia, and a couple of others. I got the seeds that need a long stratification done first-so everything I have done recently or have left just needs a short cold period or none at all, which is quite a few.

I'll keep checking the thread to stay updated;-)

Enjoy the new snow we got!

Rhonda

Rhonda, I'm happy for you with all those plants and plans. Some of your seeds I don't know. Smiled when I got to the clem :-). You will have it so pretty in time, probably already is.

Yeah, I'm all dug out for now, couple blips already today, but feel back on top of things for now. My containers are buried in snow which I like. It's melting some but they're to the north of the house so won't melt off too soon. Actually, it's pretty, and I'm enjoying it. They said we got 3-1/2" but it looked more than that to me especially after I saw the cut by the neighbor's snowblower. Not bad at all. Think you were supposed to get a little more.

You saw my property, how small it is, but I have a couple ideas, hope I can work it out.

Will let you go for now, try to meet my goal I set for today. We can compare notes as things go along.

So far I have done 134 W.S. containors outside plus Have 10 cabbage plants and Several tomato plants growing under lights in basement. Havn't sown much of anything in Feb. Most done in Jan. W.S. list is Lettuce 3 kinds, Holly Hock 3 kinds, Blanket Flower, Candy Turft, Gazandia mixed, Colombine mixed, Colombine Tequilia sunrise, Daisy all kinds, Alyssum, Yarrow, Pruenella, (new one for me)?, Soapwort, Obedience Plant, Scabosia, Bachlor Button's, Cosmos mixed, Straw Flower, Pansy's couple varities, Bee
balm, Poppy mixed, Onion's yellow sweet, Morning Glories, and Snap Dragons short and tall. Next month will be a big planting month for me. Probably another 100+. By the time that I get all these planted out I wont have any yard left to mow. Have to borrow grass from the neighbor's for mulch and compost bin. jim

Rhonda a personal question for you. You do not have a beauty shop by any chance do you??? I Know a Rhonda who is friends with my Daughter who lives in Stockton, Iowa.

NW Iowa checking in again --oh, so much snow, so little time to keep filling jugs!! I'm past 300 now and, for some "don't know where those seeds came from" reason, I just can't stop collecting milk jugs from the local nursing home and swinging by the recycle dumpster for jugs (I think of it as exercise--bend & reach, bend & reach).

My biggest problem is not planing all the seeds I've collected during the summer & fall, it's not knowing what the heck they are!!!! Anybody else a collector of awesome flowers' seeds and not knowing the name?

Several with the title Unknown 1,2,3 ect couple, from Consevatory or Road Ditch Moscow Iowa ect. Know exactly what you mean. jim

nbacres, somehow I had you in my brain as admark. I can't find my iris seeds. I just wanted to try them. Very disorganized. Sometimes I throw a label in but I don't have enough saved that I remember what the unlabelled ones are. I even lost several pkts of seeds last year so reordered some of them. Now so far I know what everything is or I don't collect it but I had some spares from sowing and threw them in a cup as unknown. I will get a better system going if I start trading more and will have more plants to save from.

jmc, some of those I didn't know you could plant yet like the annuals you listed. I don't want to risk my cosmos and the others after finding out.

I love the cups and trays, but jugs take up the least amount of "real estate" and easier to move. Emptied one today lol. I'm not dumpster diving for jugs this year no no no. At least things are getting cleared out.

I LOVE collecting seeds along the back roads and ditches across the river from me. I try to take my field guide with me so I have an idea what it is. It is a great way to spend a Sunday, for me anyway:-)

I planted more containers tonight, still more to go that need cold stratification. I ran out of soil again:-(

I made the mistake of ordering more seeds today-thank goodness they are mostly annuals like coleus-so I can wait.

jim-I wished I had a beauty shop-then my nails and hair would always be beautiful:-)

Rhonda

I love driving the back roads looking for plants, trees, shrubs, birds, wildlife, but haven't collected any seeds. Now I take my camera. That's a good idea to have a field manual.

When I was small, my aunt took me all over like that, using back roads and pointing out various trees, flowers, shrubs, etc. Some I remember the names but couldn't identify without a book. Even marijuana that I don't think even she had ever heard of smoking back then. The biggest thrill was seeing a lady's slipper, but that was over the fence from a friend's woodsy property.

She took me to another couple's home that was built in the round or octagonal, and the whole acreage was devoted to native plants and woods. There was an elevated deck that went all around the house.

Do you ever see any wild asparagus? I haven't seen any for a long time.

My dad did it, too, we found jack-in-the-pulpit, trillium, mayapples, and the most fun thing after I had children was we stopped somewhere in Illinois by Edward's creek, my kids and I climbed down the slope, and there were mulberry trees growing near the water. They were the plumpest, juiciest mulberries I ever ate, and we ate our fill of them. Then we went wading. I always stop and nibble a few mulberries if I can reach them but whack them when they sprout in the yard. I think it takes two sexes with those.

Several weeping mulberries were around town, there is still one up the street last I noticed, but the others are gone. My children used to love to play under the one in my father's yard, think those are all gone now in that neighborhood.

One of the first plants I learned to identify was poison ivy.

Rhonda, how do you come by your love of nature and plants?

That's strange you should mention Edward's River-it is not far from my mother's house in Mercer County (Illinois). That is near one of the areas that we drive around:-)

I have seen wild asparagus, a couple of different areas. I know the general area where it grows-so if I see seeds on it next fall I will grab them.

Some of my early memories are of my mom and dad taking us mushroom hunting in the woods. That was when I discovered all the good woodland plants. I remember seeing the different Trilliums, Mayapples, Bluebells, etc growing everywhere. It was beautiful! So I can thank my mom-she started me by pointing out and naming the plants.

I also remember eating Mulberries, pull them out now that I know they are a bit on the weedy side. Darn birds pooping everywhere.

Funny thing about poison ivy-for years everyone I know thought that virginia creeper was poison ivy (including my mom)! I finally showed them the difference, but I think they still avoid it to this day.

Rhonda

We were on our way to the farms in Henry County. I looked it up, and Henry is just NE of Mercer and share a little bit of the boundary. The farms, one is just two miles north of Bishop Hill on a hard road, and the other one is maybe 1/2 mile away on a road that used to be dirt but now, I don't know what, they used to oil it but think it might be blacktop.

Well, now I see a couple, Aledo and Viola, Keithsburg are familiar but don't remember being through Kburg. My ex sister-in-law lives in New Boston. We'd take different routes, usually the road through Cambridge and sometimes the road out of Coal Valley, past Orion and then a long straight stretch with a dip where you could see about 2 miles and on into Alpha. In that stretch and off to the right were some woods, and I suppose we were trespassing, but that is where we found the JIP's, trillium and mayapples. I never found any morel mushrooms but wild grapes and made jam. We would stop in Alpha and eat at an old diner which used to be a railway car, think it is no longer there.

But I think we went an unfamiliar route that day and could have been in Mercer County, but I thought the sign said Edwards Creek which could run into Edwards River. Now it seems that it WAS Edwards River. I doubt I could find the bridge crossing the river again unless I asked my second cousin in Galva; he might know.

It's hard to catch asparagus when it is still a short stalk. Sometimes there will still be some at the base of that, tall, airy foliage. One time I walked or rode my bicycle from my grandmother's in Galva out in the country a short ways and found some, would have had to break it off as I doubt I had my pocket knife with me, and my grandmother cooked it. I'd also grind corn into meal in the barn, shelled it off the cob with a corn sheller, and put it through a large grinder you worked back and forth by hand, have a photo of it, will see if I can find it. It's up in the haymow at the barn on one farm. The barn on the other farm burned down as did my grandma's house after she died. My granddaughter won $50 for her photo of the corncrib which was on a local credit union calendar one year.

If you can find some seeds, that would be fun. I think the usual cultivated variety is Martha Washington. You saw my place, and I have already sowed black raspberries and currants. Maybe we will have to move to one of the farms. Seriously.

And I finally found Edwards River, and it winds around just near the farms in Henry County. I contributed these maps from my old atlas years ago to USGENWEB. The link to the Mercer County map follows, and the link to the Henry County Map is at the useful link. On the Henry County Map, zoom it up, scroll down almost to the bottom, and you will see the river in Lynn Twp and Andover Twp. Then there is a fork, and it winds SE down near Bishop Hill in Weller Twp.

The corncrib, my father and grandfather built during the depression on their farm (my grandfather bought the other one). They are close but different twps, and I can never remember which is in which.

I don't know how I get off on these tangents, so many memories when I was a little girl. That is great about your mother being your mentor.

This post to assemble the links and photos, took me here, there and everywhere, so now I have completely lost my train of thought and what else I saw in your post.

Here is the link to Mercer County. It's easy to miss in the mess I made of this.

The link to the Henry County map is just under the corncrib photo.

{{gwi:361474}}

{{gwi:361475}}

Here is a link that might be useful:

Hey Hawkeye (state, not college) fans.....(ha, ha, ha)

When do ya think we can start WSing our vegies?? What about the annuals?? I'm thinking (ya there I go again)I'm done with the "tough" stuff but since I still have about 50 milk jugs filled with soil, ready to be planted, I'm ansy to put some seeds in them...

Oh dear, where did my self-control go to?????? :-0)

That is normal behavior for here, but bordering on pathological to the wider world.

I'm taking a break, but will sow my annuals and few veggies at the end of this month. I still have containers left, am using milk jugs as I empty them but not collecting any.

I empty 2 liters faster than milk jugs, about 3 per week, and I still buy by the gallon when I can get the freshest milk (longer expiration date) at the big store and usually use it all up for just me. I don't want too many more jugs anyway because the ones outside I'll save for next year and don't want to have to store that many more.

I think I will borrow somebody's idea, rinse them out after planting out, and hang them on the rafters in the basement, will need a few nails or something, no problem, could tie them to some pipes but think I'd best not even though it probably wouldn't hurt anything. A couple screw eyes, and I could string a whole bunch along where they're out of the way.