Happy happy, joy joy! Sunshine is RIGHT. I have it too! It is so exciting to see it in the morning. Seems like a very long time since it showed itself to us in the morning.
Gives me hope...now if it will just give me energy..,perhaps I can get something done.
I have other things to deal with today besides getting outside...if I can get all that taken care of perhaps I can plant my new plants I got a few days ago...in the MUD...lol.
Ya'll have a great day! Let's enjoy it while it is here.
G.M.

Well, here it is only lunchtime and my sunshine is gone. The skies are getting that dark look to them, and I fear rain is about to fall.

I DID enjoy the few hours of sunshine we had.

The amount of standing water and mud and muck are unreal.

Dawn

Dawn I have been outside and finally got the latest plants I brought home all planted. I added zinnia and purslane to the little new berm bed.. potted up the hibiscus...potted the ice plant in a hanging pot...pulled one of my hydrangeas which had died last year up and planted the new Kong Coleus in it's place...planted the new Amaryllis bulb in the bulb bed and made a small berm to plant the
three dwarf yellow canna bulbs in front of a sewer clean out pipe which sticks up out of ground in back yard...they should hide that ugly thing...haha.

Now it is definetely break time for me and we appear to have lost most of our sun too.

Our yard is a horrible mess. When I have to walk across the grass it is so wet that I try to keep going different ways to keep it from looking like a herd of cattle has been tromping around in it. Still have puddles and it's all just a big mess. I do so hope and pray that we can manage to go a few days with NO RAIN AT ALL! If it keeps this up I fear to think what will happen.

My friend who lives over near Rush Springs and Marlow sent me photos by email last night of areas of Duncan over the weekend. Cars stranded in water which completely covered the wheels and water no less a foot or more deep all around town. It was bad...there were wreckers in all the photos getting cars out of the deep water.

At least I guess we didn't get it that bad in most parts of Ardmore...we do have some streets which are very prone to flooding. Commerce which is the street Walmart is on is one of them in some areas.

Well I better go find out what I am having for lunch. DH and DS are having sandwiches today I think...and that is fine so I don't have to stop and cook right now.

G.M.

G.M.,

Well, it hasn't rained here yet, but it sure is trying.

It sounds like you have gotten so much done today, considering that all of us around here are currently living in swampland.

I potted up two small lavenders into larger clay pots, using a cactus soil blend for good drainage and gravel for mulch. Then I potted up three very small Cherry Bandana lantanas from 3" pots to 6" pots. I will put them in the ground once the standing water has soaked in and the ground has dried up some. I was going to move some rooted brugmansia cuttings from small pots to larger pots, but ran out of potting soil, so will save those for another day.

I worked most of the time in my butterfly bed that sits outside my kitchen window. It was the first bed I planted when we moved here in 1999, and it definitely needs to be cleared out, cleaned up and reworked. In the beginning, it had a pretty good blend of plants, but the more vigorous reseeders have pretty much taken over. Today I have been thinning out the extra vigorous plants so there will be fewer of them and so that they will have more air space between them, which seems especially important with all the moisture and humidity we are having this year. I also removed some weeds, and a little bermuda grass that was creeping in. It looks sort of bare, now, but it won't for long!

As soon as the soil dries a little, I can add some new plants to the butterfly bed. Some of them I will transplant from the border around my veggie garden, and some of them I have started in small paper cups or plastic nursery six-packs. I am looking forward to having a bigger variety of plants again for the butterflies to enjoy.

I started a few coleus and ornamental sweet potato cuttings, using small glass Dr. Pepper bottles filled with water.

I pruned my Chaste Tree (which prefers to be shrubby) up a little to make it more tree-like and to improve air circulation for the plants underneath it in the butterfly bed.

I stood and stared at the half of the peach tree destroyed by the storm, and wondered if we can save the other half. DH will have to cut off the broken half as it is too large for me to cut with a pruning saw, and I won't use the chainsaw because I'd probably cut off my arm with it. It just figures. Give us a good year with a lot of fruit, and just see what happens. Oh, well, it happens. Next year will be better. The butterflies, moths, bees and other creatures are enjoying the not-yet-ripe peaches that the storm knocked off the tree. And we still have half a tree left that might survive and give us ripe fruit in another few weeks.

More plums are getting ripe. Maybe I'll get to harvest them before another weather disaster strikes. lol

Our yard is a horrible, wet, mucky mess just like yours. It is so wet that the giant turtle who lives in our pond crawled out of the pond and laid in the grass to sun himself or herself. Apparently the grass was too wet, so the turtle then climbed up on the concrete patio that is attached to the barn. I didn't know it ever got too wet for a turtle!

Ever since we moved here, I have been removing bermuda grass a little at a time as I enlarge existing beds or build new ones. I wonder if it could possibly rain enough to drown the bermuda grass for me all at once? Probably not. (sigh) I wouldn't mind the excessive rain so much if it would help me get rid of that bermuda!

And I guess the rabbits thought it was too wet to eat last night because they have been sitting in the gravel driveway today in broad daylight eating from the little piles of henscratch/sunflower seeds that I put out for them and the birds. Usually the bunnies make some effort to run off and hide when they see me, the cats or the dogs. Today they just sat and looked at us. I wonder if they didn't want to run back through the mud and standing water to hide in the tall grass in the neighbor's pasture?

There were deer tracks all over the place OUTSIDE the garden fence, but is doesn't look like the deer jumped the fence into the garden. They are probably checking on the corn to see if it is worth their while to jump the fence yet. It's not. The corn is silking, so we should have good ears for the raccoons, the deer and us in about 3-and-a-half weeks.

I came inside early today, having had all the humidity I can stand. Guess I'll change into clean clothes and then clean up the house while I cook dinner. Maybe I can slip back outside into the garden for a little while after we eat. DH and DS get home around 5 p.m. and we usually eat pretty soon after that, so I ought to have a little gardening time before sunset.

Dawn

We have had sun allllllllllllll day!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Unfortunately I was working so could not enjoy, but boy the humidity is terrific. Okay, to much griping, enjoy the humidity and the SUN!

Sure is easy to weed, though. I am still up to my ankles in water in the back yard and if you stand to long in one place you feel like you are on quicksand but the weeds just pop right out. DH is cooking dinner, I have on my garden clothes and I am headed outside. I still have stuff to plant although I am hesitating. I dont like planting in mud cause of the O2 binding in the soil when soaking wet. But everything is looking pretty good, with the exception of some rose bushes which are covered in black spot. Oh well, heavy pruning and some cleaning up and that should take care of the problem for awhile. It is to late to treat them, I will just have a "do over".

One question, I have a cat on my coneflowers, black with red striping on both sides running length wise of its back. They are all over the plants and the plants are in bad shape now. I am thinking army worms but is it not to early? I dont plan on using anything, just wandered what it would be when it cocoons and emerges.

Susan, Dawn I am depending on ya. Steffie

Hi Steffie!

I hope you had fun in the yard. Mud, sunshine and humidity--what a combination!

I have been holding off on planting stuff in the ground too.
It is just so very wet and mucky!

I am NOWHERE near as good at identifying cats as Susan is, but I'll try.

I've linked a photo of the caterpillar of the Silvery Checkerspot below. I think it might be what you are seeing.
They often eat my sunflower leaves, but sometimes appear on coneflower leaves as well.

Does your caterpillar look like the one in the linked photo? If not, let me know and I'll try my second guess.

Dawn

Here is a link that might be useful: Larva-Silvery Checkerspot

Is that what that big orange ball in the sky was??? WOW it's been so long I didn't recognize it!! Got lots of weeding done today, as well as mowed the yard - FINALLY!!

Thanks to the rain, the grass has been growing so well, I even had to run out a buy a bagger today! DH was excited - John Deere accessories seem to do that for him. Almost as much as diamond and ruby accessories excite me. Unfortunatly since we got married, I haven't gotten any of those! Hmmmm... This seems a little off balance now doesn't it?

DS helped a lot in the garden today. He just loves being outside! We have aMulberry tree that has dropped A LOT of fruit, which is sitting there rotting and attracting HUNDREDS of butterflies!! The little guy spent half the day sitting there, giggling everytime the butterflies "kissed" him. He'd walk around the tree from time to time and scare them all up, and wait for more "kisses". He's such a mess!!

Hopefully, I'll have enough sunshine tomorrow to get the front flowerbeds. I must not have mulched it correctly, I seem to be the only one in the neighborhood having to pull weeds! Is there a trick to mulch? We used cypress, and laid it down a couple inches thick (198 bags total - OUCH!). There's a couple of spots that have thinned out because the mulch was washed out by the rain, but the rain must have also washed out the weeds, because I'm having issues everywhere else. I'm starting to think that the compost our landscaper got from the city of Norman was full of weed and bermuda seed. It seems odd to me that we have bermuda growing in the beds, becuase there isn't any bermuda anywhere in our neighborhood. What's easy fix for this? The weeds are the worst in the front beds, and I can't seem to keep up with them!

Hope everyone enjoyed the nice weather - we'll get more of it soon. The 7 day forcast shows more rain, but the percentage of chance has decreased compared to last week, so hopefully it'll be just enough to water the gardens, and nothing more!

Courtney

Hi Courtney!

We mowed our yard a couple of days ago and it is already needing it again. I would like to think that MAYBE I could mow again today, but the radar this morning shows a big line of thunderstorms just west of us and headed our way, so I have my doubts. I am glad you were able to get your yard mowed. I bet this rain has been great for the lawn!

Since we purchased this property, we have bought more lawn and garden stuff than you could ever believe! It takes a lot of equipment to maintain a landscape, doesn't it? My DH is always happy to run right out and buy whatever he "needs" to maintain the property. I am just about as bad as he is, though. Life is so much easier if you have the equipment you need to do the job correctly.

You DS reminds me so much of our son at that age. I hope you are prepared for long hours spent outside in the heat this summer, because I don't think the little man will want to spend a lot of time indoors! I love the butterfly tale. I hope you got photos of him and the butterflies. It is great that he was able to see so many of them yesterday and enjoy them so much.

Courtney, there is no trick to mulch, per se, but the issue of weeds and grass in mulched beds can be complicated. So, here goes.

First of all, I bet you did pick up a lot of weed seed and perhaps grass seed in the compost. That is not uncommon with municipal compost which, in general, does not get as much attention as a homeowner's compost pile while it is composting.

Secondly, with all the rain we have had, lots and lots of stuff is sprouting, more so, I think, than in most years. So in that regard the weather is not your friend.

Third, whenever a new home is built, the land is disturbed quite a bit and weed seeds are exposed to light. Those weed seeds then sprout when the moisture, heat and light conditions are in the range they need for sprouting/growth. New homeowners often have horrible weed problems for the first couple of years.

As far as what to do about the weeds....

Pull them when small. If you let them get much growth, they will get away from you and the small weed problem becomes a massive weed problem. This is especially true of bermuda grass.

Pull them before they set seed. Any weed that sets seed will produce literally thousands more weeds. Enough said.

Observe your yard during/right after a rain shower. Check out the grade and make sure water is flowing away from the house and the flower beds close to the house. If for some reason water flows TOWARDS the house and the beds that are close to the house, then rain runoff will keep carrying weed seeds into your beds forever. Hopefully the land around your home was properly graded so this 'washing in' of weeds seeds will be minimal.

Make sure your mulch is 2" to 3" thick. I know that this may mean you have to keep buying mulch periodically all summer long, but it is important. Mulch that is not thick enough will allow weed and grass seeds to sprout in the soil underneath the mulch.

Can you tell if the weeds are sprouting in the soil UNDERNEATH the mulch, or if they are sprouting in the mulch itself? I guess there isn't really much difference, but the weeds that sprout in the mulch should be easier to pull since they initially are shallow rooted in mulch and not soil.

OPTION 1: Landscape Fabric. The most efficient way. Also very effective, though. After we built our house here, I tried to have beds with no landscape fabric on top of the ground but beneath the mulch. I wanted for the mulch to feed and improve the soil naturally as it broke down over the years.

Well, I am here to tell you that THAT did not work.

I have had to rake the mulch off beds (raking it onto a tarp helps contain it and keeps it from mixing in with the lawn), lay down WOVEN landscape fabric, and reapply mulch. It can take a lot of time to fit this landscape fabric around your trees, shrubs, groundcovers and perennials, but it will save you hundreds of hours a year. Who wants to spend hundreds of hours a year weeding?

Be sure to use the good-quality (and, therefore, more expensive) woven landscape fabric that looks sort of like really thin felt. Do not use the cheaper stuff that has little perforations to allow water to pass through more easily. That landscape fabric allows grass and weeds, and ESPECIALLY bermuda grass, to grow up through those perforations. As a weed preventative, the perforated fabric is useless. I learned this the hard way.

OPTION TWO. Herbicides. Less labor intensive. Results are not as long-lasting. You can use a weedkiller spray to kill the sprouting weeds. Be sure you use the correct herbicide if you go this route. There are products for broadleaf weeds that contain a common herbicide known as 2, 4-D. There are herbicides that contain MSMA or DSMA that are especiallly formulated for grassy weeds. There are glyphosate products like Round-up. There are also the so-called "over the top" weedkillers that can be sprayed onto beds to kill weeds and which will not, supposedly, kill your desirable plants. I have never tried one of these over-the-top products, but some people use them and like them. Be VERY careful, though, to ensure the herbicide used does not drift onto and kill your desirable plants.

There are pre-emergent herbicides that are effective if put out at the proper time before weeds have a chance to sprout.

There are products like Preen 'N Green that contain fertilizer and pre-emergent herbicides.

There are organic alternatives. However, in general, organic herbicides I have tried have been much less effective than chemical herbicides. Of the organic products available, corn gluten meal is a good pre-emergent, but has to be used before weeds sprout.

OPTION 3. Use herbicides first. See how effective they are for you. If you don't feel like you gain good weed control, go the landscape fabric route.

OPTION 4. Hand pull weeds and continue doing so several times a month for the rest of your life.

You know that I like to do things organically and as naturally as possible. However, I never say that I am 100% organic, because I am not. I will use chemical solutions when they are the most intelligent/most efective solution to a problem. Using herbicides, whether post-emergent or pre-emergent, is an idea that makes sense because it works.
I do not, hoever, use herbicides anywhere near my veggie garden. Tomatoes are just too susceptible to weedkiller drift--much more so than other plant I have ever seen.

I also do not use Round-Up or any other product containing glyphosate in any location where run-off can contaminate ponds or streams.

If you have weeds that are so close to plants that you are afraid a herbicide spray will kill the desirable plants, just mix up some weedkiller, don a pair of gloves, grab a little foam paintbrush and brush the weedkiller onto the weed. This lets you put the weedkiller precisely where you want it and no place else.

The constant battle with weeds can be wearying and I think a lot of people become discouraged by this battle to the point that they just give up and let the weeds run amok. Weeds can absolutely take the joy out of gardening.

Wherever you have disturbed soil, you will have weeds. Wherever you have wind and rain, weed seeds will be blown or washed into your garden. Wherever you have bermuda grass, it will attempt to invade garden beds. However, with persistence and the use of intelligent gardening practices, you can greatly reduce the amount of weeds you do have and you can keep the bermuda grass in the lawn where it belongs.

Good luck with the weeds.

Dawn

Two days of wonderful sunshine! It is so nice to have it and I just pray that the rain stays away!

Dawn I was in the middle of a long post last night when something went bonkers from me hitting the wrong button and I lost it all. I just didn't have enough energy to type it all again....lol.

I have not been in the yard much today just sitting on patio and enjoying the sunlight and warmth a little. Had errands all morning, then it was lunch time and after that it was one thing or another until late afternoon. I did go water my sweet potato vines with Alaskan fish fertilizer to hopefully give them a boost. And checked some of the rose starts and at least some of them seem to be working as some have new growth.

And I kept forgetting to post but my daylilies I complained about are now blooming and cannas are starting to bloom as well. Things look pretty good considering what all they have been through. I have a lot of blooming things right now and DH was complementing it a little while ago. I know it will get even better with sunshine.

And that is about it for me today.
G.M.

Well we made the most of the sunshine we had today. Got the garages clean out. (DH is having a poker party tomorrow night and to minimize damage, they'll be kept in the garage - they are all sailors, and they've earned their reputations!) After getting the garages done, we mowed the yard. Turned out that bagger that I got was the wrong size... Oh boy, ANOTHER trip to LOWE's...

Dawn, while we were there I picked up some of the corn-gluten that you mentioned. I spent at least an hour pulling weeds today, I know it's probably best to put that stuff down in Feb/Mar as a pre-mergence. Hopefully I can keep any newly blown seeds from sprouting, and then get a jump on them again next year.

We originally had landscape fabric down, cost us a fourtune, but all of the professional landscapers told us that it can keep the gound too moist becuase it doesn't allow moisture to evaporate as well. We also had probably 40% of our mulch blow into the yard becuase it didn't have anything to "stick" to. I wish we would have left it down. The beds in the back still have the fabric, and I'm spending much less time weeding back there.

I have a touch of Obsessive Control Disorder (DH would say that I'm a full blown case) so I've been on top of pulling the weeds, the rains have kept me from getting them daily, so they'd had a few days of a jump on me. Luckily, they hadn't developed seed heads yet.

Well, sky is black but the rain is letting up a bit. I'm going to take a walk around the yard and check things out. That last storm blew over my Hollyhocks - hopefully they're still standing!

GM - Wish I could have had a laid back day like yours! I have trouble sitting still though. DH also thinks I have ADD - LOL! That's only becuase he has trouble keeping up with me sometimes :))) Hopefully Sunday will be my day to do nothing. It might be a challenge, but I am going to force myself not to do any work. My kids call those days "Fend for Yourself Days". That's when I don't cook, and they start sniffing the leftovers in the fridge to see if anything is still edible, if not they run through all of the sandwich meat. It's a good way to cycle everything out of the fridge. I sure don't remember eating as much or as often when I was a teenager!

Hope everyone stays safe through the string of storms that are going to be rolling through.
Courtney

Hi Y'all!

The rain started here at about 8:20 p.m. but it is only a light rain so far. However, if you listen to the NWS radio, we are in for a doozie of a storm. I'm hoping it slides west of us and heads for Carter County. (Sorry, Merryheart. Just kidding.)

Merry Heart, The rain is headed your way more than it is headed our way, so I hope you have battened down the hatches. Sounds like a lovely day. I did spend a little time sitting in a chair on the patio, reading an Organic Gardening book. It is so hard for me to sit still, though. I like to be up doing things. Well, until the temps start hitting the mid-90s. Then I like to be inside where it is cool.

I did get a lot done today, and we were starting to dry out, so it figures that rain would arrive.

I put two logs in the pond, with the ends sticking out on the bank, so the giant turtle and its' tiny baby can sun themselves. The big turtle was on the logs on and off all day long, but the baby stayed on the water lily leaves.

Courtney,

I hope you get the weeds under control. I LOVE my landscape fabric, and since my problem MOST YEARS is that the soil dries out too quickly, I won't worry about the fabric keeping the moisture in! In the years that I have had it down, we have been in drought and it has worked fine, but I guess this year will be the real test.

Y'all sound just like us...at least one trip a week to Lowe's and sometimes more than one.

I think putting corn gluten meal out now is fine. It won't do anything for weeds that have already sprouted, but it should help prevent future sprouts. It also feeds the soil a little as it breaks down, so that's a bonus.

Like you, I have been trying to stay on top of the weeds and the rain is making it hard. I got a lot done today though.

Tomorrow we are going to Fort Worth for my niece's baby shower, so I hope to visit a couple of nurseries while we're there.....just to see if there is anything I can't live without!

I like the idea of a "Fend For Yourself" day! When my DH and DS drive up the driveway coming home from work, and I am still in my grubby clothes in the garden, they start hoping that there is going to be something in the crockpot.....or else they know they are going to have to fend for themselves!

Tonight we had a Frontier Days parade in town and took 3 firetrucks for that. After that, we ate out at La Roca, Marietta's local Tex-Mex restaurant. So, I didn't have to cook! I did cook yesterday and WOULD HAVE cooked today, but didn't have to. It's almost like having a vacation day.

Then we had to stop and feed the neighbor's animals while they are out of town, and take in the mail, etc. etc. etc.

Finally, we arrived home and got all our animals fed and put up for the night.

The rain can come. We are ready.

Dawn

It is 9:30 p.m. and raining. We had a sprinkle earlier. I have been seeing lightening in the west for a while.
I sure hope we don't get much......sigh. at least we had a couple of days with no rain.
G.M.

We only got about 3/10's of rain this time. Not too bad as long it stays away today. Looks like it is trying to clear off...I hope so.
I have been outside making mental lists of things which need attention but I just want to go someplace for fun...wonder if that will happen? lol

Dawn have safe trip today and have a good time.

Courtney...I like those fend for yourself days too. At this time in our lives if DS is not home then DH and I do that once in a while...there typically seems to be some leftovers or other stuff in fridge so we each just eat what and when we want. At any time I don't cook as much as I used to. Don't I get to retire too? hummm.....I don't think so....although DH is great to help out with all kinds of things around here and I love that.

Oh and by the way guys....I didn't really spend all that much time sitting around on the patio yesterday. I try to do that but end up seeing all the things I need to do and end up in the yard. I was tired yesterday after all the running around and various things....plus spending 2 to 3 hours on phone with extended family...lol...so I didn't do too much in the yard. I can be pretty hyper at times too...but when you get to be my age you do slow down a lot.

Oh and I like the landscape fabric too to control weeds....where I don't have it we have to battle weeds and sneaky bermuda grass too much. I have started using more rock on the landscape fabric instead of wood mulch...it washes away too easily in these downpours we get sometimes.

Well ya'll have a good Saturday. I need to go see what DH has plans for today so I will know how to plan my day.

G.M.

Well we got some of the rain last night but this morning we have sunshine and no clouds and the nice weather man said it is time to start getting hot they are calling for 90's next week

Guess it is time for those but I have to admit it has been nice having this cooler weather but with the heat comeing the tomatoes and other plants should start blooming and turning red

Dawn have a safe trip today

Merryheart don't work to hard today

Bessie

Courtney, you will love,love,love corn gluten. However, it does take some time. I use it twice a year and although I still have some weeds in the grass, not near like my neighbor to the north. If I can keep the dandlions down to five or six I am thrilled. That is all her yard really is, so I figure the stuff works. Of course, being like I am that is in the front yard. I like the front to look manicured and street worthy. The backyard surrounded by fence is more wild and crazy. I kind of let nature take its course.

Bermuda in the flower beds! Age old problem no solutions which are easy. One yr in the Dallas paper the garden section stated it takes at least five years to get bermuda out of flower beds and that is with constant work. Paul James says dont cut it that causes more problems. I simply let it get good and wet then pull! I have some established beds I am still working on to keep the grass out of it.

There is something to be said for making your own compost, you can be selective.

Dawn: thanks for the ID. I think that is what it is, but they is no trace of them now so they are getting on with the next life cycle. I will cut off the really dead areas of the coneflowers. It is not like they wont come back. In the bed where I have them planted they are massive.

Everyone enjoy, I have cooled off a little and returning outside to fit the weeds and mud. Visit more later

Steffie

Hi Everyone.

It was HOT in Fort Worth today, and only slightly cooler in Marietta when we arrived home around 6 p.m. I didn't even make it to a nursery in FW, although we stopped at a couple of local feed stores. Did spend a ton of time with family and friends at the niece's baby shower. I hadn't seen some of the folks from my sister's ex-husband's side of the family in about a decade. The children are all grown up and some of them have kids themselves now! It was fun.

Merry Heart,

How did you spend your day in Ardmore? Whatever you did, I hope it was fun.

Bessie,

My tomatoes are starting to produce, so I hope the heat holds and the tomato plants go wild. A lot of tomatoes that have been green FOREVER are starting to blush pink. We're going to have BLTs for dinner. Yum.

Steffie,

I hope you didn't overdo it outside today. That heat and humidity is going to take some getting used to since we have all been spoiled by a cool and wet May. We are having droves of mosquitoes right now, but I haven't stumbled into any chiggers yet (I hope that I don't!) although it is about that time of year.

No gardening work for me today, but maybe I can get out and do a little tomorrow afternoon.

I have a new book to read. It is the Seminis Seed Company's tomato disease book. I am seeing lots of bizarre things with my tomatoes that I don't normally see. (sigh) Nothing like a very wet spring to make life around here more interesting.

Dawn

Hi all... So much for just sitting on the patio doing nothing today! I tried, but I couldn't just sit there and do nothing for very long.

I HAD to trim off some tree branches. I can't remember what the tree is called, a bogart (?) the one that makes "horseapples". It's a horrible throny messy tree. But it's a mature tree so we decided to keep it and not tear it down. There were a few branches that were reaching out to attack me yesterday when I was mowing, so I decided to attack back.

Dawn, I did some more research on the Yucca Extract, and found out that it provides very little value to the plants. It's useful as a "sticker" for water soluable fertilizers and pesticides. I thought I'd try it with asprin water to help the asprin adhere to the pants better, but when I went to Satterlee's last weekend, they had a sticking agent on sale, so I picked up a few of them for $2.oo. I sprayed 50% of the plants today. I haven't experimented with the asprin water before. It was talked about on the Organic forum awhile ago, but the person never posted their results like they had promised - bummer. I'll keep using it every couple of weeks and see how things look. I'll let you know how if I see any differences.

Hope everyone had a good day today! The weather was beautiful. Dh and I finally got the little man an inflatable swimming pool - bot was that ever a hoot. DH and I spent more time in the pool than DS did, he had that hose in his hand and there was nothing that was gong to distract him from "putting out fires." I think I have a feeling I know what he's going to be when he grows up!!! You know how little ones are, they go from one phase to another, but this firefighting thing - I don't know if he's going to grow out of it, or INTO it! Time will tell, I suppose.

Well, I think I'm going to try out that patio thing again. Hope you all had a glorious weekend!

Courtney

the weekend was absolutely gorgeous!!!

i worked outside most of the day yesterday and some on Saturday.

its still pretty wet but hubby was finally able to mow - thought we were gonna lose our dogs in the yard before long.........lol

Hi Everyone!

It is a gorgeous day here today. Sunshine, heat and humidity. Oh, and mosquitoes. What more could you want?

Courtney,

That horseapple is a Bois D'Arc, although a common (think redneck) spelling of it often appears that looks like this: Bodark. When I was a kid, we had great fun rolling the horseapples down the street like bowling balls. I hate the trees though. They are messy and invasive. We don't have a single one on our property because whoever farmed this place before we bought it was really good about keeping then cleared out.

By the way, I KNEW you wouldn't be able to sit still and do nothing. That's OK. Time enough for sitting on the patio once it gets truly too hot to do anything else.

Somebody on one of the forums used asparin last year and felt like that had good results, but I can 't remember if they had identical control plants that were not sprayed with asparin water for comparison. I think they were using it as a general plant tonic in the hope that it would help make their plants more disease resistant and resilient. There is probably something to that theory since willow water is a great rooting medium for cuttings and asparin and willow have similar compounds.

The wading pool sounds like fun. It will give you all a place to cool off on hot days. Your little guy certainly has a waterhose fixation, doesn't he? Our firefighter son NEVER ever said anything about becoming a professional firefighter when he was a kid, but I do remember that he always had little firetrucks and stuff.

Gypsichic,

Glad y'all got the lawn mowed before the dogs got lost and couldn't find their way out of the jungle. This afternoon I hope to mow the pasture around the big pond. The grass there is waist high and FULL of mosquitoes.

And, y'all, we have only a 30% chance of rain today, then NO RAIN in the forecast again until Sunday. Hallelujah!

Dawn

Have a funny story today that I just had to share.

I thought that I could get away with watering the plants while the little guy and his sister were playing by his wading pool. She had let him actually get into the pool with his diaper on, which took on more water than the Titanic. He then striped down to his birthday suit (which I guess is appropriate since 06/05 is his B Day!) and then when Sissy was going to get a new diaper, he came over and told me it was his turn to water.

That was the funniest sight seeing him standing there naked watering the plants!! I was able to get a picture of it, but I'm afraid it could fall into the wrong hands if I posted it on the internet... I'll bring it to the next plant swap... there's no baby porn, just a cute little tooshie!

Courtney,

What a cute story. Now, this is the kind of story (and photo) that you file away in your memory, so you can bring it back and tell the story/show the photo to his fiancee' in 22 or 23 years or so! I do think it was smart to not put it on the internet!

So, today is the little guy's birthday! I hope y'all have a fun celebration.

Gorgeous weather in our forecast again today, and I hope it is in yours too.

Dawn

Courtney, some butterflies LOVE, LOVE, LOVE, rotting fruit, as in your mulberries. Those that nectar on it are Hackberry Emperors, Tawny Emperors, Question Marks, Red Admirals, and Commas. They will also nectar on flowers occasionally, but mostly like rotten fruit, dung, and carrion.

I love the rain we've gotten and am very thankful for a nice, wet spring this year. We probably won't see one for another 20 years! Everything is growing well in the garden and I am raising Question Marks, Black Swallowtails, and I FINALLY HAVE PIPEVINE SWALLOWTAILS - YIPPEE! I'm waiting for my Nessus Sphinx moths to emerge and will post photos when they do. Also found another baby sphinx on the Virginia Creeper, but too small to ID yet.

I saw the most beautiful little moth the other day. It was only about 1" wide, but it was black with white netting and red spots! Looked like a Faithful Beauty, but we are too far north for them. Not an 8-spotted forester either. I've seen them flitting around the yard now that they've emerged from their cocoons. Also saw a grapeleaf folder - very similar to 8-spotted foresters, but they look more like B-51 bombers, except very tiny. Black with white spots, no red. But their caterpillars are eating my VC right now as we speak, inside very tightly rolled leaves.

I have what seems like hundreds of Sleepy Orange eggs on my Senna hebecarpa, Senna bicapsularis, and Partridge Pea. Can't wait until they hatch!

I'm having to adopt out my Pipevine Swallowtail cats when they get a little bigger, because I don't have enough pipevine to feed the little buggers. But, the lady is going to give me some more of hers. Yippee! Butterfliers are wonderful folks!

Thanks for letting me ramble. Computer decided to work today, so I'm taking advantage........

Susan

Courtney,

That will be a story and photo to keep for when he get's older children are so cute at that age and have a wonderful way of thinking LOL

Bessie