I will cheat here and tell what I got done the last few days...Planted the raspberries my sis brought me from her garden to replace mine that the freeze killed.

Cleaned out the dreaded Bermuda Grass end of the garage bed...now when the grass shows up again (and it will!) I am going to spray with Over The Top. If if kills anything else, so be it. Brome is almost as big a problem, but hopefully the spray will kill it too.

My iris are rotting terribly, a few are blooming. I just hope at least one sound rhizome is left from each variety.

Today I plan to plant the onions, if the ground is dry enough to till first.

Oakleif, I have never seen a copperhead in the wild...and hope I don't. I know they are here, but I just haven't seen any. I am always aware when I weed to wear heavy rubber reinforced gloves. My great aunt lost the tip of a finger after being bitten by one.

I want to get out by 6:30, so better get busy.

I'm glad you started the journal this week, Vicki. I like reading about what everyone is doing. I hope more of you will write and tell us what you are doing in the garden and elsewhere.

There has been just too much talk of snakes on this forum. Seems we all have had close encounters this year. I haven't seen any more since I had the one trying to come into my house.

I've got most all my plants outside now. I've got them in a garden cart so I can move them around. Yesterday I had to get them in the least windy place I could find. I hope to have everything planted by the end of the week. I have several pepper plants and tomato plants. I still have cucumber plants inside that I planted last week. I also planted sungold tomato seed as I wasn't able to find any plants. Those will probably be very late but I wanted to try them. I've heard they have good flavor for a grape tomato.
I got the results of the soil test that I had taken several weeks ago. The soil in my garden tested 7.6 PH. That is very alkaline. All the nutrient levels were above average. We've never fertilized the yard as we don't like to encourage the grass to grow. ;-) We were given a plan to fertilize that will encourage strong roots by fertilizing in the fall. A nice fellow from the James River Basin project came out and discussed all this with me. Thanks, Violet, for letting me know about their program. He spoke very highly of the Master Gardeners. He had told me on the phone that he'd be here about fifteen minutes but he ended up staying an hour. He is an avid gardener and had planted 350 trees last year that he got from the MO Conservation dept. That makes our twenty some seem less excessive doesn't it, Christie?

Cersone, I'm happy to hear you are figuring out how to garden with just one good hand. I hope you are all healed up soon. I gained twenty pounds over the winter, mostly as the result of a new medication I started last November. I was overweight to begin with and the extra weight is really interfering with my gardening. I can't squat or bend over for long and I have to stop and rest way too often. I'm also having a new granddaughter next month so I need to get in shape for that. I've devised my own diet plan with a goal of losing five pounds a month. Wish me luck....Anise

I've enjoyed reading all these posts and thought I'd join in.

I planted most of my garden last weekend, April 29. As of this week, my pole beans, cantalope, turnips, lettuce, spinach, carrots and marigolds are all up. The tomatoes and peppers and herbs are doing well, except something gnawed upon my basil! :( I added zucchini, onions and nasturtium to the garden and planted begonia and impatients and calla lilly's to pots in the shady part of my patio! I still have cucumber seeds and black beans to plant, but I haven't finished their container yet! It was just a beautiful weekend to be outside!

Checking back in after a morning of gardening.

Just got the tiller out to do the rows for the onion plants and a rain came up and I had to quit. Didn't last long. Went back and planted 4 rows of Candy and Super Star. I still have to plant sweet corn, and pole beans. Don't know if I will do bush beans or not.....too much bending. I also have sweet potatoes to get in.
Peaceofmind, if your diet works, let me in on it. I have gained so much weight since we quit milking that it is interfering with my gardening too and I have a bed knee that I know isn't being helped with the extra weight.

I can't imagine how Ceresone is managing with one hand....I think of her when I get out and start digging. My Dad had one arm and he gardened, built a room on their house and could even peel a potato...amazing what you can do if you have to.

I use a garden cart too plus the trailer I hook on the back of the little John Deere riding mower. I keep all my tools, watering can, pruners, etc., plus take whatever I am planting next from the garden cart and I am off to the races.Before I used the trailer, I would walk myself to death going back and forth for various tools. When I am finished I just drive it under cover and all tools, empty planters, etc. are put away. Don't know why it took me so long to figure that routine out!

Special note: I am listening to DH mowing!!!! I gently suggested this morning that he might mow while I gardened and once I showed him a few quirks about the mower (like how to engage the blade!), he did and is now finishing up. Miracle of miracles.........................

Gld - Are you sure you want him to mow? I lost a three foot tree that way once. Those things are hard to see ya know.

I planted some annuals yesterday and a couple things I got at the Master Gardener sale. I still haven't planted my onions. Hope they're not mushy. I keep forgetting. I planted some long beans yesterday that I had growing in plastic cups. I still haven't planted my zinnias, or cosmos or melons or.....

No copperheads here so far. I never wear gloves but need to start. I grabbed a handful of weeds yesterday that had a big Black Widow Spider in it. That's the first time I've seen one in the weeds like that. I had one behind my planter on my porch last year waaay too close to my front door and found one on my patio too. I'm sure that's what they were - big shiny butt with the red spot underneath.
I need gloves with short fingers that I can get a hold of weeds with.

I'll diet with you guys. My knee has been bothering me again. I usually skip dinner to lose weight. That works best for me if I can stick to it. I did great for a week then had to go to a picnic Saturday evening and blew it.

Good day today. Tilled bed for sweet potatoes and another about 15x15 for whatever. Planted the sweet potatoes. Did a little "finish" work on DH's mowing. Christie, I warned him not to mow close to anything and to have the side that blows the grass pointed away from the flower beds! The string trimmer is the thing I won't let him touch. He did that once and cut down a nectarine tree. He wouldn't know a good plant from a weed. Yard work is not his forte.

The blue birds returned today and are building a nest in the house I put up a few days ago. The orioles are still here and have eaten a half jar of jelly and two oranges so far.

My young neighbor came over today and I gave her some of the oenothera that I have growing in my front ditch....I love it, even though it spreads like crazy. That is exactly what I want it to do in the ditch. Also dug up an heirloom gold iris for her and a daylily that I had already in a pot from moving it so I could dig the Bermuda Grass. I can't throw a good plant away.

I still have a few salvia to plant and a small pot of snaps.
I also want to plant some zinnias and other annuals soon.

I found two more clematis just barely coming from the ground and another rose....maybe they will all return eventually.

The hostas look the best ever; I guess due to the excess rain. I moved three Patriots from the hydrant area so I could lay a couple of concrete pavers there.I have just about killed them off by tromping over them too often.

I still have to plant a couple of shade plants from Master Gardeners sale, but need to reinforce the little bed with more potting soil first.

Always something.

Re: Diet. I am trying to cut portions by half and will try to just do a yogurt for dinner. Really, really need to get motivated. This forum may be just the thing for us! I can't really exercise too much because of my knee. I just hope it holds up for my gardening.

I'm still cleaning up the freeze damage but there's getting less to do. The crape myrtles are just starting to come back but I've cleaned up the old growth on the hydrangeas. Roses are setting buds..again and the clematis are blooming. A few of the longiflorum hybrid lillies survived the freeze and are blooming as are the byzantine glads and the Stella D'Oro daylillies. The veggie garden is in and we've just about overdosed on head lettuce (Ithica) and spinach..love a good salad. The onions are big enough to enjoy in the salads, too. The corn is peaking out and so are the squash. Greenbeans just broke the ground this week. Strawberries look like we'll have some at least. The rain has been welcome here..just enough..but not too much.

Kaye, I am still trying to get a stand of lettuce............what on earth has happened to me the last two years. I have planted early, late and in between and for the life of me, I have not had one mess of lettuce (got lots of spinach).

I planted pole beans this morning and cucs....still haven't done the corn and squash and other little things I tuck here and there.

Planted a couple of ornamental grasses and a few rose campion plants here and there.
I planted zinnias too.
Next project is to go over all my seeds and try to plant any thing left...toss all the rest!

Wow! I just read your post about your new watering system, James. Wish I'd thought to ask for that for Mothers Day. ;-) I drug out the soaker hose yesterday. Although they are the best thing I've found for watering the garden they sure are a pain to get them all ready to go each spring. I leave them in place in the flower beds but my garden configuration changes every year. James, I'm going to consider a permanant system now.
As it is, I was thrilled when my DH bought me my first cattle panel yesterday. He's going to install it on the backside of the garden and it opens up all sorts of possibilities. My DH used to garden with me twenty five or thirty years ago. Then he lost interest and got involved in other things. This year he seems to be getting interested again and it is such a help. Of course, it means I have to do things his way sometimes and I'm not used to that.

It has been raining every
day here, a little each morning and then a bigger rain in the afternoon or evening. That has been great on the new grass we are trying to grow. It is looking good.

My two SIL and DH were sitting at the kitchen table visiting when the Baltimore Orioles came to the feeder yesterday. I was so glad they got to see them.

I was glad to hear I have company in this diet thing. My plan is to eat smaller (normal) portions and not eat unless I'm hungry. I've lost three lbs in almost two weeks so I think it is working. I feel better. We had our second batch of wilted spinach last night. A true diet food...
Anise

Anise - What do you put on your wilted spinach? I have a recipe for spinach dressing that I like that has been popular for pot luck too. We should start a recipe thread to get our families to eat their veggies.

Lowe's had some orange suet that I bought and put out for the Baltimore Orioles. It took them a couple days to find it but I saw a male going to it this morning. I asked for another Oriole feeder for M. Day but the two Wal-Marts DH checked were sold out. Maybe I should ask for an irrigation system instead. lol

I've planted a few more seedlings. When I checked them Wednesday evening I found some very tiny slugs checking them out too, so I picked them off (icky job). I don't usually have a slug problem so I don't know what to do. I posted in the winter sowing forum. I have extra perlite and vermiculite that I could spread around the seedlings but I'm not sure that would work. Anyone ever try that?

There's a bad smell in my backyard and I thought the dogs might have killed a mole or something. It's coming from my IRIS bed! They rotting. I'm so sad. I wonder if I should just dig them all up and replant the ones that look ok somewhere else. I'm sure it's from the late freeze. Does that kind of rotting spread?
Gld - I just saw your post in the Iris forum. I think I'll dig just a few, soak the good parts in a bleach solution, and replant in a different spot. Someone posted that they left theirs alone and had survivors. What do you think? I brought another old post on rot to the top in that forum. There's different opinions on what to do of course.

I finally got my onions planted! ...and bought some more at Wal-Mart this week. lol

Christie, crushed dried egg shells work great around plants to deter slus and snails. I rinse and save all mine and use them that way, and in the bottoms of flower pots, to keep the soil from washing out.

I have spent the past 3 mornings potting up, and making container combos. I have come to the conclusion that I need more low growing and spreading/hanging plants to add to the containers. Another good reason to revisit the plant merchants ! :-)

We have been getting the recurring showers too. Some are pretty hard, and accompanied with thunder and lightning. I have things to plant in the ground, but it is much too wet. I am not complaining....I'll take wet any time to last year's drought !

I have slugs too: I put out shallow dishes of beer under the leaves and the next morning they will be filled with slugs and sow bugs. We are eating such a limited amount of eggs these days, I don't think I could accumulate enough shells. I wonder if sand would work? Of course the bags of shredded leaves I used as mulch last fall contribute to the slugs and bugs.

Marian, I have been digging up some of my gc lamium for hanging basket plants....then just back into the ground in late fall.

The way I make wilted spinach is using a mix of olive oil, vinegar, water, salt, sugar and a touch of orange juice with just a bit of bacon grease for flavor, heat to boiling and pour over spinach and chopped onion. We have had to cut way back on animal fat after DH's health problems. I use the same mix for lettuce.

I am finally down three pounds for three different weigh ins so hopefully it is actual loss! I did make a coffee cake this morning, but will eat a very limited amount now and again with morning coffee.

Christie as for the iris rot.....I just don't have enough energy to dig up that many iris. I check them regularly and keep all debris pulled away. I may loose a lot, but so be it. I think when all the rains stop (and they will) the rot won't be as bad. If I had been better about thinning mine, the problem wouldn't be so pronounced. I also have way too many to try the Comet sprinkled on the ground thing, might just try one clump to see if it helps. That may have just been if you dig them up though. If you don't have too many or some special ones, I think I would try to dig them up, trim off the rot and treat with something before replanting in a new, drier spot.

I went through all the seeds this morning and can't believe what I haven't planted yet, some are from years past and some ordered this year. I must have lost my mind. I have two packets of cosmos, lots of the very tall cosmos (48 inches) from last year, lots of saved zinnia seeds, fragrant flowering tobacco, ageratum Leilani, and the list goes on. All I really want to get in are the cosmos and the nicotiana, oh yes, I forgot the 4 O'Clocks.

I haven't done anything at all this morning. The grass was so wet from the shower last evening that I decided to wait. Plus I had absolutely no energy this morning.

I guess I need to start saving my egg shells. I see more slugs every year. I guess since my yard is getting shadier.
I kept my lime colored sweet potato vine over winter and replanted some of that in a big planter on my front porch and also some red spike (?) that I kept as a houseplant over winter. It looks good in the middle of a container and was easy to keep. Someone suggested portulaca for container plantings so I'm trying some of that this year too.
Big lots sometimes has good prices on nice containers. I've been meaning to go by there and see what they have. I should've put that on my Mother's Day list.

beer is good but salt is better. melt them suckers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

william

gld, I read in Science News a couple weeks ago about a large study done in England on diets and the best one was a diet where you simply cut back on what you normally ate. You are more likely to stay on the diet as it is what you like and are use to. You lose weight slowly and it is real weight ,not fluids.And are most likely to keep the weight off. See how smart you are and probably did,nt know it.LOL
Your wilted spinich is very like one my grandmother made with lettuce and i had'nt thought about it in years. I'm going to try it next week.
Congratulations on the 3lb. loss.
I've heard salt is good to kill snails too William. I've never had many up here and have'nt seen any signs of any but i've got mushrooms coming up everywhere i look.
marian, i read that egg shells are good plant mineral food too.
vickie