Hi-- I'm not into gardening, but I AM from Maine, and came across this thread while doing a search on another topic! I'm usually found over in "That Home Site" helping people in the kitches, bathrooms, and flooring forums (I'm a ceramic tile contractor). I came across this thread, though, and thought I'd check it out, and there are so many places mentioned here that I've done work-- from MDI to Vinalhaven and Rockland, To Ogonquit and Wells-- I feel like my "cyber life" and real life just clashed head on!! :-) I used to live up about 1/2 way between Ellsworth and Deer Isle in a little town called Brooklin, but for the last 8 years, I've lived in the Lakes region, presently in Bridgton.

I remember the days before I-Village bought the gardening website. We had a guy called "Spike" who would send us to Disneyland link if he didn't like the tone of our messages. One fellow posted too many pics "hosta of the day" that inspired our friend Papou to take notes on his new beds, and that fellow Hank Zumach was banned. That was back about 2001, I think. Where would one go to suggest pinned threads? I cannot find a moderator link for Tamara. I never got an answer when I repeatedly reported a spammer on the bathroom forum that took up more than whole page of posts for a few days within the last week or so? I've been here a long time. Too long, I guess. I have seen the FAQ first set up, then updated, but now much of that info is out of date. It seems to me that between the Hosta Library and the American Hosta Society websites, all those bases are covered. -Babka

I have many hostas on Papou's list. Some of those that draw my eye over and over again are Yellow River- I see it way too rare in people gardens- really striking. Majestic gold coloring- Fire Island and Gilt by assotiation in the spring, King Tut, Golden Waffles and and Fort Knox all season Cutting Edge and Blue haired Lady still standing like they were in the spring, untouched by slugs or seasonal damage L/s Lagoon is relatively new to me but has incredible shape of the leaf and coloring overall, I decided if I have to look up the name of the hosta every time I see it- it has no place in my garden....

Hi everyone, Well, I am double posting this in 2 forums - I hope nobody minds. As promised, here I am posting about what in the world I've been doing all summer while traveling to & fro Wisconsin. As some of you already know, I work with fish-eating birds: cormorants, pelicans, herons, egrets, gulls, wood storks, etc. My husband and I have been working in Wisconsin for the past 3 years, but we also regularly work in Mississippi, Alabama, Arkansas, Michigan, Ontario, and a few other places. Yes, we are a husband + wife team, working together out of the same office. Many people are surprised that we work together, but it is great. We make a fantastic team, and are often at our best under challenging field conditions. Great minds think alike, and being dear friends & in love sure helps too. (ok, enough with the mushy stuff). So now for a few photos from the vegetation surveys we did this month. Background: We are working on remote islands in Lake Michigan, around the Door Co. Peninsula area. All the islands have nesting double-crested cormorants and herring gulls. Some also have nesting Am. white pelicans and Canada geese. Back in April, we put up some 6 ft x 6 ft pens (we call them exclosures) to exclude the cormorants because they damage vegetation with their nesting activities (too much POOP!). So then we went back in August to catalog everything that grew in the pens, by plant species, and weighed it to also determine biomass. That meant breaking out the field guides, studying up on botany and the flora of Wisconsin, and bringing the plant presses for species we couldn't identify on the island. We compareed the exclosure plots to some "control" plots, which had nothing but 4 wooden stakes at the corners. We had 45 plots to do on 3 islands, plus another 3 islands down by the city of Green Bay that we did simple vegetation surveys on (no pens). It was alot of work, but very interesting. The bottom line: there are lots of nonnative species on those islands, like motherwort, catnip, pigweed, common mallow, stinging nettle and sow thistle. The native vegetation was primarily lambsquarter and smartweed species. Almost done clipping this 1-meter plot: Looking for small plants beneath the lambsquarter The finished, sampled 1-meter subplot Who would even know what this was?!?! I saved seeds to winter sow and see if I can't figure it out. The very last veg plot to measure. You can tell, because we look so happy! A friend found crawling across the plant press The stinging nettle I hacked through to make us a nice trail to get to the center of the island. At least its not poison ivy! Ok, that's all for now. Have a great evening. Katie (heh - I've been working on this post for days!)