Christine, you had a busy weekend. Did the CL couple purchase the armoire? At my place DH fixed the riding mower again and got the mowing done. The rain has really encouraged the grass to grow by leaps and bounds. Besides running the usual errands, I lobbed off the dead branches on the lilac bushes. DH and I discussed where to put a fire pit and patio. Yesterday we rode bikes for several hours. Today I hurt. Oh well just the price to pay for a really fun afternoon.

My grass is waving like amber waves of grain, too. :) I was thinking I would mow this week, after it dries from the rain. I'm almost -- but not quite -- looking forward to it!

The couple did buy my armoire. I have been looking for something shallow for a space I have, and this fit the bill. Just absolutely not my style, but at $100 (down from $300) I couldn't pass it up. They bought it for $250. My enterprise continues.

It rained last night. I have no idea if the weed poison I put by hand, on each individual weed I could find, on 2 acres, had the poison long enough to die an ugly, wilty death. I might have to hit them again, but gotta check the weather first.

I slept last night from midnight to 9:45 this morning. I am horrified at wasting 1/2 my day. I joke about being too old for this work and schedule, but it might not be such a joke, evidently. Man....

I would like a bike. Maybe I'll have to keep my eagle CL eye open. That's such a nice thing to do!

Oh - to you locals: I finally found the Loading Dock. I've been horribly lost in frightening areas of Baltimore twice, but this time I merged 2 different sets of directions and found it. I could have another bi-weekly or monthly stop to make. Loved it!

On Saturday I made the first of hopefully monthly visits up to see my mom in her new assisted living home. She's been there one month and sounds happy. She has lots of friends there. My brother and his wife were also there for lunch. We had dungeness crab open face sandwiches, which mom loves.

The plan this week is to break out the weedeater and get to work on trimming around the shop and garage out back. Everything here exploded in new growth in the last two weeks. Just about everything is green now. Even our fig tree is starting to leaf out, which is a couple weeks early at least.

I'm also rebuilding one of my computer servers for my business. The oldest one has been running 24/7 for about 13 years and I'm getting nervous about its reliability after the power supply failed last year. I have a retired computer laying around, so I decided to turn it into a new server. The final part, the new motherboard, comes today and I'll start putting it all together and hopefully start testing it next weekend, although experience tells me that goal is probably fantasy. Maybe this time I will get lucky and everything works together. Hope springs eternal.

I'll stick to the very short term about things I'd like to accomplish...

Today: Get a truckload of pine chips and spread them in the new landscaped area in the front yard. Shouldn't be too hard. All the new plants are in except for some small ones that the shop was out of.
Tomorrow: Design the gate for the back yard and get the order placed with a metalshop.
This week: Drop the transmission from the Volvo already and source a new one. Hopefully this won't be so bad.

I thought you might enjoy some of my Japanese Maples and Hosta coming out.

This is my 1st raised bed that last year I dug out and put things actually into the bed, vs. just pots buried in it. Almost all of my red hosta collection are in here. I am SO into that.

Christine, the property is so green and vibrant. I can see your hosta is ahead of mine in central MD. The view from your front porch is great.

rmtdoug, Wow, dungeons crab -quite a treat for your family - looking forward to blue crab soon.

schicksal, You are so busy, designer, mechanic, landscaper. I though my husband was related to the energizer bunny but you must have his genes too.

As for me, Even though I did a good job raking leaves last fall, there were some leaves tangled in the pachysandra in the garden bed along the walkway to the house. What a tedious job to get at those leaves without pulling out the pachysandra! Some pachys went with the leaves. Now that the leaves are gone, I hope the pachysandra fills in. There are many bare spots, which are not due to my impatience, and the pachysandra is viney with not as many leaves as there should be. Open to any advice on how to get it to fill in.

Thanks, and wow that is a lot of land in the pictures!

All of this is building up to starting the master bedroom/bathroom redo. I spent a long time this weekend trying to figure out how the circuit for the bedroom was done, and how someone's sloppy modifications can be undone. I think the previous owners were allowed to do things after electrical inspections/before drywall. The recycled wire from the 1960s in a ~2003 addition are a dead giveaway.

Here's our outdoor update. All that's left to do is to get more holly ferns (they're marked with buckets). The store ran out of them.

What a nice home you have! From what you've done on the inside, I never would have guessed it's a ranch1 That new fence is looking good. Horizontal? I can't tell from the pic. My eyes can't see, even with my glasses.

Wow - Christine - you need to come back to MI - we had snow yesterday - seriously!

Beautiful weekend last week but has been cold since then. My front yard is starting to pop including my Japanese maple (hopefully not too much damage from 2 very cold winters) as well as my trillium and Solomon's seal. One of my friends used to come to A2 each year for a conference and we would hike in the Arb and look at the SS and the false SS. She loved how the little flowers under the leaves on the SS. She passes away a few years ago at a much too early age. I found some SS at the farmer's market last year. It will always remind me of my friend.

Christine and others - have you planted any epimidium? I have one in my yard and thinking of getting more and planting under my tricolor beech tree. It is a very slow growing rhizome. I am not even sure where I got the one on the side of the house - I love the leaves(they turn colors as the season goes along) as well as the tiny shooting star type flowers.

Not that you can meet someone with your armoire but in our area, the local Sheriff's office is encouraging CL exchanges in their lobby.

Mtdoug - hope your mom is adjusting well. DM is in a continuium of care place. She moved out of independent living into assisted living about a year ago. She had a nasty fall in the elevator and broke 3 ribs and split her knee open and has been hanging out in skilled for the past month or so. I think she will go back to AL in another week as she just got her walking papers back.

Schick - I will have to look up holly ferns. I have a few fern varieties in our yard and hope to add some more unless bambi likes ferns and then I would be tossing my money to the deer.

a2g, I have epimediums. They're in bloom right now. They're evergreen here. The 'Sulphur' is blooming with yellow flowers and the 'Fairy Lights' is blooming my favorite: red. They might be slow growing there, but here, they're determined and steady growers. With great difficulty, I divided one last year and gave 1/2 to a friend. They overwintered well.

Why in God's name would I want to come back to MI for the snow?
I think your Sherriff's department is wise! Nice community outreach and safety awareness. Someone should post that on CL somewhere as an option!

Geeze, I hope your DM continues to improve. What a nightmare. THREE ribs.

Shicksal, I forgot to mention I have several Japanese painted ferns that reseed. Quite lovely with their dark purples framing some of the dark Heuchera. 'Velvet Night' 'Frosted Violet' and some of the planet series. I'm into the soda pop series at the moment. :) 'Gingerale' has foamy flowers, and just got 'Cherry cola.'

Loving the gardens!
Oh! Anyone local to me, the MidAtlantic Gardening swap is May 9th. Head on over to the board: MidAtlantic Gardening Board for the info. If you don't have plants to swap, bring food. Chocolate is very welcome, as is about anything else. I've been going since the very first swap in 2004, but can't make it this year. I'm sad. It's incredible how generous people are. Kids are welcome as long as they're on a leash -- albeit invisible. Gardening Gramma's gardens are absolutely magazine-worthy. Tell 'em I sent you. :)

Bummer - I will have to look up where it is in case I am visiting DM

I have several Heuchera -- most of them if I ever knew the name, I've forgotten, but a few in fact came unnamed as a "breeder's mix" -- in a bed next to my brick patio. It seems that the cracks in between bricks is a perfect place for the seeds to germinate! I've pulled out dozens of seedlings, stuck their tiny roots in a pot and they thrive. They generally seem to be a generic purple, with a few lime green.

I had a "Georgia Peach" that never really settled in and seems to have died over this past winter. I've had terrible luck with those peachy heuchera, have tried several, but none survived. (Buying them off the clearance shelf probably doesn't help)

My asparagus also has died it seems -- no sign of it so far. Another thing that I have tried in several spots but can't seem to get it right.

After 3 days of rain, the deer got ALL of my tulips. Grrr. I really need to get taller fencing up. Once my apple get some new growth on, the wire cages won't be large enough to protect them.

I love my epimedium! and the deer don't! They are great under a tree, where they can be seen. Mine have done well in a bed under a large maple.

We have a large garden swap event here in May also; I've only been to it once, though, because it inevitably falls on my scheduled weekend to work, and so it is this year also.

FINALLY I GET TO GARDEN!!!!Need to get potting mix for soil block maker tested. Plant chili seeds, set up sprouting area in workshop.

Set up another compost bin, make frame for compost sifting trommel, break down a couple of bins.Yard cleanup ongoing.

Make better storage setup in laundry room.

@CEFreeman_GW - yes the pickets are horizontal. We think it looks a lot better than a conventional fence and in my little mind it seems more wind/hurricane resistant since it's not a completely solid object. I can feel wind blowing through it... maybe it makes life a little harder on flying bugs that would want to camp out in the area.

Our roof profile will be that of a ranch until it's time to redo the roof. There are a couple of layers to it + old damage to the rafters and decking that need to be addressed so... we have a new design that should change the front elevation completely. It'll be a much flatter roof with clerestory windows facing the street and the existing windows will be enlarged. This will not be a DIY project :)

I'm pumped up today because I found a new transmission for the car for only $175! It's a friendly, simple car to work on so I'll probably spend more time waiting on goodies for "while you're in there" maintenance than anything else.

I finally bought some bark mulch and put it down along the front of my house, which is sadly lacking in curb appeal. I hope the teeny tiny hostas I had last year come up. The are in between some hydrangeas which aren`t doing much of anything. On the other side of my front door is a bush of some kind that is getting some leaves and a dead looking mum. I`m taking a chance with that. I have a black thumb. If the mum doesn`t work out, I`ll toss a hosta in there because they seem impervious to everything.

We had a couple of weeks of warm temps and now we`re getting super cold temps again. No snow, like A2 but a bit of flurries.

I`m hoping to get some edging in along the area where I have my blueberry and raspberry bushes planted. I hope my rhubarb comes back. You`re not supposed to be able to kill it, but I seem to be doing just that. :(

I want to get my new basketball backboard put together and then a guy from work who lives two blocks over will come put it up for me.

mgmum, don't be impatient on your hosta. I find that some don't come out quickly, so in the past I thought they were dead and I was wrong. Just look for their pointy little heads sticking up through the mulch.

Keep in mind that the most common way people kill everything is overwatering. Raspberries don't care much about water, but blueberries grow in bogs...

I just sold a mirror on CL. $60. Yeah!!! Now I have enough money for dinner. :)

Too funny- hope that CL is not your total meal plan. MG - I think I killed my mint for the second year in a row! I thought mint was indestructible. Still waiting for my Hostas to pop