I had to break one of my normal rules and ask for help this week. It was a patch of siberian iris, about 10 years old, that was in the way of a crape myrtle I wanted to transplant. I'll be paying back this favor for a long time, because my husband dislikes nothing more than gardening.

The Lagerstroemia made it across the yard and looked great, but was promptly uprooted by the Evil Digging Dog. It's now undergoing intensive care, with shade cloth and frequent misting.

The CM came from a bed I seriously overplanted last year, so I'm relocating several shrubs and small trees from that area. This rain is going to be a big help, I hate moving plants that are already stressed by drought.

I'm digging volunteers for a planned swap in Lexington; see the link below.

Re the uderlining, that's a new ad technique that ivillage has come up with. It's under discussion on several other forums. It comes and goes, there were no links in your post when I read it. I'll say no more, don't want this to disappear.

Here is a link that might be useful: SE MA swap thread

DtD, it's amusing to me to see that other folks have Native American names for their dogs - my sister-in-law has one she calls Dog Who Barks A Lot, and our Newfie is subtitled She Who Drools.

In my garden - weeding, dividing, organizing, planting transplants still. Later this weekend, I will be organizing flats of small perennials for a benefit sale.

Still mostly just watering going on here. I did extend a bed last week using the lasagna method, and I outlined another, but have yet to build it.

Oh, I've also been laying down milky spore. I finally dropped the dime and bought some, and have been measuring out my teaspoons every four feet, lol! I've got about a quarter of my acre yard done. I wonder if I need to spread it in the woods also to be effective? I certainly hope not!

I'm actually looking forward to starting to clean up the garden this year. It's not been a great season for me. I've actually been enjoying working in one of my customer's gardens more than my own. (You know how the electrician's house is the last to be wired properly, or the plumber's house always has the leaky faucets, lol? Well, my customer's gardens are much neater and more organized than my own!) But I digress...

So, watering and milky spore here. Also did lots of staking up in the vegetable garden after the strong winds here earlier in the week. This afternoon I'll go and empty some of the pots of dead annuals that have been starting to add up. That will make the garden look a bit better.

:)
Dee

Weeding. At the moment it's actually under control. That wont last.

Started some seeds last week in the vain hope that they'll be big enough to survive the winter so I'll get a jump on blooming. Hibiscus and hollyhock and foxglove, from trades. Kept most of the seed tho, I'm going to winter and spring sow it all as well, so if I lose the ones I sowed last week I can try again. As of this morning some of the hibiscus and hollyhocks had sprouted.

Something, probably a deer, ate the leaves off one of my morning glory vines. Just the bottom half, the top's still there. So now it looks kinda weird, as it was winding through the railing going up the front steps. Didnt touch anything else in the garden, just the morning glory.

DH put in trellising around the base of the deck, not completely done but mostly. Looks a lot better than being open underneath. Next year my vines can climb the trellising to get up to the deck, instead of me having to run thread down. :-)

It's really depressing, I get home at 8PM and now it's dark when I get home. So weekday gardening is getting much harder. I set the alarm early with the plan of getting up and gardening then, but just one more snooze is soooo tempting.....and the kitties are snuggly in the morning...

Just wanted to suggest something that I tried and absolutely am loving! Last fall, on about 3 or 4 beds, I put down shredded leaves and compost as a soil amendment. Well, it has the added benefit of really suppressing weeds. In those particular beds, I have barely had to pull a weed all year. A stray piece of grass here or there, a weed every so often, but as far as sitting down to weed the entire bed? Haven't done it since spring, and even that first time it took just a few minutes. Contrast that to the beds where I didn't lay down that layer, and oy vey! Weed city! Hours weeding!

Since I see several of you are weeding, I thought I'd pass this along if it could help. There's just too much to do to spend so much time weeding (although I will admit that once I get down to finally doing it, I find weeding to be rather relaxing!)

:)
Dee

Dee - The milky spore will spread to the woods on its own in awhile, just give it some time. At least that's what I've read - as the JBs in your yard die, the bacteria grow exponentially. THe MS gets carried through the neighborhood. At least, theoretically!

I haven't seen this yet, personally, but I DO know I didn't have many JBs this year, and I just treated my yard last year.

Thanks DTD. That's what I heard too - that it spreads - but I wasn't sure if I'd have to put SOMETHING in the woods to get it started. I guess I'll do all of the yard except the woods, and see how it goes next year. It can't be much worse than it was this year!

:)
Dee