Sounds like a good day to me!

Cindy

- Same as Kristal, watered winter-sown containers and separated the sprouters from the non-sprouters (easier checking when you know that all the ones on this table have sprouted already!)
- dug out a small extension for my bulb bed
- put edging around my lilac bush and filled the area with wood chips
- finally found where dh hid the rake :) and did some raking around the yard

Tomorrow is supposed to be nice too - another day for fun in the garden!

Today I double dug my front dahlia bed.......now I am totally exhausted. Still some rather large frozen chunks..so will have to wait another week or so before planting.

Sierra

Ran around the yard like a chicken without a head and managed to exhaust myself in the process. I did do some raking and cleaning up some flowerbeds. But now the forecast is for cold again, so I'll probably be able to resist rushing out there to kill myself again tomorrow.

Today I...

Made breakfast for my DH and myself.

Put 'Defend' on both dogs to defend them from woodticks for the next 4-6 weeks.

Spent all morning (3 hours) uncovering the rest of the strawberry patch that hadn't been done yet. Have been working on it for a week already. (It is a huge patch!!! Should have lots of strawberries for the farmer's market this summer!)

Came into the house and was just about to jump into the shower and the lady canvasing for Canadian Cancer Society knocked on the door. Greeted her in my housecoat and once she left, then I had a shower. Implicable timing!

Made lunch.

Spent 3 hours uncovering 1/2 of a perennial bed and labelling its plants with copper plant tags.

Washed dishes, cleaned up the kitchen.

Made supper.

Spent 4 hours cleaning up the house. Did all the laundry. Cleaned the cat litter box. Washed some plants under the bathroom shower. Majorly cleaned up my craft room/spare room. 'Cause my university-aged son is coming home for the summer and bringing his girlfriend home for a week for us to meet her before she heads back home (up north) for the rest of the summer. Vacuumed all the basement and the upstairs.

Gathered up the recycling. Fed the cat, the goldfish and the dogs.

Time to sit, have a bowl of strawberries (thawing in a bowl on the counter all evening) and then bedtime.

Think I'll sleep good tonight.

What did everyone else do today?

Brenda

Walk around outside, found many places where the ground was still frozen or had snow. The rest of the yard was very squishy.
Observations:
buds on the rosebushes
some green grass blades among a sea of brown
a newly green strawberry leaf under the hay!!!!!!
no crocuses or daffodils :(

Got up at dawn to get down to Home Depot where bags of topsoil were 99 cents. There was not much left and the place was packed at 7:30 because they were also selling 6' pyramid cedars for $19. Dashed home, chucked topsoil in driveway, went to work.

Worked until 4:00. :0( Booo it was such a nice day. But I made myself a sundial plinth - more about that later when I get it installed.

Came home and resumed filling my new raised vegetable beds. Going to bed myself right away.

Didn't have too much time for outdoor stuff because we went across the border to Grand Marais for the afternoon. Here's what I managed to get done before it got dark out.

Moved all my wintersown containers around. Separated the sprouted ones into their own spot. Checked for new sprouts. Noticed that my lupins are touching the top of their container. Guess I'll have to pot them up into something a little bigger since it's probably a little too early to plant them out. First time growing lupins, so I'm not really sure when to plant out.

Dug up one of my daffodils to search for signs of life. Looks good so far:)

Walked around the yard to see what else is sprouting. Feverfew is a couple inches tall. Planted a couple of larger trees in the front yard that we dug up and relocated from the back yard last year and they are doing great. Have a little ornamental plum tree (a baby from a tree at my Mom's house) that is about 2 feet tall. Last year the tips got winter killed pretty bad, this year there's buds right to the very tips. Campanulas are coming up and I noticed that some of the violas and pansies from last year have reseeded. Last, but not least, I bought two tiny little Amur maples (about a foot tall) from a lady that was selling perennials and stuff at a yard sale late last summer. I got them for a dollar each and they had the most amazing fall colour, I was really hoping that they would survive. Not only did they survive - they're loaded with buds and didn't suffer at all over the winter. Did a little happy dance for them and went in to have dinner:)

Cindy

- Slept in as I was up very late last night reading James Grippandos' new book 'Got the Look'. It is very good if you like murder mystery books. Soon as I'm done here I'm off to bed to finish it. :)

- Had my morning coffee while watching 'Get Up and Grow".

- Transplanted lots of annuals and a few perennials that are inside into larger pots.

- Picked up a friends lab and took her and my two dogs for a two hour walk in the bush.

- Watched 'Brokeback Mountain' this evening. DH really felt squeamish for most of the movie and did quite a few trips to the kitchen so he wouldn't have to watch lots of scenes. It was well done, but I don't know if it should of been up for best picture or not.

Syreeta

north53...this morning I woke up to -3 and flurries after yesterdays +19 and the day before's +22....gotta love it eh!
Of course I worked both those days and today is my only day off this weekend and hubby has plans for me to move a bunch of stuff so we can extend our driveway for a new travel trailer (which we haven't bought yet).
so today I will watch some tv

....read some web pages

....drink coffee

...and most likely finish my wintersowing.

Hi Hunnerbun, It's snowing and blowing here too. I don't even want to venture out to check on my containers. It was in the mid twenties yesterday. But this cold spell is only supposed to last one day.

well OK yesterday.... I finished adding soil to my boulevard flower garden (good grass=dead grass!) and rocked over a strawberry bed to keep grass down there. Had a kid mow the lawn. Seriously whined about not getting the veggie garden tilled again yet. Decided where that darn cherry tree in the middle of my tomato patch is gonna go (and saved myself 40 bucks on a good hardy plum tree for that front bed in the process) Decided where to transplnat all those raspberries that came where he wants a driveway.

Mostly I putzed around and cleaned up out there while making kids do the hard work lol-- well they want more money right? Anyway, I did most of the hard work on all the beds (new and old) last weekend.

Anyway, the weather was supposed to turn ugly earlier than it finally did and I had a wedding reception to attend last night. Today has topped 40 F so I spent the whole day in bed- read a book, did a bunch of sudoku, read newspapers and pretended I had a day off without kids (yeah right they fought half the time!) Anyway, it was worth a try!

At least next weekend is supposed to be almost 80 and I can throw out - er i mean sow-- a bunch of seeds!

It was a gorgeous day here again, but that's supposed to change right quick. At least i can go to work and ignore the cold all day! LOL Is it ever going to feel cold, too, after all these mild temperatures!

Today i transplanted petunias and tomatoes and put some waves in hanging baskets. Some of it i did outside, even. I watered the winter sowing containers and opened some that have sprouts. Finished up the extension to the bulb bed - only need to top it up with some black earth. Took some pictures. Helped dh with supper (more or less, mostly less). Helped him eat it (more than less!). Covered the sprouted containers and put the petunias i have outside back into the cold frame in advance of the extreme downturn in temperature. Then i lay in a hot tub for a long time! Now i'm pretty sleepy - almost bedtime!

Still snowing here....all day and its starting to stick down now...blah...
Be prepared Marcia!

I finished filling my new raised veggie beds with garden soil, bags of topsoil, peat moss, and steer manure. I attached a metal trellis to one bed and planted peas under it. That bed will have peas & corn. It was hot here again today, but has really cooled off this evening so I brought my tomatoes in and covered the cold frame. It's supposed to freeze tonight.

I also put up a folding wire fence around my back shade garden to remind the dogs that it's not a racetrack, and mulched it with small cedar nuggets. Looks nice. I have been wanting to do that for a long time. The stupid dog got tangled up in the fence twice, looked at me like I wrecked her racetrack, and seems to be staying away from it now... LOL.

I also got a bit of a sunburn :0(

Well, here it is, Michele! Thanks a lot! LOL

Marcia, yup, that looks like my yard this morning too :(

Ooooh, I hate to jinx myself, but I do believe we are going to miss all that yucky stuff! And its about time! We seemed to have gotten away with a few cooler days and cold wind which has slowed down any growth, but has really dried things up. Yesterday and today are warm again...everything crossed!
Yesterday I...
-walked through the vegetable bed to see how deep my gumboots sank (gauging dryness)and low and behold its coming right along. I'm going to borrow the neighbors cultivator to pull up some hard pan this year. The soil is silty sand and shouldn't be holding water so I think its old grey sand hardpan underneath the topsoil holding it. Has anyone else had to do this? Our big disc just skids along on top of it.
-checked and double checked the flowerbeds for new sprouts...found oriental poppy up (successful transplant last year), the dreaded creeping campanula (why did I take that!), and some more columbine.
-DH and I worked on stacking some firewood that was piled when the yard was cleared
-Wahoo! DH and I had a weiner roast for supper! Almost had a grass fire--she's a little dry! Probably should have let it burn but our hay stack is in the vacinity and we're still feeding cows
-mostly doing the same as north53-going around like a chicken without its head wanting so badly to do something, but its just a little early to get digging yet. (sigh!)
-noticed a nice greenish tinge to the ground in the evening light, though
Tootsie

LOL Tootsie,
Maybe it's a special chicken dance reserved for us zone 1bers!

I know I just posted this morning, but the neighbor showed up with the cultivator today! Thank goodness for wonderful neighbors:)
North53: I did the chicken dance all over again. I panicked about it only being April...but then I thought, what the heck! And yep, I dug right in! Very liberating not waiting til May! I never hit any frost, but one corner was still mucky. I only just started into the hard sand, but I got a little chicken (Again!)to go any deeper as it isn't my tractor. Maybe I'll trick DH into finishing it and he can be liable! It looks and smells wonderful! :) Tootsie

Today I....

Watered my flowerbeds.

Put most of my indoor sown plants outside into the 4-shelf greenhouse.

Transplanted some things that were in pots that were getting way to small for them.

Moved out 2 of the tables that were in front of the livingroom window... we ALMOST have the livingroom back to "normal" LOL

Sprinkled columbine seeds all (and I mean ALL) over a shady flowerbed that barely gets any sun. I noticed that columbines from last year are coming back so I went nuts sprinkling all the left over seed there.

Discovered loads and loads more things (repeats of things I already mentioned) coming up in different flowerbeds.

Discovered some mystery bulb (a lily maybe? I'll have to double check some notes from last year...) coming back.

and finally planted up some Red Spider Zinnia indoors.... because after seeing pictures of them I am determined to get these to grow anyway I can!!! LOL

OH, yeah, and I put some Hiacynth Bean Vine seeds onto a coffee filter/baggy method to see if they will sprout or not. They came out of the seed pod looking like they had already started sprouting???? Weird. We'll see what happens with them.

Now I'm trying to figure out what to put on the BBQ tonight :^) It's too nice out to think of heating up the kitchen :^)

~Ang~

Ah...20 here today...Looks like we might get a little evening shower...it would have been an awesome day for going out but instead I...

Went to town and bought lino for my bathroom. Very excited!! We decided to hire a guy to come help DH do the bathroom on his (DH's) next days off. I should have a brand new bathroom three weeks from now!! Funny story...My mom and I gutted the bathroom (to the studs) in January and got it past the point of no return *EVIL GRIN*. DH and I went and bought the 6' soaker tub & 48" shower...then got busy and, well, now it's into gardening season...who want's to spend their time drywalling?? Hello hired help!! ;->

Bought DH some flies and a new reel for his flyrod for his birthday in 2 weeks. (For those unfamiliar with the sport...the 'flies' are not live/freezedried/or any thing creepy like that...they're made with feathers and fur, etc. ;-)

Went and looked at/picked out my new vanity and counter top. Parused the knob/handle isle as well as the isle with shower and tub faucets. Looked at fencing materials, etc.

Went for lunch with Grandma (my mom) and Brayden.

Gave mom a perm.

Wandered around the yard to see how much stuff has grown, since last night when I was out there doing the same thing.

And now I'm here vegging out in front of the computer, and thinking I should go cook something for supper.
BBQ sounds good to me too!! (Last night I had a BBQ'd porkchop and a skewer of BBQ'd shrimp...mmmm BBQ!! :-p...

Verena

Today, I
-finished my winter (spring) sowing
-built my tomato trellises out of pvc pipe, waiting for the nylon netting to come in the mail
-built a 2'x4' raised bed for my strawberries

Yesterday, i planted my new lilies, moved some dianthus and weeded (not perfectly, of course) one of the beds. Who planted all those dandelions???

Today i worked. :) After work, it was time to check all the WS containers and water them, and when i took a walkabout, i noticed how dry it was under the eaves at the back. So i took a watering can to the beds back there - not a perfect solution, but it helps. Now i've got dh musing over plans for a rain barrel under the downspout. Only thing is, you need rain for that and we haven't had any of that in a long time!

- started digging my veggie garden. It was absolutely wonderful to be digging in the dirt. But, I only got a bit of it done. Decided I wasn't going to kill myself on day 1.
- started soaking my peas so I can plant tomorrow.
- planted my hanging basket sweet peas.
- cleaned up my front beds. They look sooooo much better.
- cleaned out some of my big patio pots. I may look at starting to plant up my waves. I can always bring them in at night.

I'm just having a bit of trouble adapting to this zone 5 weather. What am I doing digging in my garden in April?

Shauna

LOL Shauna...I know how you feel...well I did until it all went shall we say NORTH on Sunday...LOL

I finished work early last night so I spent the evening setting up my solar lights on my deck...turned into a major deck reno instead!
Hmmm...I cant seem to get my camera to connect siO I can download pics....gotta go see if I can figure it out!

I hear ya, Shauna! I keep thinking "... its so warm I could.... no, I better not" LOL

In the meantime I keep checking my greenhouse for new sprouts and I may pot up a container or two yet and leave it in the greenhouse for now.

And I'm off to Michael's this afternoon! LOL That's one to prevent me from doing too much out there! LOL

~Ang~

- decided it was too windy to do anything outside.
- almost buckled and went greenhousing. My favorite pastime.
- spent most of my day registering my kids for a new high school program they are going into in the fall. I guess my kids' education is a bit more important than going to the greenhouse. LOL

Shauna

- Slept in...until the phone rang at 9:00 (I was up half the night going over family law cases in AB on CANLII...DH and I have been fighting to see his kids for 3 years, 2 months, 7 days... :`(
- Talked to my SIL for 2 hrs (got talking gardening... ;-)
- Thought of Hubby - who's on his way to Texas for work - left three days ago...they're driving the big units down.
- Dug out some pots for a girl from Red Deer who would like some plants to start a garden (She's going to relieve me of some forget-me-nots, shastas and a couple Iris roots)
- Tried to clean my kitchen, but got distracted by Brayden who kept saying 'Mum!' and then grinning when I looked at him.
- Spent a couple hours playing with him...he's so cute!!
- Sprayed all my plants with Safer soap - I have an infestation of little black plant flies... :-(
- Thought of Hubby some more - what can I say...newlyweds (sort of) ;-)
- Started supper - Mmmm...Slow roasted honey garlic chicken wings...
- Thought of working on my garden, but it's too windy to dig out the ash from (DH's) burn pit that was in the MIDDLE of the garden.

Shauna - sweet peas in hanging baskets - do they grow up the hangers or do they trail over the sides?? Have you tried it before? How do they look...do you put anything else with them?? (Do you have Pics??) - I've got 2 new baskets and have been wondering what to stuff them with. (I also have a fair bit of seed for sweet peas.)

Verena (Have to run...Brayden is waking up from his nap...time to go play some more...I mean clean my kitchen... ;-)

Verena, have you tried the peppermint tea, yet? Try it on your houseplants.
The sweet peas are a new seed (for me) called 'Sugar 'n Spice' from Thompson and Morgan. They have a trailing habit and are compact. I love sweet peas and figured this was a great way to get the fragrance closer to the house to enjoy. These are the ones that I lost on the weekend when my w/s dumped. But, I went and bought another pkg. and also managed to rescue about 8/25 seeds from the first batch. So, I decided at this point, to just plant them directly into the pot and let them go. Fingers crossed. I always direct sow my other sweet peas, so these should be fine. The climbers will be sown by the weekend.

Shauna

Thanks for the info Shauna. I also love sweet peas...some of mine are soaking right now. I may have to look into this new variety!

With the peppermint tea...what do you have to do? How strong does it need to be, and do you soak it through or just spray it on the top??

Verena

Verena, check out our recent thread on fungus gnats and peppermint tea. It's been working pretty well for me.

I have been using 2 tea bags per 1.5L of boiling water, cool overnight and add about another 1.5L of cold water just to bring the volume up since I have a lot of seedlings to water.

Just water the seedlings thoroughly, I don't think spraying the soil is enough because it's the larvae in the soil that are targeted.

If you're wondering what to do with the rest of the box, peppermint tea is yummy for us too!

Here is a link that might be useful: Fungus Gnat Thread

.... went back to bed after the kids got on the bus and I had checked my WS plants... was up all night with my youngest (flu --- yucky).

... got up... had a shower.... sat here playing on the net! LOL

A lady from our church is having a chat about planning flowerbeds and amending soil, etc, etc, tonight so I've got to be awake for that! Should be interesting to see who's all into gardening!

Oh yeah, I bought Peppermint Tea while I was out doing groceries last night. I see some of them buggers flying around the greenhouse but I'm sure their hours are numbered. I can't wait to try this tea on them!

Yesterday was so windy I didn't do much besides check on things. At least it blew in some nice weather! Today is awesome.

I'm planning to plant out some Acidanthera 'Murielae' today. I'll try a few bulbs in the garden behind my Belamcanda which is a very protected spot. Seeing as I've got 20 bulbs I figure I'll experiment with a few! The rest will go in containers.

Ang