The solo wedding is next Sat. This one was the 3-buckets of flowers wedding. I am feeling better about this solo wedding as I cruise the yard after a weekend away. Looks like I will have about 30 spikes of an early purple blue delpinium, some foxglove, and irises and roses for main events and lots more things will surely bloom by THur when I pick for the wedding. First Peonies go into our susbscrription bouquets today. Lots of alliums looking lovely. So glad she changed her colors to pink, blue and lavender and said we had "Free reign" with the arrangements.We are having intermittent heavy rain and sunshine so I think everything grew a foot while I was away for 2 days!

Hi everyone,

It is me, Mrs. Crazy-pants. I haven't been posting anything much, becuase I have been so busy trying to get my plants (and kids)watered and fed and kept from freezing. I sure do get why everyone told me to only grow a few varieties of flowers. Trying to keep track of all of their needs is daunting and overwhelming. Of course that didn't stop me from growing about twenty varieties anyway. My mother in law's teenym pop-up cabana-esque greenhouse is actually great. I will need a real greenhouse next year, but so far we have had a pretty mild spring and I have had room for everything. I got a dumptruck load of beautiful 4 year old manure on Saturday and realize I will need one more. Tryin got turn my quackgrass/dandelion/hawkweed backyard into a plot of flowers is proving to be a bit hairy. Of course it has been rainy and so everything is moving forward at a snails pace. I don't know how soon I will be able to plant. Jeanne told me to try and get it all done by the first week in June. I am shooting for that, but it may be the second or thrid week! I want to be as organic as possible in the future, but decided I had to round-up the whole damn area, as quackgrass is just too invasive and would easily take over as it has tried to do in the pea patch. Anyway, I sprayed it on Thursday and it still looks pretty alive. Ugh. It better DIE!! MWA HA HA HA HA!!! I can't wait until next spring when I can get this started earlier, but I said this would be my year to learn and boy is it ever.

Waiting for the weeds to die,

Katiepoo

Hi--hummm...where to start! I came home last Friday and was planning to pick bearded iris and other things for Sat. Mkt. and subscriptions. My 6-year old and his 8-yr old cousin had whacked them all off and ran through them like big dump trucks! I'm not mad anymore...but my son did get extra work (transplanting volunteer sunflowers!) this weekend and no friends over to play. We'll see if my nephew comes down to help with something! So, no really big flowers now for a bit! Funny thing, my son did this to my globemaster alliums last year and we had recently reviewed that flower - as one not to touch! But, (on the other thread about nearby "facilities"), my son doesn't think he needs them! I was going to help him finish last night and looked down the field to see him "watering the plants!" Glad no one was driving by... :) so, now we get to explain he can only do that where no one can see him! But, for me and the hopefully soon to be hired helper...the portapotty has arrived!

I did get all my strawflower plugs planted in between our rainstorms, am using lightweight weedcloth to plant through them...we'll see how it works. I hope to get lots more done soon...the weeds are growing way too fast!
Wendy

I'm also trying to find a helper...weeder/harvester, but so far no luck.

Here I am, hurt again! I've just reviewed the last few years and realized that every other spring, I get injured or sick in such a way that I can't work much. This time I came running into the garage to tie the dog up after walking him, late for leaving for market because I'm not used to having to walk the dogs before market. My husband is in Europe - normally he gets the dogs on market mornings. I tripped on something when running into the garage, maybe a dog, or a rope, the edge of the concrete, my own feet, I'll never know - and came down full speed and full weight onto both kneecaps, on the concrete. It hurt like hell! Those knees already have 20 years of arthritis. I established quickly that nothing was broken, and I still went to market, after sitting and crying for a minute. The van was all loaded, in fact the engine was warmed up already, and I couldn't figure out what else to do with all the flowers. I went - but the knees got steadily stiffer and more painful through the cold, rainy market day (where nobody, including me, sold much because very few customers showed up). Thank God for my sister and bro-in-law, who are veggie/veggie plant sellers at the same market. At the end of market, I gave their baby a bottle while they packed up both of our stands, then she drove me home. It's a couple of miles out of her way.

Now that the swelling is going down, I'm even more sure that nothing is broken, but cartilage and ligaments, possibly bones, are all badly bruised. There might be some damage to the right knee - it sounds and feels like Rice Krispies if I put weight on it when bent. Sometimes that happens anyway from the arthritis, so who knows whether there will be any long-term effects. For now it's just slowing me way down. Not that I could be doing much outside - it's raining constantly, never stops, just speeds up and slows down - but I could be cleaning house! (a fate worse than death that I'd rather avoid anyway). I got some sunflower trays seeded and into the greenhouse for germination today, very slowly.

I think we've caught up on our rain. The whole world out there is sodden and dripping and has been for days. It feels like a real North Idaho spring, cold and very, very wet. The whole world out there is about 3,000 shades of green, and lush. That's how very lush, green places get that way - it rains all the time! I can't even walk out into the aisles of my field - even the well-trod paths are sink-in mud. Come to think of it, if I had to get hurt, this is a fairly good time. More rain forecast for the next few days, then I should be up and at 'em again.

Jeanne

Remember to ice those knees! You too can join the elite corp of Ice Queens! Not sure why we all hate so much to use ice when it really does help!

Now darn it, try to keep your feet under you and slow down! You sound too much like me and I can feel it in my joints just reading about it!

Hmmm, what did I do today? Not much though I kept trying! I tucked in all my lavenders and rosemary that edge the rose garden, seperating it from the grass garden. I planted two of my gallon pots of Elstead hypericum in another border...one more to go...pulled nasty weeds, wandered around weeding specific spots in the midst of the borders. Showed Krissie where to weed out the buttercup and other nasties) in the moon garden.....went to sit down...wandered back to have a look and discovered the end of the crescent moon revealed! YEAYYYYYYYYYYYYYY! A few days of her working at this for several hours a day and I will have somewhere to plant out my white annuals and new perennials! I have started the following in white for the moongarden:cleome, moneyplant, anoda(snow cup). It already has peonies, roses , white lavender,phlox, lilies, dahlia Evelyn, alliums and many other shrubs and plants. However buttercup completely overtook the patches for tulips and daffodils this winter.In my mind it is such a beautiful garden even though it is mostly in my mind that it is beautiful! New additions this year will be two Sally Holmes roses and an arbor at the entry. Arbor yet to be earned and chosen. SH just needs to be planted. WIll put the whole garden under straw mulch when it is weeded and mulched with compost.

I started it on a clay bank 5 years ago and it always gets neglected when I run out of time. Unfortunately the moon never shines down on it even when full as the moon is always behind it, not in front! Live and learn!

A major frost about three nights ago made me realize how smart it is to wait sometimes...I hadn't put any warm crops in...in fact have very few things planted in the garden...they are still taking up space in the greenhouse. Have been to two farmers markets meetings. Two more this week. One I've sold at before. The others I'm looking to see what might best fit in with my plans (a mid-week market????)
A couple hundred more lilies to plant. I've put them all in pots so far. May order a couple hundred more just for the cutting area. When potting I put three bulbs in a 6.5 inch pot, although I only put two Triumphator in each as they were large (and more expensive). If the pots don't sell (last year I sold out, but only did about 70 pots. This year it is more like 300 or 400. Don't know for sure, but the lily bulb bill was over $700 with shipping.
Helped someone plant corn by hand yesterday, and he'll give me some wheat seed which I hope to grow for cutting. Have also cover-cropped with oats and hope some of that can also be used in fall arrangements. Anyone have experience with either of those?
Peonies are getting tall, and I'm hoping they may be in flower for Memorial Day weekend when two markets open. It is really too early for the veggie growers, but with peonies and potted lilies and other perennials, it works for me.
Today and tomorrow is shot for me...as a part time journalist my main work days are Mon. & Tues...but today is also primary election day so will be at the court house for counting tallies into the wee hours...tomorrow will be recovery day...then MAYBE MOther Nature won't threaten with frost any longer, and I can get planting!!! Ann

I finished getting the rest of my flowering shrubs in on Sunday, whoo, whoo!!! After accomplishing that task I took a walk over to see if my first seeding of Suns was germinating yet. I have been nailed again on my first planting. Last year it was the striped gophers, this year Peter cottontail went right down the rows and ate all the cotyledons off virtually thousands of suns, dang it. The good news is I live trapped the little buggar last night and relocated him to my woods which is a half mile away. Thank goodness they don't like Zinnia leaves, my first seeding of them is coming up nicely.

To all of you folks injuring yourself, I have one thing to say, STOP IT!!! It's hard enough on our bodies without adding insult to inury. Seriously, I hope you all mend well and stay clear of any more catastrophes.

Now I have a love/hate relationship with the rain. I love it that it is soaking in all those new shrubs, but now I can't do a second tilling and planting of suns until it dries out, which doesn't look like it's gonna be until the weekend. I do have some flats of perrenials I can transplant into cells to keep me busy though, and the tractor could use an oil change, and the garage could be cleaned and the mower blades could be sharpened and.......

Work is calling me,

Take care and happy growing,

Steve

I'm beginning to envy you guys in the north for your short seasons. Been marketing my flowers since end of March now, spring stuff is pretty much gone and I've been plagued with all different kinds of bugs, some of which I have never ever seen before.
Major problem I think with Thrips????? inside the individual Snapdragon heads, lots of tiny bugs, thin lined shaped about 2mm long yellow/brownish, they skidaddle when disturbed. Anyways to use some of the snaps and not make the crop a total failure, i sucked the buggers up with a vacuum (I'm nuts), terribly time consuming and will not do again. Will try snaps next year in hoophouse/greenhouse and not field grown. Spring Giants are awesome!.
Am trying out Neem but wonder if it's any good, the bugs are still there, I'll persevere.
Just bought a used disc and pto tiller approx 4' wide which will help out considerably time wise, no more walk behind for me, now I'd like a bigger hp tractor!.
Enjoying great spring weather down here, cool again for the 2nd morning in a row and it's May!!!. Where are those 90 degree days which are normally here at this time.
Happy growing everyone. Cheers - Kim BFFF

Another frost warning for tonight....ARGH!!!
Landscape cloth came in so can get to perennial planting...but will it ever warm up?
Ann

annie, all I can say is: I sympathize. Ugh. Frost after frost after frost. Actually it's been 2 nights now since frost and none expected tonight but I'm SURE we're not done with them.

well, my tulips are all gone, and I made a whopping fifty bucks or so off them ... just like last year. at this rate I think it will take me a decade just to pay off the bulbs I bought 2 years ago. obviously I didn't do much research before I bought-- most of the varieties are small and ugly. i'm grouchy about tulips today.

and now I have no more flowers for several weeks. good thing i've got a greenhouse filled with 1,500 tomato plants to keep me busy. transplanted the last of those yesterday as well as my 70 or so dahlias (what was I thinking) and I still have a few lilies and glads to get in the ground and I haven't even STARTED transplanting.

i'm so tired.

Kristen

TOmorrow I get my quarterly cortisone shots in my knees---yee hawwwwwwwwww! Been still navigating but getting up from down will be less painful.

Daughter fit in another hour working on clean up and my Moon Garden has a BIG EMPTY SPACE just waitng for neat things to go into it....Ooooohhhhhhhhhhh!

Planted some tritelia and ixias in a bed today by pulling back the 6" of straw and throwing them on the dirt with some osmocote, then putting the straw back. Will see how that works. Sure speeds it up! I am hoping they will pull themselves down to whatever level they want to be at. If not, the straw will turn into dirt by fall. Finished planting my Costco glads (Well, the fancy ones. Now I Have about 6 bags of mixed border glads from them to plant.

My Black JAcks were 1/3 moldy and squishy. OF course I did buy these in Feb and they have been in the garage since but the others all seem to be fine.

Will see if I can get my son out working planting glads tomorrow since I need to rest for a couple of days after the cortisone shots. THought I better get them before the wedding this Sat. I see a new Dr this time so hope she is skilled!

Lets see, since this is my first post, I'll say what I have planted so far... three rounds of 70- 100 glads 1st round have their leaves out of the ground. 100 larkspur 200 cerienth(SP) 100 delphs, 50 Ammi, 70 neon phlox, 70 snaps, 30 foxglove that include camelot and foxy, a few hundred suns, a smattering of misc perennials that i winter sowed, about 50 bells of Ireland, about 20 sweet peas(only about 4in high) and about 40 irish eyes rudbeckia. This is all at my house for my Thursday market and the florist that I'll be selling to.

At my parteners place (I guess in the past years he did veggies at a Sat market and thought he would like to get into cut flowers - we are teeming up. We'll both plant and he'll take care of them, and I'll help pick and sell.) We started a 120 foot row of perennials and planted about 1000 suns. When the weather cooperates we'll plant out the zins and celosia.

This week I helped my daughter plant her colorful flower garden- mostly wintersown plants and my son plant his black and white garden. His is on year two with black tulips and iris popping out of the ground right now. We planted white corncockle, penny black, black columbine, mulon rouge suns, black hollyhock, dianthus sooty, black bachlor buttons, black and white poppys and for his twig trellis moon flower and white hyantnth(sp)bean vine. I am waiting patiently for my "work flowers" to take off, if it ever warms up! But I cant wait for these two gardens to develope.

On Friday I am having a garage/plant sale. I need some dough right about now and since the market hasn't started yet and none of my flowers have bloomed, this seems to be the way to go. I have some herbs, veggies, grass, perenials, and some lilys (oh yeah, I planted 200 lilys in the garden). I hope they sell well.

Wow what a long post. I'm Not usually so long winded, Maybe if I post every week I won't have to be.

Patty

Got those shots so my knees are a bit tender but on their way to better days! I VERY CAREFULLY set out white sonata cosmos, white money plant and white penstemon in the cleared end of the moon garden, along with pale yellow limoncello petunias. THen I progressed on to the cutting garden and got my blue bouquet delphs into the delphie patch and some sweet williams and "plum blossom" snaps into the ground. Today is alternating rain, thunder and sun breaks so really good time to get these last babies in.

TOmorrow I start picking for the wedding. And I will pick and pick and pick...if I can find enough to do. I also have both Delinda's stand and mine to keep supplied with flowers over the weekend (Next two weekends) while she is on her cruise. I have lots of English roses opening and a fair number of iris and my laides mantle is just right. Not much else...an occassional foxglove and some early blue violet delphinium, as well as purple sensation alliums. IT is not â he big strong spikes of delphinium, more wimpy but plentiful. THe bride's bouquet is going to be lavender calla lilies and blue heron tulips which we grew in pots in our greenhouses. Delinda is making it up tonight before she leaves early tomorrow. THen we will pray for it to last! I think it will be OK in the fridge. Will share photos if Poochella will be my agent!

Hi Everyone!

The beds in our primary field are now amended, walkways mulched. I'm still planting, planting, planting. In this week: 500 more glads, 300 lilies (the last). To get in the ground this weekend without fail: 50 dahlia tubers, direct-sown sunflowers. I think my eyes were bigger than my constitution when placing my Spring orders! I'm not going to buy any more bulbs/corms/tubers this season. I'm not. I'm not. I'm not... except, I do have one extra row I could put more dahlias in....

After a very wet early Spring, we seem to be in a mini-drought. Tomorrow brings rain, thank goodness.

The first series of glads are about 4-6 inches tall--I go look at them every night when I get home from work. I just love seeing young plants coming up! The Dauricum White Asiatic lily shoots are about 3 inches tall.

Kim, someone reported good success with very rapid thrip eradication using BullsEye bioinsecticide from Gardens Alive (sorry, can't recall who). It also treats aphids, doesn't harm beneficials, so GA's blurb says. I've bought some, but haven't used it yet.

Flowerfarmer and Lizalily, I hope you're recovering from those injuries!

Cheers,

Valerie

Thanks Valerie, i'll look into it.
Cheers Kim BFFF

I still can't kneel on one of my knees, so I'm trying to figure out how to plant the next installment of 500 glads, now overdue a couple of days. I got all the work done that I possibly can in my raised beds and am resisting the temptation to plant out the more cold-tender stuff in them, when it's really just too early, just because I'm too antsy to sit still.

Days when the soil can be worked aren't frequent now, when it's raining almost every day. Cool and wet weather is our normal for now. The weather folks call it "showers" but many of the showers are gully-washers, so everything stays dripping wet and the soil is too sodden to mess with.

I have to go pick up my dog. He got deathly ill very fast, going from apparently perfectly healthy to 3/4 dead over 24 hours, with bacterial hepatitis. His survival was doubtful as of last night, but he did one of his miraculous turnarounds (he has done this before, with pancreatitis) and will be coming home today. The vet thought he'd be keeping the dog for several nights before he'd be strong enough to come home, but it's only been one night and he's coming home! Not bad, for an 11-year-old (elderly by big-dog standards) big dog. Even the vet was amazed. I spent a very bad night wondering whether I had seen our sweet, beloved old dog alive for the last time. We don't have children, so we tend to get overly attached to our dogs and cat. And Barkley is such a sweet, smart old dog, with the I-love-everybody sort of personality that so many retriever-type dogs have, it's easy to love him. Almost everybody who has visited us here has offered to give Barkley a home if we can't take care of him for some reason, but we'd both have to be dying before we'd give him away.

Time to go get my old dog.
Jeanne

BEST WISHES TO BARKLEY! Hard to keep a good dog down. Went through that with with my big brown fieldy, Corie last fall. HE was supposedly dying of cancer and the growths turned out to be just immune reactions to skin irritations from some of his carefree runs through the blackberry patches.

Just got done with my Solo wedding...WHEEEEEEEEEEWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW! THey professed to be totally satisfied...I am so tired I can no longer tell how things looked. Will send some photos via our Poochella. SO nice of her to pass them on . I am totally brain dead. Only slept about 4 hours last night.

I must say we are proud of our brides bouquet for which we grew the callas and tulips in our greenhouses and got them to flower at the right time! Came out just like the photo the bride gave us of what she wanted!

Oh me, oh my, what a day we have put in! DH and I cleaned the pond in our front yard..had completely filled into one mass of cat tail and waterlily roots. Hardly room for the goldfish. Took two of us to pull the mess out and cut it into chunks to handle. I freed the orgional pots and now have them replanted one cat tail and THREE water lilies. WIsh I could give the extras away to all of you, as I have so many but I don't mail plants! We planted my Edgeworthia Chrysantha in a corner of the rose garden and put down landscape fabric all around it so the area no longer has to be mowed. We staked up an 8-yr old Great Century rose that blew down in one of our thunderstorms...just uprooted and over it went! Tied up Dr W Van Fleet to the back fence. Planted a golden leaves corkscrew holly, a CHinese Fringetree that had alread spent last summer in its pot (because I didn't know where to put it) and a golden thuja (to use for cutting)

Then I remembered my 6' Diablo Ninebark sitting in its pot at the back of the MoonGArden and a new bridalwreath. Got help from Hubby planting them. We still didn't get my little TIGER SUmac planted but he has gone off to mow his dog-walking paths (He finds it good entertainment and exercise... LOL). I am SO HAPPY to get my plants into the ground where they atleast have a chance! Still gotta find a place for my HEss blue doug fir, but I know where I want it and it will have to be fenced in to protect it until it gets some good growth on it. I want to plant it where I will view it against some cinnamon-barked madrones from my office window.

My little Korean Firs that I started from seed about 8 years ago are growing nicely. I think they will hit 5' tall this year atleast and at last!I Adopted 2 Korean daughters so have to adopt all interesting Korean plants too!

Well, got my stands going again today with the left overs from the wedding. About all we have now are the first peonies about to pop and the iris that weren't picked for the wedding and the early roses. Am doing both stands while Delinda is on vacation. Will go down and check on them (Actually bring home any flowers left and close them) after I have rested a bit.

Just planted about 200 snapdragon plugs, another 300 glads--was supposed to be 500 but ran out of juice! Our first group of glads is now 8-10 inches tall. We're trying the snow fence idea for support, my husband put that in on one of the two beds yesterday. He sprayed the Bull's Eye bioinsecticide on the glads today, no sign of thrips/aphids, but not messin' around. PARANOIA!

Jeanne, I'm so glad Barkley is okay. I dearly love my animals. Like Liza wrote, can't keep a good dog down! I'm also glad at least one of your knees is coming along. I realized after my last post, I had your horror story "assigned" to LizaLily (because of her knee injections). THAT story hurt just reading it!

Very tired. So much for that energy. Who knew quintupling the plant volume would do this?

Valerie, who's still gonna buy more dahlias, even though she shouldn't!

Let me jump on the back here, a little late but still...

Let me add my best wishes to Barkley, I love dogs too and get overly attached to them. My DH complains I show the dog more affection than him, LOL.

We FINALLY jumped in and planted some of our bulbs on Saturday- about 1000 Callas, a few Eucharis, few Eremurus (please grow!!) and some tuberose. As some of the Callas are for my niece's wedding, we had Nicole and her fiancé, his mother, my nephew, and my parents to help DH and I. Wow, what a difference than planting everything ourselves! We had a lot of fun and good weather too. Yeah, my knee was giving me trouble too, as I crawled along the row setting bulbs in as my niece covered. Locks up and then pain! But I'm getting too old to do the bending over- or maybe too out of shape, the hamstrings can't take it!
Anyhow, waiting for more of the field to be plowed so we can plant the rest!