Hmmph, manure in the fall....I usually do compost in the spring....I never really feed the garden in the fall for fear of causing some growth that may get killed with the cold. I'll have to look into that...it make's sense to put it to bed with a full tummy : ) Actually my lilies look good, except the candidum...no buds on any of them this spring... : ( Maybe it was the cold spring...for the peonies for me...they are usually so reliable... I am not sure when they set buds..but this year they didn't do well for me..my neighbor has the same problem with hers too. I guess micro climates abound.. Thanks for sharing! JoAnn I may have to change my name......I lost my two Just Joey roses this year also. Ha ha ha.....

A couple of years ago I had a hummer that had been in my garage for a very long time. He had obviously come in to look at the red manual release handle (a tan color now). This bird had blood all over the ceiling from scratching his head as he flew. I already knew from several previous experiences that hummers had a tendency to fly upward to escape from an inclosed area just as a wasp will do. Had one that kept flying back & forth on my patio after all the other birds had left that evening for about 15 minutes; I just reached up & grabbed him and then released him out in the yard. The patio only had about a foot hanging down all the way around. The mechanic in a small town where I had my car worked on had a hummer up in the top of his shop flying back & forth and he said that they came in all the time and just flew back & forth till they died. I've had them in my storage bldgs. and also had to work to get them out. Now I'm sure that all hummers that go into my garage do not panic and get hung up in there, but some do! All of the rest of the hummers on my porch had gone to roost for the night, but not the one with a lower I.Q. or a newbie. I try to help them out a little if I am attracting them to my house by not creating any traps or when they are down by picking them up. I'm sure most on this site would do the same.

In Phoenix, 40 years ago, I did an experiment for a university lab where I bundled oleander cuttings and buried them upside down like some old textbooks recommended for moving grape cuttings over great distances. I got about 70% success after planting them upright in the spring.

We live in a very small town, and there were SO MANY houses lit up this year. There are usually quite a few big displays, but this year those big displays got bigger, and the previous medium displays grew to large, and the small displays grew to medium. Many houses that didn't decorate with outside lights previously, had at least some this year. I don't really know why. It seems that it has been increasing little by little for years, but this year it was very obvious. Next year, I want to shop for outdoor Christmas things EARLY - as soon as they come out. This year if you didn't get things early, you didn't get them at all. I decorate outside for Halloween, more than anyone in town. Nothing gruesome, but cute and funny scarecrows around the yard, lots of jack-o-lanterns and pumpkin/gourd displays, black cat planters, etc. And I dress up, sit in the yard and play music on Halloween night. This year I only had three scarecrows - one was riding an old rusted bike, one was chopping in the flower bed, and the other was pushing an old rotory blade mower. Due to my work schedule and commitments, I am increasingly busy from September through December, so I get less and less energetic and more and more stressed as the season progresses. So what I can accomplish in Oct. is much more than what I can accomplish in Dec., unfortunately. Plus I am more picky - or have not exactly found my niche - in Christmas decorations. I want something that not everyone has, and a religious theme is a plus. And it seems like all the Nativity sets are pretty much the same, and not really as large as I would like them. Then there are alll the pieces to deal with. Lights in trees or on bushes are really pretty, but our front yard trees are just too big, and all are problematic in one way or another. We don't have any bushes in front either. I am hoping to buy some arborvitae (cone shaped evergreens) trees this spring and plant them in the front, but they will still be small at Christmas. Still I think it might be cute to have them lit up like 'mini Christmas trees'. Wanda in South Texas