Thank you everyone. All things considered I feel pretty good for a week post op and I'm behaving quite well. doing only what I'm supposed to do. Drippy, those chipmunks are not funny and they sure aren't "chip and dale" either. Never mind the garden bed destruction that they create, the holes that they dig can be dangerous if you get your shoe or foot caught in one of them and go down. A year ago I did just that and tore ligaments in my ankle. The little boy that used to live next door got his foot in one when he was 4 and broke his leg. Now if that isn't enough insult here's more to add insult to injury. An article in the newspaper a few weeks ago said that chipmunks are a major carrier of deer tick now, more so than even deer and that could be the cause of a massive increase in the number of Lyme Disease cases being reported. Not that i needed an incentive to do everything I can to get rid of them, but that sure added a whole new layer to doing it. Then a friend called me last week the day before I went to the hospital to warn me that she was working in the gardens a month ago and she unknowingly disturbed a chipmunk that jumped on her arm and ran off. She didn't notice that she had a tick on her arm till the next day because it had attached right on top of a birthmark. 2 weeks later, bingo she has the classic bulls eye rash on her arm and has lyme disease. Chipmunks are not very smart. They can't swim, but will be more than happy to dive into water to get sunflower seeds and drown in the process and that's fine with me, right along with eating my datura as well. e-mail me if you want some info on chipmunks that like to dive for sunflower seeds. Bonny, the livingston daisy was WS by a friend of mine. There are 3 of us that share the WS for 3 gardens. We cane up with the idea to share it all after a couple of years of all of us sowing the same seeds then coming to my spring plant swap and all having the same extra seedlings. Didn't make sense so we split it up now. We end up with the same number of containers, more of each kind sowed, but the total variety is split between the homes and we end up with an even bigger variety of plants for the beds. Vera the color of that viola is beautiful. If you have any seeds for trade in the fall, I'd love some and will send you some of mine. PV, sow those seeds for next year. No matter how many of them you have, sow all of them cause they are a funny seed to germinate. My experience with them has been strange to say the least. My first seeds where from valueseeds.com. got 3 packets, 30 seeds in each packet and sowed them in early March. just sprinkled on the top of the soil cause they are small and tannish in color. Out of those 70 seeds we got 6 seedlings. Not a very happy camper that there, but I collected every single one of the seeds I could get my hands on from the plants and it was a ton of seeds, more than 1/4 tsp. Next year we sowed every one of those seeds, and I kept thinking OMG, what will I do if thousands of these seeds germinate. Well, no such luck, we got 20 seedlings last year. Figured ok, better than the year before and we will always have to sow every single seed we get. So this past year I had more than 1/2 teaspoon of seeds. We sowed 4 mushroom containers of seeds, the 10 ounce size container, put each one in a ziplock baggie and put them out in mid April this year. just an experiment to see if a later sowing would make any difference in the germination rate. They began to germinate on 4/29 the exact same day as the prior to years, and they where slow. But this year we saw how the seeds germinate. they swell to at least twice their original size and all but germinate 1 seed at a time. honest. But there was a huge difference in this years germination. We had mushroom containers totally covered in seedlings. so many that we couldn't separate seedlings and planted hunks of them every where. My neighbor across the street still hasn't planted hers out yet and the entire container is covered in flowers and seedlings covering the container. We have to have thousands of seedlings this year. On top of that, we have seedlings of the viola popping up all over the place in the lawn and my neighbor has several popping up in her yard as well. Doesn't make any sense to me why on the third year with the seeds, second year of collecting seeds we have mass germination and the prior 2 years including the first year from commercial purchase the germination was very poor. Fran

Okay, Jane --- time to eat crow --- or should I say time to eat Spiny-leaved Sow Thistle (Sonchus asper)? I've got 'em, too! In fact, I've pulled them out of my garden many times. You recall the weed farm we have next door. Well, I often find these growing along the garden fence. Mine have prickers along the stem, and I have to wear gloves to pull them out. But yours don't seem to have spines. According to my field guide, S. asper has leaves that are to 10" long, prickly edged, usually deeply lobed with 2 rounded lobes at the base. It "flowers" June to October and grows 1-6'. However, S. oleraceus has two pointed lobes at the base of its leaves --- that's what your monsters seem to be. On the plus side, the guide says that all sow thistles can be used as potherbs. Hmmmm, maybe you should try stir-frying them with onions? Of course, you are right. Mine never get to be "as high as the elephants eye" :) I'm not surprised that these grew so luxuriously during the heat wave and your long rehabilitation. The weeds always win. Molie

I'm not an expert but have good luck growing peonies in my zone 5, Ontario Canada. The things I've learned are pretty basic. 1. Never plant eyes deeper than 1 1/2-2" 2. Always transplant in the fall, even if you divided much earlier*** 3. You can plant a newly purchased potted peony anytime during the growing season...don't have to wait till fall 4. If you transplant in spring you risk no flowers that year and the following spring, sometimes up to three years. It varies. 5. I don't mulch around the peonies - it's not a requirement 6. I have a 3-yr old Itoh Peony called 'Going Bananas'. (My first Itoh) New had 3 blooms. Year 2 it produced 9 blooms. Year 3 it produced 15! Eager to see how many this year. I want to add Kopper Kettle this year. ***when I moved in 1980 I left behind my mothers peony. Three years ago I got it back ðÂÂÂð it stayed in a box, not that well covered, not watered much but watered until the fall when I planted it in its permanent location. Note: it never bloomed for the new owner in all those years. The first spring in my garden it gave me 1 flower. The following year 6. After that I lost count... It's amazing. I actually know the name of one...'Plena'. Also have pink, all white, and deep red, almost magenta in colour. I never fertilize them or any of my perennials. If I did I'd have to move out because there would be no room! I hope some of what I've said will be useful to you. I would like your peonies to bring you the same joy mine give me. Luck! Jo

Hi all, Finally finding time to get back here to post! MISTY -- I can't be sure because of the wide color variation, but I believe your first hen & chicks pic is of 'Icicle', and the second pic looks like the one I call C to me. I'm fairly sure on both of them, but would need to see "spring" pics to be positive! I have you down for the things you asked for, and let me know for sure about the 'Icicle', but if yours usually looks like the pics I'm gonna post below in late spring, you already have 'Icicle'. BARB -- you're covered on the 'White Nugget'! POLYGONUM -- could you possibly snip a handful of yellow iceplant cuttings off of yours for Misty and Lesuko? Most of mine suddenly died off last year--as I've warned folks can happen!--and while I could get "some" cuttings off of mine, they're really "wimpy" looking right now, and it sounds like yours is doing really well and would provide better cuttings! If that doesn't work for you, let me know and I'll bring some of my wimpy ones! Let me know if you had time to check out your semps! A couple of them I only got one "batch" of, so they're already spoken for, but I still have A, E, G, H, K, and 'Icicle'. Gonna post some pics of 4 of them below! LESUKO -- I have you down for one of everything I posted above--with the yellow iceplant from either Polygonum or me! I have LOTS of cuttings for most of the sedums, so, except for a couple of them, I'll have a really nice bagful of each for you--along with the directions for what to do with them! Will also bring a nice big bunch of the bare root Ajuga for each of the first three, and will have at least a couple starts for the 'Black Scallop'. Also the hen & chicks--with directions, the 'White Nugget' iceplant, and I haven't done them yet, but probably a start for the Turkish Veronica. Virtually everything I have this time is ground covers, so it won't really get anything going on in your yard vertically, but it will help to fill up some of the bare soil, and you can always dig them up later and give them away to somebody else when you get around to planting other things! With your strawberry runners, no, they don't need to be attached for them to root, so snip some off and bring them along! All you need to do is "tuck" the bottom of the offshoot into the soil and let it root so they don't really don't really need the "runners" attached, but if there's some runner left on it, it can be used to help "anchor" it into the soil until it roots, so you might want to snip them with some of the runner still attached. Don't know how many you have, but you might want to make up a/a few "little batches" of them for "picking." I also have 11 "perennial" things in pots, like I mentioned above, and while some of them are just rooted pots of the sedums I posted above, there are a couple things I didn't post--and I'm gonna keep them secret till the swap--but I know folks are gonna want them! :-) And I also dug/pulled some bare root "something else" today that I'll have three "batches" of--and I'm not gonna tell you what it is! They're currently residing in the vegetable drawer in my fridge--since they're bare root! Oh! And also got a really good batch of seeds from one of my perennials this year that I seldom have enough to give away--is that an illiterate sentence or what?--so I made up some seed packets to bring of "that," and one other thing that folks are usually interested in! And that's probably it for this time! I'm not a big fan of Cold Hands Gardening, so I probably won't be poking around out there looking for things anymore--gonna try to get the Ajuga dug/pulled tomorrow, hopefully before the front moves in! And, since it's gonna be cold out by Thursday, I collected the hen & chick starts today and I was able to get more of some of them than I thought I would! Since only one person has expressed any interest so far, and since there are probably only gonna be about 6 folks at the swap, I'm gonna post a few more pics of the ones I have more than one "batch" of, so even if you don't ask for them in advance you can look to see if there are any you'd like to get on the day of the swap. As you can see from these pics, the color varies GREATLY depending on the time of the year and the winter temps in any particular year! I'm just posting the small version of the pics, but they should all be clickable to see the bigger versions! A - I have 4 batches that aren't spoken for E - I have 5 batches that aren't spoken for K - I have 4 batches that aren't spoken for - winter color - summer is all "blue spruce" color! 'Icicle' - I have 5 batches that aren't spoken for A few more pics! I really do have a lot of most of the sedum cuttings! Sedum 'Tricolor' in summer and winter color on the right side of the second pic Sedum 'Angelina' summer and winter colors Sedum album - the Dangerous One! Plain green in summer, this is winter! Sedum reflexum 'Blue Spruce' - same in summer & winter! Sedum pachyclados - same color summer & winter! Sedum 'Dragon's Blood' - Plain green in summer - this is where the name comes from! (Don't have a whole lot of this one!) And two of the Ajugas! 'Royalty' 'Chocolate Chip' Don't have a good pic of 'Arboretum Giant' but it's pretty much plain green leaves that are about twice as big as the 'Royalty'! And not gonna post a pic of the 'Black Scallop' or everybody will want some--and I don't have a whole lot--yet! Not gonna bring a lot of the Ajugas unless I know somebody wants them! Will bring a couple "bunches" in addition to the one of each that's already promised, so if you want more, let me know! Skybird P.S.!!! Almost forgot this one! Delosperma basuticum 'White Nugget'