MN Venero Gardens & Nursery, 5985 Seamans Drive, Shorewood, Minnesota 55331 http://www.venerogardens.com/ (hostas, perennials) Baldwin Lake Perennials Inc., 6110 Baldwin Lake Rd, Lino Lakes, Minnesota 55014 http://www.baldwinlakeperennials.com/ (hostas, perennials) Knechts Nurseries and Landscaping, 1601 Hwy 19 West, Northfield, MN 55057 http://knechts.net/ (hostas, perennials) Hidden Springs Flower Farm, Spring Grove, MN 55974 (hostas, perennials, Peony) http://www.ricecreekgardens.com/ (formerly Rice Creek Gardens in Blaine - maybe reopening in '10) Chaska Farm & Garden, 3240 Chaska Blvd. (Old Hwy 212), Chaska, MN 55318 http://cfg.kevinconnection.com/index.htm (hostas, perennials) Paul

Last Swap! On September 20th we'll have our last swap of the season. We have decided to make it a little more fun by having some food. Please bring any kind of finger food, appetizer or dessert. We'll set up a table and eat and swap. We also have a request from the local teen center for some plants for their gardens, one of which is Tyler's Memorial Garden for a young man who passed tragically a few years ago. I guess we have a reputation for being generous gardeners. How true. See you Tuesday. Wish List Sept. 20, 2005 *Teen Center/TylerÂs Garden Wishes- Hosta, Coreopsis, Fall Aster, Astilbe Baptisia- Blue False Indigo- Reena Bee Balm, white- Chris D Blue Bell- Tina L., Elena Butterfly bush, pink- Lisa A., Jessica S. Butterfly bush- Colleen Butterfly weed, orange- Leah Canna, yellow- Celeste Clematis- Roxanne Clematis, pink or white- Vicki K. Hemlock seedlings- Steffie Hens and Chicks, red- Lindsay Hosta, Blue- Priyanka Hosta Sieboldiana- Allison H. Iris, twice-blooming- Leilani Lilac, dark purple- Regina, Helena Lotus- Bev K. Manure- (can never have enough)- Elaine Pachysandra- Variegated- Anne Carey Phlox, Natasha variety- Cheryl C. Plant markers- Irene Pincushion Flower- Arlene Russian Sage- Roxanne A. Water Lily- Chris M. Weigela- Variegated- Sue D. Wisteria vine- Judith L., Linda West

Thank you everyone for coming to the swap. What a difference a weeks makes. Couldn't have been more perfect weather, especially after last weekend. It was and is my pleasure to host the swap every spring, and plan on doing so for a lot more years. Agnes you beat me to the link with the recipe. Tara, now what good is a large yard with grass growing in it. costs money to keep it growing, way to much water to keep it green and we end up with water bans, restrictions all over the place, so how do you water the lawns?, patch the lawns and keep the grass seed wet so it will germinate, seedlings grow etc. Yup, tis why my front lawn looks like it does. We've had permanent water restrictions in town for years and years now and there is a fine for watering on the wrong day. Trust me, the town is eager for money and they travel around just looking for someone watering on the wrong day. If I'm going to water on alternate days, then it's going to be water used to grown my plants and garden beds, not lawns. Zazheen, not a problem with the wagon. Melissa took it with her, got in her car and now the kids have it. Melissa, thanks but no thanks, the wagon is yours, but as Mark said, he would love to see pictures of the "newly renovated wagon" when it's done. Now if you want to turn those kids into wonderful gardeners, got the perfect plan for you, just call or shoot me an email and I'll be glad to tell you all about it. Again, thanks everyone for coming, enjoy all the new "babies" and how about posting some pics to show all of us how they look when they bloom. Fran

PopMama, I got curious enough to check out the Colorado Noxious Weed list on this one—and it’s NOT on it! As of now, none of the Campanulas are on it! But here’s a good info page I ran into if you want to see more about it. Check out the tabs on top for pics and other info. On the “legal status” tab it tells if a plant is a Noxious Weed ANYWHERE in the country. If it’s not, there’s just no “noxious weed” info there! (This is the USDA site some of us have referred to recently, but it looks to me like they’re changing it—for the better! There's more useable info than I remember the site having!) Pics of it on the “images” tab, and I agree that’s what it is—I hadn’t been familiar with it before! http://plants.usda.gov/core/profile?symbol=CARA&photoID=cara_004_ahp.tif I way agree with OakIris that it’s a good idea to get rid of it NOW, while you still can. I made a mistake when I decided the Mexican Evening Primrose (Oenothera speciosa ‘Siskiyou’) that was here when I bought the house was SO Pretty that I didn’t want to get rid of it—even tho I KNEW it was invasive. A couple years later—after it had gone UNDER my 3’ wide sidewalk I decided maybe it wasn’t so pretty after all—and spent a few years fighting it to finally get rid of it all! I KNEW it was invasive! It was pretty dumb of me to decide to let it grow in the first place, pretty or not! OakIris, I definitely agree that if you use an herbicide, no matter which one you pick, they all have some sort of a problem or disadvantage. I, also, try not to use them whenever possible, but there are times when, for me, there’s no other option. Here are a few pics I took yesterday! My front yard is, literally, turning into the new Aspen Pando! I’ve been fighting my neighbor’s aspen trees ever since I moved in here, and, in this case, the only alternative to using an herbicide is to BOMB my neighbor’s aspens—which would inadvertently include his house! It’s not possible to pull them out—no matter how often you pulled them. The roots from his trees are still in MY yard, and the suckers will keep coming up into perpetuity! Here’s the situation! (Yeah, my grass looks awful! I didn’t want to mow until I got them sprayed so there’d be as much foliage as possible, and with the rain we had it wasn’t possible to spray them, and I finally just got it done yesterday! Right after I sprayed them—decided I wanted to Document them! Tonite I’m gonna water the heck out of them to get them sucking up as much of the WBG as possible.) From the neighbor’s side of my yard! The dandelions, other assorted milkweed, and other assorted WEEDS are from the Weed Lot Neighbors BEHIND me! Before that house was foreclosed and left standing empty for a year+, I had had virtually ALL the weeds—except aspen trees!—gone from my grass! https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/PXqT8lNzQ9syFNJAVkrt4KdtHZHTh5d06Slth8pk5yQ?feat=directlink Looking toward my neighbor’s yard! Location of HIS trees in text on the pic! https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/X3ooWHX8AfOdgHkMo0R0GadtHZHTh5d06Slth8pk5yQ?feat=directlink From a little bit in front of his trees looking toward the street. The stump is “my pine” that died last year! https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/kiJS55iy80IyQpRB3bE0cKdtHZHTh5d06Slth8pk5yQ?feat=directlink And a “side” view to show how BIG they actually are! You really can’t see that in the other pics! https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/5LHffPo37QgpixQcyypCrKdtHZHTh5d06Slth8pk5yQ?feat=directlink No other options! Also, I have found a way to use WBG in my perennial beds—even when the weed is right in the middle of a good perennial plant. A few years ago I took these pics so I could show people how I do it if it ever came up around here. In this case, too, there was no other option. Or, I guess you could say there was an option, but that option would have been to dig the whole plant up in order to be able to get the whole root of the weed—which was a thistle—out of the ground, and then to replant the whole—big—plant! That wasn’t gonna happen! Here’s a pic of the thistle in the MIDDLE of my (good) plant. https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/Ilh2INAPjBhE1nsFp34gMsK0nZGRGfHLEy4-V3DuEj0?feat=directlink What I do is to cut a small hole (just big enough for what I need to do) in the corner of the bottom of a plastic bag (I use non-zipper ones—they’re cheaper and easier to handle), and then I pull the entire weed up into the bag, “secure” the bottom of the bag where the hole meets the ground—usually by pushing the plastic slightly into the soil, and then, after being sure ALL of the weed is inside the bag I spray enough to wet all the foliage with a pressure sprayer (I think it would be really hard to keep the spray in the baggie with a spray bottle). Then I leave the top of the bag open for a day or so, so the plant can keep “growing” and draw the herbicide down into the roots, and then I usually close the top of the baggie and let it Stew In Its Own Juices! Kind of like Zach’s solarization system! I leave the baggie in place till I’m sure the entire plant is dead—or until it starts to grow again, in which case I give it another spritz of WBG. With this particular “weed,” one application (of WBG, not RU) was enough to send it to that Great Weed Cemetery in the Sky—or wherever it is! With bindweed (I only have an occasional “individual” one at this point) I wrap the vine around my fingers into a little “role” and tuck it into the baggie. (One other thing! If you use an herbicide and accidentally get it on a “good” plant, if you rinse it off immediately it won’t do any harm. Just rinse it off BEFORE it dries!) Here’s a pic of the thistle “in the baggie,” about to Meet Its Maker! https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/abquB3E3LFGyx5o5jGytvcK0nZGRGfHLEy4-V3DuEj0?feat=directlink In other situations with weeds just “near” perennials, I’ve used things like cottage cheese type containers with the bottom cut out—or anything that’s the right size that I can cut the bottom out of. A couple times I used a club cracker box—just folded the flaps on the bottom up into the box, put it over the weed, firmly into the soil, sprayed, waited a day or so, and then closed the flaps on the top of the box! (It kind of looked like I was trying to grow Club Crackers in my garden!!!) When I was desperately trying to get rid of the Mexican Evening Primrose, I took a large sheet of cardboard and held up against the (big) plants that were immediately next to the primrose—firmly on the ground, sprayed them, waited a couple minutes for them to dry, and pulled the cardboard out. So anything that will keep from getting the spray on the “good” plants works. I’ve heard stories where some people claim the herbicide can somehow transmigrate from the roots of the weeds you’re trying to kill into the roots of the good plants you want to save—but I’ve sure never had that happen, and as you can see, I’ve done it, literally, in the middle of a “good” plant! So it is possible, and I do it in cases where “pulling” just isn’t an option. Hope some of this helps if you ever get to the point where you feel you don’t have any other options. Skybird P.S. There IS a “Grass B Gon” that’s supposed to kill grasses but not broadleaf plants, but I’ve never tried it.