Maggiepie, how exciting!!! This Saturday? Good luck with your walk through! Indiana, I hear you about the rain. We had over 7 inches Thursday and Friday. What a mess. They were supposed to put in our septic this week, but not sure if the ground is too wet. JDez, what a crazy mess for you. Hope they get the HVAC worked out. Lori, I love your message center. Still can't believe you got all that installed! Caben, looking good with the framing. I bet you are glad that part is almost over. Our painters decided to come back yesterday. Thank goodness. They are here again today. I asked if they'd be here tomorrow and painter said he didn't think so. Then, I said that we would probably have his check for this month and we'd hold it for them in the morning. Then his tune changed and he said they'd could be here in the morning and do more work. Geesh!!! They did get a lot done yesterday and already this morning. They painted the family room yesterday. You can see in the picture our painter applying primer on the laundry cabinets. They got all the rest of the kitchen and island cabinets stained yesterday and the woman painter was applying first coat of poly on them today. This is just some of the cabinets she stained. They sprayed one coat of marine-type finish on the tongue-and-grove that is going in on our porch ceiling. And sprayed the primer on the laundry doors and drawer fronts. Also, our vanities, bath storage cabinet, and window seats were delivered yesterday. Can't really see them very well with the covering. I'm anxious to see them in place. Here is a large storage cabinet that will be between our master bath and our closet. It will have a seat under it so we can sit and dress. Here's the bench with two-door storage that goes under the storage cabinet. It's like a window seat and has a wooden top. Our cabinet will look just like our daughter's, just different cabinet company and stain. Here are the bathroom vanities.

Glad to see everyone is getting their packages!!! :) and I'm also glad to see the trade lists back!! Had to update mine as well! (lol now I've become addicted to wanting to try snapdragons!) The little box to scroll and edit it tho, I would love for it to be bigger so I can see more of it at once! ( I am not complaining tho but just a favor if they are listening to us like they seem to be ;)) Today I am spending the day winter sowing and watching tv!! I need to relax and watch some comedy for once! Again I'm suffering from insomnia and taking pills which sucks! :( I can't wait for Spring, it is a life saver for me and I don't know if you can relate, but when I come in from weeding and planting and seeing flowers and seedlings, I am worn and the other hassles of life seem to disappear and all I see is flowers when I close my eyes! Lol Oh and is anyone having a tough time deciding what to winter sow and what to save till next year? Because I sure am! I got worried when I looked at my annuals to try this year(I winter sow these next two months) and wow!! TOO many. The problem is, I received alot of generic things like "marigolds"(LOTS) or "zinnia" in a few bad swaps and I feel guilty passing them to any other swap and I figure I might as well just plant them but here I am with way too many to do! LOL I gave some to Brad(moonwolf) and am trying to narrow my list! Anyways, everyone have a wonderful day!!! :) ~michael heavenlyfarm

Annette - a dry future in the long-term would sure be a change for much of B.C. - I assume you're not in the Okanagan where dry is currently fairly normal...? How hot and dry this summer will be here is now the big question.... Last summer was cooler than normal and a bit drier in our garden than 2013 (644 mm. Apr.-Oct. in 2014 vs. 674 mm. in 2013) but higher than the average here (563 mm. - 22.15") Rainfall here can vary a lot from month to month and year to yearbut, luckily so far at least, dry periods have been temporary, unlike what some of you have been suffering through! I'm not sure what long-term climate impacts are expected to be here. other than hotter! Precipitation forecasts seem to be more uncertain for here. peren.all - we've now had a few days with highs above freezing and even some drizzle overnight last night. There is now grass and bare ground appearing around the neighbourhood finally. With warm temperatures and even some rain in the forecast for the next few days, I hope the snow will be gone soon! Then it's supposed to get cold again mid next week :-( Temperatures don't reliably warm up here until the jetstream retreats north of Hudson Bay - and stays there! That's usually mid-April or later. It's not uncommon for me to be gardening with a ski jacket on in the first half of May! daves10 - are those magnolias? Ours bloom 2nd-3rd week of May (Picture below is May 22 2014). The neighbours' star magnolia is the first to bloom, in April.

Pinch so you leave only 2 leaves on every branch. Initially, you might have 6 or more leaves on a branch and it gets pinched back to 2 leaves. After the initial pinching, wait until the 3rd leaf on any branch is starting to open, then pinch back to 2 leaves. If you pinch back to 2 leaves on a branch, odds are 100% the most distal leaf will produce a new branch in the leaf axil and about 95% you'll get a new branch in the axils of both leaves. So the cutting above has been pinched back to 2 leaves and has produced a new branch in the axil of both leaves. When the 3rd leaf starts to open on the new branches you can see, I'll pinch those back to 2 leaves again and I'll have 4 branches, then 8, then 16, 32, 64, .... . Also, whenever a new branch occurs in the axil of a mature leaf, about the time the new branch gets to the stage you see in the picture, you can remove the mature leaf by cutting through the petiole with a pair of scissors. That reduces the plants food supply and ensures shorter internodes and smaller leaves. Remember, we don't worship growth for its own sake. Strategically removing leaves is how we balance the tree's energy flow and allow light and air movement into the middle of the canopy .... a lesson for another time If you were to pinch a branch with 6 leaves back to say 4 leaves, the probability of getting new branches in the axils of all 4 leaves drops dramatically - maybe to 30%. That's because the new branches will have an apical meristem where the growth regulator that suppresses lateral branching (auxin) is synthesized. So as the end 2 leaves produce branches, they might also produce enough auxin to suppress the branches in the axils of the 2 proximal leaves. Also, down the road you're going to want to be pruning the top hard with regularity. Ensuing there are a lot of branches close to the main trunk you can cut back to makes pruning far easier. Al