There seems to be a lull in my gardening activity this week. The cold season stuff has already been transplanted - peas, broccoli, and lettuces. Last week I direct sowed carrots, and this past weekend I direct sowed marigolds. The only other things waiting to go in are the tomatoes and peppers, and its still too early to put those out here. I'm debating whether or not to wait until the end of the month and direct sow the beans and cucumbers, or to start them in containers on the patio, then transplant them, like I did the peas.

So this weekend I planted all of the perennials from my Bluestone order, cut the grass, and potted up some of my wintersown annuals to go out on the porch. Oh, and I dug up some things to bring to the plant swap. Really though, all of the hard stuff, like digging new beds, is done for the year. I guess now its on to the weeding and deadheading part of the gardening season. At least I'll have a few more things to plant after the swap : )

Bonnie

- Planted more annual seeds in flats
- Planted beets yesterday
- Sprayed Roundup on every little bit of foxtail & wild geranium I can see
- Hoed out lots of other small weeds
- Dug out milkweed
- Had yard raked and used all the old thatch to lasagne a new section of shrub beds. I planted roses and lilacs last year around the back side of the house, and it's starting to look good! Need to get some woodchips to put on top.
- Picked up rocks and more rocks to edge beds
- Picked up some bushels of cow manure and then applied a granular, a bit of sulphur, and manure on the roses
- Dug out grass along the front yard fence to keep it from creeping into the new (last year) flower bed
- Currently have soaker hose going in the garden so I can till up a new asparagus bed. Also need to till up a bed for the golden raspberry plants I ordered. Also plant to till up a new bed just outside the veggie garden fence for some (eventually) big rose shrubs and will interplant lots of sunflowers this year.

Cheers,
Michelle

The Pacific North West is having a very cool start to the growing season. Our weather passes over the northern Willamette and crosses the Columbia Basin on it's way here. Along that route, the "lag" in warming temperatures is dramatic with Portland and Yakima 70% below normal growing degree days. Here it is nearer 60% as the coolness and cloudy skies become dispersed just a bit.

Howsomeever . . . I've got all the early crops out there with the exception of the cabbage/broccoli which were sown a little late in the greenhouse. They will go out this afternoon once this rain stops (& the wind starts :o(.

Potatoes, peas, carrots, spinach, onions, and beets have been planted. I am anticipating that the Weather Service is correct and we will have a "normal" Spring after all this cool weather. That "normalcy" can only mean that the 2nd half of Spring will be remarkably warm.

In the flower garden, the snaps and even the asters have been planted out. The 1st planting of gladiolas went in yesterday and I'm well on the way to having the ground ready for dahlia roots going in sometime very soon.

I'm thinking there will be light frosts the next 2 nights but all of these transplants have been hardened off well.

digitS'
gardening is an act of faith

I am still studing. Have my English paper finished and turned in, but am taking the Algebra final Friday, so I can play for the weekend. Inbetween studing, I am transplanting my tomatoes, peppers and eggplant into cups that they will hang out in for the next two or three weeks until the beds are all done and I can start planting. I am supposed to trade spools for manure later today, that will get one or two beds done. And at some point, when the rain quits for a while, I have to go bury Turk. Age finally got him.

Billie

Seems the little drizzle we keep getting drives me back into the house.Guess that means closet organizeing,yuck.
But the plan is to finish cleaning out the wild rose bushes that edge one end of our garden.Then its on to planting.Have several hundred perennial plants bought at clearance time(last year) to put in.Have to fill in all the bald spots I find. Then its on to getting the straw mulching done.I have to pick up some barks to touchup the roof garden check the sedums for deer damage as well..Then there is the pond ,I have half planted as the man says he wants to raise the water level a couple more inches soooo thats on hold for the moment.He also has the roof top waterfall to carve.(hopefully this weekend).
Course some idiot keeps picking up more plants, 12 new roses and 80 new lillies,,duh more work.okay its just plain to tell I have a serious addiction problem!!!
This is what we are working on this week and probably the rest of the month.But it all has to be done before the discovery people show up to film the house.
Which means my vege garden is slipping back yet another year.I am now threatening to plant cukes and melons on the roof as well as getting another hollowed log and planting tomatoes and peppers in it on the roof.There are times I so miss my acre vege garden,my rasberry and strawberry patches and the orchard.Course the greenhouse is sorely missed right now as well.
Hope others are enjoying some sunshine.
M

I'm sorry about Turk, Billie.

Not much going on this week - though there should be. I still have lots of transplanting to do in the greenhouse, and I'm going to start turning the heater down at night to start getting the plants used to cooler overnight temps (I've been keeping it around 60...think I'll turn it down a degree or two each night until I even out with our local night temps). I'm pretty sure I won't be able to wait much after the 15th to start planting stuff out, so they may as well start getting used to "reality". :-)

We put together a "water feature" in the round area below our "riverbed" last weekend - we need to finish that, and see about a solar panel to run it off of. Might wait a few weeks to do that though.

This weekend I'll plant the mini-roses out, they're tough. And I'll figure out where I want to put the dill, parsley & snapdragons. I should find spots for the pansies too...so they will be out of the way as well.

The only other thing I plan on doing is finishing that pesky transplanting, moving plants around into flats for specific people (sorting), and I still can't decide whether to start the zinnias out there or do them in the ground (I'm really horrible with direct sowing).

I have been watering this week though - we hooked up the hose on Sunday, and I used it again last night to water. the roses are all budding out now, and should have some pretty nice little leaves in the next few weeks. The scabiosa, delphiniums, dianthus and artemisia are all coming up in the perennial bed by the patio, and I've been pulling weeds by the fistful. It's raining today, which is nice...get those roses as much water as they'll take! :-)

Whacked back my climbing Peace rose bushes (sniff), 3 cart loads of branches. Just transplanted winter squash, trying to get them off to an early start, but I'm 14 days too early, I'm pretty sure. Whacking back shrubs that require back-whacking until my arms are too tired to continue. Planted out artichokes, and you never saw happier plants than those, getting out of the greenhouse and into the ground. I'll plant a row of golden beets, and start some carrots as well.

I am, finally, 84.36% convinced that all those dandelions are purty, and I should just leave them alone.

I actually brought the lawnmower out of hibernation last night, and gave the front and back yards a once over.

My garden is about 95% ready for planting, so this week get back to getting stuff out there. Of course with the rain we had this morning (and is building up again right now), my garden is probably a mud pit right now.

This weekend makes it 80% likely my area wont get another frost...Which of course means if I get my warmer veg out we'll get a blizzard. Still trying to decide what to get out this weekend. Probably gonna get my homegrown seedlings out under the WOWs.

Hey, check the local NOAA site. Grand Junction guys are talking about heavy snow warnings possible later in the week for the northern / central mountains ......

M said, "I have to pick up some barks to touchup the roof garden . . .He also has the roof top waterfall to carve . . . it all has to be done before the discovery people show up to film the house. . . I am now threatening to plant cukes and melons on the roof as well as getting another hollowed log and planting tomatoes and peppers in it on the roof. . .

roof?

discovery people??

Do you have pictures to share?

In the last 10 days, I have acquired the wood for my raised beds, cleaned up said wood (it was a deck in it's previous life) and built two 4'x 10'x about 16" raised beds. I've hauled home enough composted horse manure, leaves and soil to fill those beds (which turned out to be a LOT let me tell you), and hauled all that from the driveway to the garden area which is on the side of my house one cartload at a time, since I can't drive TO the garden. ALL while my husband has been out of town. Brilliant timing on my part! I FINALLY got those beds filled today thank goodness! Yesterday, I was starting to think I'd never get it done.

-Using roundup on grass popping up through patio stones(we used weedcloth)
-Digging dandylions in the flower beds
-Checking pocket gopher trap(caught one, it came from the neighbors yard)
-I planted annual seeds in my 17 deck pots, so those are ready to go and with yesterdays rain, no need to water anything! :0) Happy gardening!!!!

Pictures??? okay okay yes lots of pictures.Just not good at getting them on sites.
Our home was featured In the March/April 2008 Natural Homes Magazine.A story called Good Neighbors.
Not sure if I got this in right.
The discovery channels worlds greenest homes is trying to set up a June date to come shoot for their show.
The house is built green and extremely custom.No Lawn Just large rocks and all flowers shrubs and trees.A 3 level 3800gallon water garden which has one smaller pond up top a small falls large pond, and a 5 foot waterfall 8feet creek which looks as if it flows under the road and out into Flathead lake.We plumbed for the roof waterfall but ran out of time to finish it last year.It will be a 13 foot drop from the roof.
There is also two raised beds on the roof for planting annuals or veges.last year the long one had sweet peas this year I am having veges and a few flowers for color.
The roof itself is fully landscaped using a combination of about 20 groundcovers mostly sedums.They form designs.
It really is hard to discribe.I do have better pics of the garden then the magazine article,they came in mid June last year with very bright light and had a hard time photographing the outside.The cover picture to the article looks over one deck, the hottub, and waterfeatures.Most people don't know its there from the pics.
Any how that my gardens.
Mary

Here is a link that might be useful: natural home mag-good neighbors story

Wow, Mary! That's some house and environs!

A Different Perspective is right.

It must be "wonderful being surrounded by a special space . . ."

Good to see the list of roof garden plants - Thank you!

digitSteve

Well, the list of celebrity RMG'ers is growing - first Stevation, and now Mary! We have some serious gardening talent around here. Thank you for sharing the article, Mary. Awesome home! I'd love to see some photos of the water feature, and more of the gardens in their summer glory. There are plenty of computer savvy folks here to help you conquer the posting pictures issue, although I'm not one of them : )

This isn't garden related exactly, but I bought myself a Mother's Day present yesterday - a pressure canner. I was going to get a cheap water bath canner, but it says not to use on a smooth cooktop, which is what we have. It's a Presto, which is an inexpensive brand, but I have a smaller pressure cooker from them, and it works just fine. Anyway, I'm excited about learning to can this summer!

Bonnie

Bonnie, you'll want to get out a big, flat-bottomed stock pot for water bath canning...that's what I use on my glass cooktop. Be warned....canning is addictive! :-)

Thanks Steve,
Its an extremely relaxing enviroment.Its easy to care for if some girl gets it set up for the summer as well.It is amazing to me how many people think its all work, we can be gone for 2 weeks come home walk around a an hour weeding and deadheading,Then sit back with a glass of wine and relax. I have a pretty extensive list of plants for the roof.I did some trial and error, some of what people recommend just do not grow here.I also developed my own garden planting system so it could handle the deer jumping on it with out damaging the epdm membrane.Fun stuff anyhow.
Thanks Bonnie,
I have some great shots from last summer from the front of the house an angle not covered in the article.The gardens run approx 350ft in front of the house.The vege garden stone wall is up I just need to figure out what I am using for the raised beds.Its going to be totally handicap access since our grandson has cp and is in a wheelchair.
Canning,I used to do alot of it when I had the big garden and greenhouse.I used to do all my canning outside on a propane set-up it cut down on alot of house heat.Even used the side burner on the barby for canning.Its alot easier on your cooktop.Especially if you do have the smooth tops which do not handle the canner weights.
good luck with getting to know your pressure cooker.They are also great for speed cooking for dinner.
Mary

Mary, I did a little reading over on the Harvest Forum, and read that you shouldn't use the canners on the smooth top ranges, but the instruction manual for mine, does not prohibit that. It only advises to use something with a flat bottom. The box for this canner specifically says "Ideal for use with regular and smooth top ranges", so I am going to give it a try anyway. It also says it can double as a boiling water bath canner, which is what I am going to try first. So I'm sure I'll be asking a lot of questions once I have some cukes and tomatoes ready for processing.

Bonnie

You're gonna love canning. My Presto 23 qt pressure canner arrived today from Amazon. I can't wait to play with it. Some of the canners have raised concentric circles on the bottom and those are the ones you shouldn't use on a glass stove. As long as the canner has a smooth bottom it should be fine. Make sure you have a canning rack, the tongs (designed to grab jars) and I like having a magnet wand to get the hot lids and the Ball Blue Book. Jams are the easiest thing to start BWB canning.

I always thought that pickles and relishes were the easiest. I just don't have the pacience for jams. I do make a prickly pear jelly that is pretty good. Of course, if it does not turn out (sometimes we hope that is does not), we use it for pancake syrup and dipping jalapeno poppers into YUMMY!!

Billie

Cool you found one that works with it.I know the last stove I bought, it was not the flat top.I wanted a flat top and they said I could not use my canners on it which was a necessity.So I ended up with the old electric with a custom ordered burner just for canning.Some of that was actually due to the weights of my larger canner and pressure cooker.
My gas cooktop was special ordered with one back burner for canning as well it has a higher btu so I can get it up to temp faster.
Not sure which I would say is easiest.My mom and granny had all of us canning by the time we were about 10.Thats when I first entered my rasberry jam and pickles at the
4-H fair.My boys were more interested in learning Jams,jellies and smoked meats then the veges.Course with the jams,jellies and syrups.
I have to admit I used my water bath canners twice as much as my pressure cookers.I used my pressure cookers more for meats,fish and specialty items.
Mary

Mary, my son is actually the reason I'm trying to learn to can. Last year when we grew cucumbers, he asked if we could make pickles, but we didn't plant enough for that. So I promised him this year, we would plant enough for both fresh eating, and pickles, AND I would figure out how to can.

When the locally grown peaches show up at the farmers market, I think we will try some jam too. If my other son doesn't eat them all first!

Bonnie

Until this year (just bought two months ago) my canning was limited to water bath. I am being self taught since my mother knows nothing of gardening, or canning. I was her gardener since I can remember. She would bring home plants and tell me to plant them somewhere. My great-grandmother canned, but she was in Germany and died when I was 13. When I married my DH, one of his aunts canned, but she got really ill and died a few years later. I have a friend who is going to come down later this summer with her canners had hopefully learn me something. I have enought canning jars to keep us busy. I inherited all the canning jars from DH's grandma and collected more from yard sales and auctions. I want to have grandma's old natural gas stove converted to propane and put it in a garage or at least on a patio to use for canning.

Billie

Bonnie,
Thats cool.I know people used to look at me funny when I talked about canning with my guys but hey they enjoy it.One of them makes their own huckleberry jam,peach jams, apricot/pinapple jam and applesauces these days.The other 2 also process their smoked salmon and steelhead themselves.As well as canning their dry meats and jerky with the pressure cooker.All three of them also can make their own sauerkraut as well.I used to can, dry and freeze everything.We lived a very self sufficient lifestyle.
Last year a friend of ours bought over 150 lbs of cukes from the amish.He also had 70lbs of his own.He made every kind of pickle you can imagine as well as relishes.So now every where he goes for dinner he provides pickles for everyone..LOl

Billie,
I know I always enjoyed having someone around besides the kids when I canned.My nieces all learned from helping so did several of my friends who had never canned before.I know in todays world its amazing to me when people talk about how much easier it is just to run into the store and grab a bottle then do the work.For me I can grab huckleberries out of the freezer toss them in the pan and make 8 bottles of jam in the time it would take me to drive into town.Added bonus is since I am diabetic I can make them all sugar free with sweetners I like.
Its amazing how many jars you can collect huh.
M

Oh, yeah! some other crazy people "born in the wrong century" who still can!

I love it. My co-workers were making fun of me because I bake bread, spin wool, grow veggies, can and freeze them, make soup from turkey bones.....etc.

I haven't checked in to this forum in a bit. What a nice conversation to find.

I love to make zuchini relish, cook down my own squash for muffins and pies (usually freeze that) and make fresh tomato sauce.

I have a smoker too but it hasn't been used much because my kids are too little to go fishing with me- but give it a few years....:)

Oh, guess I forgot to answer the original question of the thread. What have I been doing this week?

1. Ripping my arms to shreds pruning my very overgrown Dorothy Perkins rose away from the porch it was covering

2. The friend I've been hiring for the landscape worked on finishing the stone patio, putting together the granite top patio set, setting stepping stones, fixing the picket fence getting ready to paint it, fixing the sprinkler system and making sure it's up & running, layout another section of lawn edging in prep for me to buy the sod, fixed a section of the privacy fence that blew down a few days ago, putting together a vinyl arbor/gate.

3. planting the second dozen or so new daylilies that arrived. Ditto on the dozen roses and a few that I picked up at HD. Still waiting on another dozen or so DL and some garden mums that were mailordered

4. set out to harden the ~400 daylily seedlings that I started indoors

5. and today, about broke myself from hand digging three 50 gal garbage sacks full of weeds (just the ones that would spread if tilled into the veggie garden). Tomorrow I hope to rototill the garden (after I move the catnip, lettuce, and onions that self-sowed there).

whew, and that is inbetween the 40hr job, groceries, cooking, laundry, housekeeping (which takes a real dive this time of year), and playing bus driver and boo-boo kisser for the kids.

You make soup from turkey bones? I thought I was the only one who did that. I buy one of the cheap Thanksgiving turkeys on sale, eat my fill, then cut up and freeze the rest. Last year I bought a slow cooker for my soups and stews. Unfortunately, when I did it on the stove in a stockpot, I'd put Bisquick dumplings on top for the last 20 minutes. I can't seem to make it work in the slow cooker, though.

I used to make bread by scratch. No machine. Just me, dough, and very tired fingers. Haven't done that in a couple decades, though.

This week I planted some more potatoes, repotted some brassica into larger pots, and I'm succession planting lettuce, spinach, carrots, and peas. So far, I have one pea, one mesclun, and possibly some spinach sprouts coming up. The carrots are no shows, though.

Today I went to Lowes and walked home another couple bags of garden soil. It's slow going, but eventually I'll have enough to set up another raised bed. I just hope it'll be soon because that's where the brassica is supposed to go.

I'm raking front yard and back. They severely need to be mowed, although I notice I'm not the only person in the neighborhood with long grass. And I am continously weeding.

lilac_of_may,
Too funny, that's exactly what I do with the turkey! Before the kids came along people used to think I was crazy to fix Thanksgiving dinner for myself.

If you have a crockpot that has the liner that comes out you can put it in the oven or on the stove on low for the dumplings.

I cheat on the bread. Use the machine to mix it then shape it and rise in a normal bread pan. I have a kid with food allergies so making my own is not optional- really hard to find any commercial bread that doesn't use enriched flour. I make almost everything from scratch now. Amazing how much stuff has enriched wheat flour in it. I have created a lot of my own recipes now.

Sounds like your garden is off to a good start. We had a salad tonight from some of the self-sown lettuce that put itself in my flower bed instead of the veggie bed. If it weren't for self-sowing I would never get the early crop- never manage to get my garden prepped for planting until the very last second.

I had to sow carrots twice last year. It was the first time I every got a decent crop since moving here though.

I have lots of squash, cucumbers, tomatoes, and melons in the house that I want to get out into wall-o-waters.

Literally have a grassroots project - I told him we needed to dig the sod out deeper :-)

Tomorrow it's more getting manure and compost, then bricklaying, landscape fabric, chicken wire & mulch for the path, chicken wire for the planting bed.

I had to rescue a baby cranesbill and cover it in a chicken wire dome, stupid neighbor's cats dug it up. They think our yard is a litter box, so everywhere is getting a layer of wire and the neighbors get the poop thrown back into their yard.

I sometimes have cats visit my yard. They're more than welcome. Maybe they'll chase the squirrels away. Only once have I found a poop in my yard, although I have found a couple of dead birds. One was on my back porch. My uber-civilized indoor cats were probably watching through the French doors while this wild and wooly stranger showed them what *real* cats do. No kibble for this kitty!

But a human still had to clean up after him.

I was so mad a couple days ago. I startled a fluffy black cat and he jumped up on my fence and down into the front yard. The neighbor dog jumped his fence and chased the poor kitty across the cul-de-sac into someone's back yard, then stood in the middle of my front yard and barked at me. I stared him down and walked right toward him, and he decided he'd cuss me out from the safety of his own yard. Chase cats out of my yard, will he??

The squirrels cause way more damage than any of the cats that come calling.

I have more luck direct sowing melons and squash, so that's what I'm going to do. Mind you, I've yet to harvest any actual produce. Hopefully, that will change this year. I'm trying yet another spot in my yard.

Cats - I have four barn cats that run anywhere they want on my property. Best solution I have found for keeping them from pooing in the garden is rabbit manure. I put it right on top and for some reason the cats won't use it as a litter box. Don't know if its a predator/prey thing or the little balls of poo fall into the holes as they try to dig them. Don't really care why, but it works.

Neighbors dogs, that is why my BB gun stays within reach. Only once or twice in the rear end and they stay away. Of course I live in BFE, so you townies might not try that one.

Billie

Dafy, if the cats are using spots that are bare earth, it helps a lot to deter them if you keep the area wet until they find somewhere else to go. First you need to clean up all the poopÂwhich youÂre probably doing anywayÂand then set a little sprinkler that covers the area and run it until the soilÂs wet enough that the cats arenÂt gonna want to dig in it. YouÂll need to run the sprinkler for a little while each day for a week or twoÂenough to keep the top few inches wet so theyÂll get their paws muddy if they dig in it.

Ever since I moved in here the "neighborhood cats" have been pooping all over my front grass, and I still havenÂt figured out how to stop that, but this year the neighbor kids started using the bare dirt under my pine as a sandbox to play in, and once they got the soil loosened up, the cats decided it was a litter box! It took a couple weeks for me to realize what was going on, but one day I noticed a little "mountain" which I thought was from the kids, but when I went to flatten it back out I discovered if was a huge mound of cat poop. I cleaned it up and have been keeping it wet, and, for now at least, theyÂve found other "digs"Âso to speak! I hope once the surface hardens more again, they wonÂt come back even when it dries out. I like catsÂand dogs, and pretty much anything with four feet, but, IMO, people with cats should be required to control them the same way people with dogs are. I think part of the reason the cats gravitate to my front yard is because thereÂs a very tiny pond out thereÂwhich is just the right size to be a water dish! I now have it covered with chicken wire, and hope that will help with the poop-on-grass problem this summer. Fingers crossed!

DonÂt work too hard! You sure do have a lot of projects going onÂlike a lot of the rest of the people around here. IÂm just working on planting a few things and getting stuff ready for the swap.

Skybird

P.S. Just saw Billie's post and I wish us city folk had a source for rabbit poop! My brother used to raise rabbits for 4-H---but that was 50 years ago!

This is what I did. Wait, let me start at the beginning.
I have three dogs...three and the neighbors' dog makes four.
I picked up poop today! It was all the stuff under the part of the snow that hadn't melted until this past week.
I am sooo done with that!
I also started my seeds outdoors in those plastic bottles. I hope they'll be okay! I put in all the seeds that said to start them a month before the last frost and thats what time it is now. Hopefully.
I started to "harden off" a couple of clippings. what a perfect day for it!
I pruned the roses, finally.
I dug and sifted and picked out old plant litter. I picked up new bags of soil and compost and bark bits.
I still have to take out the old bark bits from last year, they are too ugly for my garden! And they are probably covered with dog pee.
Animals! They are so worth the mess. Right now, there are two tiny dogs curled up against me and one at me feet. Oh, yeah, one last thing I did today was to use the shedding brush on Lucy. Oh, that hair is outrageously mobile!
I wish dog poop was good for plants :(
J.

If I could use cat poop as a fertilizer, I'd be bagging and selling the stuff!

I watered and fed the plants today. I'm a little worried about my potatoes. Yesterday they looked fine. Today they looked wilty and dried out. After the rain we had, I wouldn't think they'd dry out so soon. The soil a couple inches below the surface didn't feel totally dry. And I just planted them a couple weeks ago. I'd think there'd be enough potato left to keep them moist. I watered them, just in case that was it.

I definitely have two peas growing, and possibly some spinach.

I don't mind the cats, it's the owners who ignore them when their digging in my yard and then they let the dog out who goes right for where the cats were and dig it up in front of them. Drives me nuts that they're so oblivious.

Anyway, grass is out, compost is in, path is lined, lettuce sprouts are up.

I'm at least a week after the original question, but last week I started out sick so not much got done.

This week:
Gave the lawn its first mowing and turned on the front sprinklers. (The back sprinklers need some repair work.)

Potted up a couple young raspberry canes for the swap

Took three bags of tree trimmings and brown junipers from around my yard to the recycling center since I have no chipper and not much space for a woodpile.

Pulled the top layers of leaves off my compost pile and found that the stuff that had been there all winter is now in fact compost. Yay!

Hand-watered the lettuce, beets and kale that are sprouting in the garden, since those sprinklers are among the broken ones

Bought a strawberry pot and started transplanting in the strawberries that have spread through my bark mulch but don't flower, maybe because bark mulch alone doesn't give enough nutrients. I have some new seedlings as well to go in the top of the pot.

Deadheaded most of the daffodils

And as someone else mentioned, somewhere between those I went to work, shopped, cooked, did laundry and tried to keep my toddler from scooping out my snapdragon seedlings while she was eating the potting soil. I won't even pretend that I did any housekeeping, though.

Foxes, it sounds like you have the same garden helper that I have! My daughter, who is almost 2, loves to follow me around in the garden. She will go up to the pots of tiny sprouts on the porch, and say "Baby plants" while she gently pats them like a dog or cat. The other day, I was watering my veggies, and turned around to see her holding a tiny sprout by its neck. Miraculously, the root was still attached. So while I am looking around, trying to figure out which pot it came out of so I can try and put it back, she is saying "Sowwy Mommy, sowwy Mommy". She was so genuine in her apology, that I couldn't be upset with her.

Not much happening here this week. DH cut and edged the yard for me yesterday. The edging he did, because he thinks I can't cut a straight line, LOL. I usually do the mowing, but it was Mother's Day, so he did it for me. Today, I moved around some perennials, but it's windy and cool, with rain in the forecast, so I doubt I will get much else done.

Bonnie

Finally finished the potting up for the swap, just waiting on Meteor to make his picks before I post the list.
Now its time to head out and put the potato bin that I stained last week up and put the compost into it. Then its Potato time. Have some volunteer potatoes coming up in another bed. Must be from the direct burial stuff over the winter. You would think I was Irish.
Then I get to go work on another bed in the garden and that will probably be all for today. Except bringing in all the babies which only takes about half an hour (its only about 50 ft, but I planted way too much, until the end of summer when I look at the harvest and think I need to plant more next year). DH helped with it last night, wonder if he will help again tonight?
Tomorrow I have to go into town, but Wednesday is an whole 'nother day

Billie