Hi fellow Iris lovers from Downunder, I have always thought I would love to grow Iris and when I saw a Tempo Two catalogue about 4 years ago, I was hooked. I have just bought up copies of all the previous ones that were available too. I am curious to know if your catalogue just has Iris that have been hybridized by Barry and family - because of the fact that you have a lot of growers over there that Barry visits in May so he can import some that he wants to grow here. For those of youi who have received this year's catalogue, it should have had a message that Barry and Lesley were retiring from the commercial retail world and would just continue visiting other growers and keep on hybridizing. I just had a new Tall Bearded only catalogue yesterday from Tim & Paul Blyth who now call the business Pearcedale Iris Farm. Apparently they have been running Tempo Three Wholesale Nursery for the past 12 years and will continue that. Paul has a daytime job in computers and does Iris at weekends and Tim has been working in the family business since he was 8 or so and full time since age seventeen. They say they will hope to add Median and Dwarf Bearded in future catalogues. That's the story here in Australia's catalogues anyway. I would love feedback on what you get in yours overthere. I have posted the link to my Flickr where you will see what has bloomed here in the past couple of weeks. I will add more as they come out. This is the first year in the past three that Ian and I have been home for the whole of the flowering season - so I am excited to see some that I have not seen for a while. Beth Here is a link that might be useful: Flickr

Hi Kids, Well, it has happened again...another PFW season has come to an end. I for one was happy to see April 3rd arrive, I had run out of steam. My data has been entered and I am surprised to see how different this season was from last. I had a few birds last season that I did not see this season: white-throated sparrow tree sparrow golden crowned kinglet pine warbler I saw the brown creeper on several occations but never on a count day. I had only one bird this season that was new and that was the pine siskin. Friday the 3rd was my last count day for the season. On Saturday the 4th I had a Mama turkey sitting on my deck for the longest time. That was a first for me. Yesterday, I saw my first pine warbler. I've also noticed more pine siskin this week than in weeks past. How long with they stay around? Beautiful flicker, Claire. I find that the flicker does not like me to be around while s/he is at the suet feeder. When I see them, I know I need to stay away from the window/slider. Such a beautiful bird with such a beautiful tail. sooey who is now happy to enjoy the birds without feeling like it's homework... ;) but who will very soon get excited about a bird and wish she has someone to report it to... :(

Cool Lisa! It took almost a year for me to see a Red Belly on the suet log. Now Mr. Red belly visits the suet log almost every day. He is a noisy guy, and makes a big fuss when he's around. It seems like he's telling all the other birds to stay out of his way and they usually do. There was a Red-belly earlier in the summer that would rap on the gutter when the suet log was empty. It was quite deliberate and somewhat annoying! :) Just signed up for the PFW this morning. I did a bird count yesterday afternoon and this morning. I don't get the packet for a couple weeks, but they said it was okay to enter the data when it comes. It's fun! Had a pair of Red breasted Nuthatches this morning, and yesterday afternoon there were dozens of Juncos! At least 30 in the feeding station area and nearby grass and leaves. Along with 8 or more White throat sparrows, all pecking and scratching and rustling leaves. The ground looked like it was alive.

Thanks for the nice comments all. carolynp, if it would help you, I can include how much of what I planted. Next year, I'm going to keep track of yields a little better. I didn't start tracking until after I came back from my trip. I have a really old scale that seems to weigh accurately enough (I checked it against my digital postal scale, and it was pretty close). I keep the scale in my kitchen window, and keep a calendar in the "bowl" so I can track it as I pick it. sinfonian, you were one of my inspirations for the potato bin. Next year, the potatoes won't be against the retaining wall. I don't know where they'll be yet, but away from the sprinkler for certain. Water does seem to go through the curtain ok, so I don't know how much that would help. I need to get some more fence boards, I want to build another one. My garden is on the south side of my house. It gets great sun over there, and the dogs can't get to it. It does get a little shaded during the summer, but mostly where the raspberries will be. I do hope to garden longer next year by starting some indoors and using plastic over the hoops. We do get a lot of sunshine here (they say 300 days a year), so I should be able to get a jump start in the spring. Because we're at 7000 feet, we do have cold nights, and quite a bit of wind. I'm hoping I do a better planning job, so it will be easier to cover next time. I had to let it go this year because I needed to add more to the beds b/c they were about 8" down. You may be right, I could be the poster child for a cheap garden. All the lumber out there is used and was free. The beds are filled with free manure, leaves, hay, straw, UCG, etc. I have scrounged gobs of leaves this fall. Even the kiddie pool and all that chicken wire keeping the leaves from blowing away, were free. I bought the fence and the posts used, and re-painted. That one was kind of a pain, but I'm not working right now, and I couldn't justify spending $100 for 12 feet of new fence. I did it for about $50 total I think. Even the trash cans out there were from freecycle. The plastic I'll use again come spring I bought from someone on Craigslist for about 1/2 price. A good portion of it was used to wrap items and cover the load of stuff I brought back on my trip this summer, and was still good enough to use again. I did buy the yellow garden cart out there, new. I love that thing, I use it a ton. I'm quite proud of how little I spent building my garden. Come to think of it, I think that's what I started posting in this forum about...