Ha! Even after a couple of days in the 30's we have 8-10 inches of heavy wet snow. But it won't be long... This spring I'll be getting the 1969 Charger 12 running again with the new/used engine. I also want to get my trip bucket working with it and I have a power lift project that looks promising too. Need to find a box blader grade cheap - I have been using my furrower followed by the blade since I don't have one. Too much water too close to my foundation. At least this year I can have the blade on the 1964 854 and the furrower on the Charger rather than having to switch back and forth. The furrower (Brinly) can also be used as a sub soiler. I am hoping with lots of passes I can loosen things up to make putting in the drainage pipe easy without too much hand work And the bucket will be handy to move the sand and gravel to backfill around it.

Hello everybody, It has been quite a long time since I've posted on GardenWeb as my schedule has been exhausting and perhaps some of the regular posters remember me from the guru garden (Patrick Studio retail). As a former exhibitor at Canada Blooms, I find that since Loblaws stopped sponsoring the show, it has been going downhill. For individuals who've attended the show several times, the content is no longer original and often, the same speakers are back with the same topic from previous years. The last year we attended the show in 2006, we were within earshot of a booth that was selling absorbent sponges/cloths to wipe counters and wash floors. The salespeople at the booth talked non-stop and were really loud and I found it tacky and inappropriate to have this company exhibit at a garden show. Although some of the gardens are spectacular, there is less interesting plant material on display or available for sale. The seed that is offered (except perhaps for Florabunda seeds) is commercially packaged seed like McKenzie, Sutton Seed, and Thompson and Morgan. So if you are main goal in visiting Canada Blooms is to shop for seeds and plants, you might be disappointed. I don't feel it's necessary to pay an entrance fee of $ 18.00 (which to me is highway robbery) plus another $ 20.00 to park your car to buy products that are available at the most of the box stores. Occasionally, Home Depot has some interesting and inexpensive packaged plants (like Brugmansias and Passifloras) but so many of the more interesting vendors will not be displaying in 2008. Mason Hogue, Wild Flower Farm, Fiesta Gardens, Terra, and many others are gone. I feel that the main reason for this is that it is very expensive to grow plant material in early March given the enormous increase in energy costs. There are very few Canadian growers (in either Quebec or Ontario) that are willing to provide plants for Canada Blooms. The show is just too early. It is too bad that the show cannot be scheduled in April because I feel that it would be better for the public and the exhibitors. Given the changes in the horticulture world - two major growers, Janet Anderson and Epic Plants are both out of business and the little support horticulture is receiving from the media - just take a look at the few gardening shows (most are really about renovation) on HGTV I have the feeling that if the Canada Blooms management team does not change their approach - innovation and creativity are required here - this show will go the way of the Successful Gardening Show in Mississauga which is totally commercial and pretty awful. On the other hand, if you are interested in attending a show with interesting speakers and great plant material, there is a show in Peterborough - For the Love of Gardening in mid April that is a treat. I've supplied the link to the show. Marilena

You're right, this has been some crazy weather and then this morning we actually got a little rain. Not enough to water the plants but about the right amount to make blowing dust stick onto our cars! We finally got our chicken fence built so the space I had to leave available for the concrete truck is now available for making a couple of small vegetable beds. The boys used block to lay out one 4 x 8 bed and my little seed grown tomatoes will finally have a home if I can get some horsey byproduct worked in. Maybe I'll scrape out the chicken coop and use some of that too. We finally got rid of the monstrous canary date palm from the front of our house. The landscaper I gave it to had a crew here two days digging it out and another half day with a crane to get it up and onto a truck. You know what they say, one person's trash is another's treasure. Maria

and I have a trailing geranium blooming too. also, marigolds, and Mutabelis is blooming. I can't imagine that y'all think you alone have a terrible winter. Winter is just awful for us in zone 9 too. We usually have about 3 days of winter, usually not consecutive, but still very harsh. This year has been the longest, coldest, most miserable winter we have had in a long, long time. I am hauling a whole truckload of burned/frozen foliage that I cut yesterday. Can't even put it into the compost pile, DH says. Haul it to the dump. Our only consolation is that a few things do bloom a little earlier for us. NOT our fault, we are suffering too. Oh, yes, the primrose jasmine has started to bloom. Very pretty, little double yellow flowers. Janie