Hi, just realized that although there is a link from the Wisconsin garden group to the Midwest one, there is no link back, so here is the link to the WI forum. Marcia Here is a link that might be useful: Wisconsin Gardenweb forum

Thanks, Fran (and Mike), for hosting the swap ... what a great idea and it is so generous of you to do it. And thanks to you and Lisa for the plants I took home. I finally came back in the house at 8 pm after planting all afternoon. I realized after I had done it that maybe I shouldn't have put the little seedlings out yet (the tiny ones in the styrofoam cups) ... I hope they make it. I'll make sure not to let them dry out .... any other tips? I was actually wondering if I should dig them back up and bring them inside again for a while till they get a little bigger. I'll post pictures in a few days once the plants get established. I hope others do too ... I'd love to see how my "babies" turn out. Like, what color are the irises I brought? Did anybody else realize the weird thing ... the only three guys who came to the swap (not counting Mike since he didn't "come" ... he was already there) were of Indian origin? Weird. My best to all, Pankaj This post was edited by PankajT on Sun, Jun 8, 14 at 11:39

Hi everyone, Very nice, Ellie, that your county provides compost bins to its residents. Wish ours did that instead of spend money to collect yard debris. Alana, I love the sound of your orange-flowered garden. Orange colored flowers are some of my favorites. Shirley, great GLOW photo of the hot air balloons. What a shot that captures the moment! Jeanne, I watched the College World Series, too. I yelled enough to make myself somewhat hoarse. OK, so I admit to being a very "animated" college sports fan when I get into games... Although I am a die-hard SEC fan, I confess I was pulling for my husband's alma mater, U of AZ. Only fair, since he dares not pull against LSU. As for the cormorant chicks - When we band, we place a band on each leg. One is a small metal band issued by the US Fish & Wildlife Service, Bird Banding Lab. The other is a plastic, colored band that can be read from a distance using binoculars or a spotting scope. Throughout the breeding season, we spend several days sitting in blinds, observing for banded birds that return to that colony. That enables us to get much more info other than through someone finding a dead banded bird and reporting it to the Bird Banding Lab. We can determine breeding site fidelity, survivorship, age structure, and other population demographics. Last year we re-spotted more than 400 unique bands at the 2 islands we conduct our observations on. Here is a "digiscoped" photo I took of one of the birds. As to why we do it at night - that is a matter of reducing disturbance as much as possible. All the birds are calmer at night, so we try to only go on the island when it is dark. That means banding all night long. It also means on observation days, we leave the boat dock at 3:00 am and don't leave the island until 9:00 pm. Makes for a long day, and you have to stay in your 5' x 7' blind for the duration (and that is why we bring a "honey bucket" with us). Hahaha. Happy gardening, Katie

Margo-Congratulations on your first grandchild -soon-to-be. So sad to hear about your bird....I love when they can talk to you that is so cool. We get so attached to our pets and it is hard when we lose them. Hugs coming your way. Thanks for all the happy anniversaries...I remember when Eddie asked me to marry him and I said no way. I hate needles and told him no blood tests for me. He said he knew we could go to SC and not have to get blood tests so that is what we did. Jeanne-lets pray the treatments get scheduled soon. Keep us updated. Glad you received the daylily and hope you see tons of blooms. WE have had so much rain it is unreal. I don't know if my bearded irises can withstand all this rain, they are bad to get bacterial soft-rot with too much rain. Sue G - I received the daylilies and will ship out your Freda James Daylily Monday. Thanks A Halloween anniversary sounds interesting. Eddie always says everyone celebrates our anniversary with all the fireworks. Shirley