March 2019, Week 3, Spring Arrives For Real
5 years ago
Featured Answer
Sort by:Oldest
Comments (61)
- 5 years ago
- 5 years ago
Related Discussions
Ordering roses for Spring 2019...do you pot up your new arrivals?
Comments (6)Jen, Grafted, bareroot grade #1 roses, and the equivalent size own root roses can go straight into the ground where you permanently want them. They're mature enough to adjust wonderfully. With gallon size own root, or any equivalent sized lower grade grafted/bare root, it's a judgement call. With excellent care they often take off growing fine. Liner size roses are very young, sometimes barely 4-6 months old. They are called liner size because of the pot size, usually 3-4" across, long (8"), black plastic pots they are grown in. Now liner size (they're always own root), benefit from being upsized to a two gallon size pot, and pot grown for their first year, winterized in a shed, cold garage, etc., where they will get no winter damage, and planted in ground the following year. I have put just purchased liner size roses directly into the ground their first year, but they need babying. Their first winter is particularly hard on them here even if they put on nice size by season's end. Even with heavy winter protection, and a mild winter, they often experience a good bit of winter die back for me. In your warmer zone than mine you may get away with planting liner size roses directly into the ground, but I usually regret I did so, and you may, too. Moses...See MoreMarch 2019, Week 1, Winter Weather Dragging On in Oklahoma
Comments (59)Nancy, I've thought long and hard about how we're becoming the oldsters. It is what it is, right? I try to tell myself that what this means is that we have experience, we no longer put up with crap, we have (hopefully) gained the wisdom that comes with living for many decades and we now choose to prioritize our activities and how we spend our time based on what matters to us....not on what society says should matter to us. We are the old wise ones, and I'm good with that. I try really hard to not drive the kids crazy by saying "back in our day, we walked to school barefoot in the winter in the snow 2 miles each way and it was uphill both coming and going". lol I'm afraid I still do too much of that at times, but try to do it in a fun, humorous way. When they start telling me old I'm just going to remind them that they just bought a house that is 27 years older than me, so old must be good, great or terrific! I hate when spendy months hit like that, and sometimes it is just unavoidable. I'm glad GDW's truck is all fixed and, you know, it could have been a lot worse than $700. I feel so behind and wish I was spending today out in the garden. Instead, we just delivered a tool to the kids at the house that the kids need for this weekend, so got to see all the progress they made this week since we last were there. They're really getting the painting done. I think they only have 3 rooms left to go and all three are partially painted, and then the trim in most rooms still needs to be painted. We dropped off the tool, grabbed lunch, brought in the tomato plants that had been outdoors for 4 hours (more on that in a minute), let the dogs and cats out to frolic in the wind and sun, and have to leave in about 45 minutes to go to the 9-year-old's 10th birthday party. By the time we get finished there, it will be too late to do any gardening. Maybe tomorrow.... Kim, Be kind to your body and let it heal. I know you're really stuck in a hard place right now---trying to work after the big promotion and having to deal with the residual pain. I hope things get better quickly. Jennifer, We had fun. Ate dinner out, came home, watched the movie Paddington 2, told silly jokes, loved on the dogs and cats (every night they act like they haven't seen Lillie in 100 years instead of just the typical school day hours), etc. She was worn out and went to bed after the movie ended, and was up, dressed and out of here around 7 a.m. to go work on painting her bathroom at the new house. Her best friend came over to help her, and they were having fun when we were there, and getting some painting done as well. I wish I were out buying plants today! I am so jealous! Or, as the 10 year-old would say, "I'm jelly...." I am going to find a way (somehow, somewhere, or else) to buy some plants this weekend. I need to feed my desire to plant shop. Amy, The thunder woke the dogs, the dogs woke us. The dogs decided they had to go out (it wasn't raining yet) and by the time they came in that little storm had run right past us, so they calmed down and went back to sleep quickly. Then, the weather radio went off a little later for a Severe Tstorm thing about the same time the storm arrived with huge crashing thunder and big lightning bolts. We put the young dogs in their safe place (a gigantic dog crate they love to share) and Jersey went into her safe place (our master bathroom), and we settled back down to sleep. The rain was brief. There was no more thunder. I still was awake, so I let the dogs out of their safe places and we all went back to sleep and slept maybe 3 or 4 more hours. Honestly, on nights like that I don't know why we even think we are going to be allowed to sleep, but we go to bed believing it is going to happen. I'm glad your Grandma Suzy's came up. This morning I ventured outdoors to check conditions for hardening off tomatoes so I can stay on schedule. The wind was raging out of the W/SW and the greenhouse doors and vents are on the W and E ends, and must be open to prevent heat build up, so the greenhouse would have been a wind tunnel today with our winds gusting as high as 44 mph. So, I moved the folding tables to the front porch, put the tomato plants there and left them out for 4 hours. It was not ideal. Between the porch roof and the trees, the plants probably got only 2.5 to 3 hours of sun at most before they found themselves shaded again, but the house blocked most of the wind, so they got a little wind movement, and probably more than I think and more than they needed. Still, it was nowhere near the wind movement they'd have been subjected to in the greenhouse or out in the yard. As Tim pointed out, full exposure to today's wind likely would have killed them so I had to choose the lesser of all the evils. Their color is really great---a much deeper, darker green. You really can tell they are getting a lot of sun. It is SPRING here. All the trees are bursting out into blooms and leafing out and everything else. I mean, all the plants are going nuts, like the severe cold was the only thing holding them back and now that it is gone, everything is full speed ahead. The stores have all the plants, but I haven't had time to look at them. I'm not saying we won't have more freezing nights, but rather that Mother Nature is moving on and doing her thing and will pay the consequences, if any. Bees and butterflies are out, moths and mosquitoes, blah, blah, blah. Gotta run to the birthday party because a swim party (indoors!) with a bunch of 9-11 year olds is the only acceptable substitute for a very windy day (wind vicious today!) spent in the garden. Dawn...See MoreOctober 2019, Week 3
Comments (35)Larry, I probably would use a small tractor for a while as we redo the landscape, but I'm not sure we'd use it after that. Our property is a strongly sloping creek hollow with very little level land (the house, southern side yard, back yard, detached garage and greenhouse pretty much fill up all the flat land), and once when Tim tried to mow with a friend's tractor and brush hog, it was a disaster because the land was too hilly and rough and the tractor didn't do well on the high spots or the low spots. We'll probably never have a tractor for that reason. I'd love to have one that made the tough jobs easier, but it doesn't seem like a practical tool for us unless we hire someone to come in and level the unforested parts of our land, which I doubt we ever will because of soil compaction issues with red clay. Now, if a tractor fell from the sky....we'd take it! Don't give up until you're ready! My plan for old-age gardening is a container garden, and I may start converting the back garden to a large container garden area this Spring. I will lay it out with really wide paths so it can work for us without modification later on in our lives. I couldn't do it all at once, but perhaps bit by bit over the next few years I could add more containers until the garden space was full. When Fred first gave me molasses feed tubs for growing tomatoes, he thought I was nuts to go to all the trouble to fill them up, etc., and to use them, until he saw how well the plants grew with so little soil-tending and weeding. His son lined up 4 or 5 molasses fed tubs for him the next year on an elevated surface of old tables so Fred, who had perpetual back trouble, could garden at the waist level instead of bending over, and Fred was so happy he stopped giving me molasses feed tubs because he began using them all himself. I was thrilled for him. He still had traditional row crops in the ground like corn, beans, melons, peas, etc. but his tomatoes and peppers too, I think, forever after were grown in molasses feed tubs. This allowed him to garden all throughout his 80s and into his 90s, though his son increasingly took over all the row crops while Fred tended the container crops. He was such a happy camper. I think we call be happy campers later in life if we just make the modifications that suit us and allow us to continue gardening in some shape, form or fashion. Jennifer, There's 7 birds: 4 Quakers: Arthur, Guinevere, Ducky (a male) and Sarah--they are two bonded pairs (A&G and D&S), and he's had them since about 2008 or 2009. He has two bonded parolets, Sunny and Leia, and one canary-winged parakeet---BeBe. He rescued Artie and Gwennie from an uncaring who left them in a cage and didn't interact with them---they were unsociable and depressed, but improved quickly under Chris' care. BeBe belonged to a sweet little old lady for many years, and she became Chris' bird after that lady passed away and none of her children wanted BeBe. While BeBe bonded slowly with Chris, she adored Jana from Day 1 and is Jana's bird now, practically speaking. Ducky is brilliantly smart and can carry on quite a conversation. I can ask him "where's daddy?" and he'll tell me "Daddy had to work today". It cracks me up. He will talk to you all day long if you'll talk to him and listen to his answers and respond to what he says. So, when we are taking care of them, we don't just uncover their cages and give them food and water, etc. We let them out of their cages and let them fly around indoors, sit on our laps or shoulders, play with toys, talk with us, etc. so we're up there for a couple of hours in the morning and a couple of hours in the evening. They are great pets and can live for decades, so they are quite a commitment. Chris, Jana and the girls love their birds, and we birdsit for them several times a year. Each bird has its own personality and you have to know what it is in order to interact well with them---it has taken me years to get to know them as well as I do now. I still cannot find any cool-season annuals to plant. I don't know if I waited too long, or if they aren't in the stores yet, or if they had them earlier when it was in the 90s and the poor things burned up in the heat or what. I'm going to go plant shopping tomorrow and try to find something. We have worked so hard between trying to get the exterior of the house painted and the birds taken care of....and the house isn't done yet, but it is about 80% done and maybe we can finish it tomorrow afternoon after we do the weekly grocery shopping (and some plant shopping). If we shop too long (I really want to find some plants), I can work on painting Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. As far as I know, we are through with birdsitting. Chris, Jana and Lillie are on their way home---having rented a car this afternoon to drive home after their flight home was postponed at least 3 times and about 7 or 8 hours. Chris had a feeling it would be delayed even longer, since he works at an international airport and knows how these things go. When I talked to them they had a 7-hour drive ahead of them, so if all goes well they should be home pretty much any time now. I did notice that the dianthus plants in the garden are starting to bloom now---they must be liking the cooler weather---but I'd like to have some pansies and violas to go with them. They usually arrive in the stores here in flats in October and it is October now. I haven't seen those plants in the stores, but Home Depot is full of fake Christmas trees, fake wreaths, and real 'living Christmas trees' of various kinds in pots, and rosemary plants sheared into Xmas tree shapes, and such. They also still have lots of warm-season bedding plants, though I don't know who would buy those now that we are a month away from our average first freeze date and already have had a killing freeze anyway. There's still a lot of nursery stock, especially shrubs, on hand and, if I could make up my mind about what I want to plant in the Spring, I could buy them now and hold them over the winter until the soil is ready in Spring 2020. I bet I'd do a better job of keeping them watered and protected from the cold than the local big box stores will. So, I think a plant shopping trip is definitely happening tomorrow, and who knows what I might bring home. There's definitely some plants I know that I want for sure, so if I could find those, I wouldn't hesitate to buy them now even if I can't plant them yet. Dawn...See MoreMarch 2020, Week 2, Spring Has Sprung!
Comments (98)It rained on and off all day, though mostly drizzle and fog and mist, so I couldn't do anything outdoors. There was nothing I wanted to do indoors. So, we went to Gainesville "adventuring", just to see what was going on. There wasn't really anything much that we needed, though I wanted to get some sour cream and some ice cream if the stores had any. I was just thinking that if the coronavirus becomes too common around us, we'd just stay home but that hasn't happened yet, so I wanted to get out for a little while. Atwood's had a ton of plants outside, and I wanted to stay out and look at them, but it was raining, and it started raining harder, so I quashed that dream and went inside. I bought more vinegar for pickling and a few minor things, but nothing big. The major revelation was that the sell bacon grease (rendered bacon fat) as an official product! I think it was called Bacon Up, and they had small containers and really large ones. We've saved it from cooking our bacon forever and used it forever in cooking certain things, but I've never seen it sold in stores. It was kind of cool to see it there. Except for Atwood's being completely out of toilet paper and mostly out of paper towels, the store seemed normal. No panic shopping there. So then we went right next door to Wal-Mart, which did have several aisles with empty or mostly empty shelves, but once again, it was just the predictable items: beans, rice, pasta (all about 90-95% gone), canned meat and canned fish, soups, (about 90% gone), toilet paper and paper towels (100% gone), and bottled water (95% gone, and most of what was left was just distilled water in gallon jugs). I did buy us some sour cream, ice cream and a few other minor items but, really, most of the store looked fine. We didn't even go to the other side of the store, but I saw no hand sanitizer, liquid soap, rubbing alcohol, OTC painkillers and OTC cold/flu medications in anybody's carts, so I am sure those still remain sold out, as they largely have been for several weeks here. That's largely because it has been an awful flu season and those items have been hard to find since early January. Wal-Mart had a ton of plants out in the rain, so I didn't get to see them either, but I could tell as we walked by that they had a ton of cool season transplants that were getting pretty old and big, and a ton of freshly arrived smaller warm season transplants like tomatoes, peppers and squash. About the time we were leaving there, my son called and asked me to watch for brown rice because he could use it as part of a homemade bird food formula for his tropical birds if he cannot find more when their current supply is exhausted. Since there wasn't any rice in the two stores we'd just visited, we went to Tom Thumb, which showed the least signs of panic buying. They still had everything, though toilet paper was in fairly limited quantity and paper towels in very limited quantity. They still had all the other foods that were sold out at the Wal-mart up the road, and plenty of people shopping but nobody looked like a panic shopper or a doomsday prepper. I actually am surprised more people weren't stocking up, but maybe all those folks had done so on Friday, since that community had one person awaiting COVID-19 test results. I learned this evening the test was negative. Yay! If the weather is nice tomorrow, which is iffy because rain is in the forecast, I'd love to go plant shopping. I just don't want to do it badly enough that I'm willing to shop in the rain. I'm hoping all this rain keeps knocking down the pollen in the air. With family still down in the DFW metro, I follow the news from there closely, and panic buying made everything a big mess, especially at all the big box stores. Desperate metro shoppers were venturing into east Texas from the east side of Dallas, and driving as far as 80 miles without finding what they were looking for. Others drove north up to Sherman, and found a lot there, although I don't think Sherman residents were very pleased to have their stores invaded and raided. : ) Really, adventuring today just reinforced two things: I'm glad we prepared in advance and weren't out frantically searching for a lot of different products. We easily could live without sour cream and Blue Bell Ice Cream if we had to. And, there's lots of plants in the garden centers and the rain is keeping me from seeing them, enjoying them and maybe buying some. Then we came back home to the land of mud and puddles, and I started hating on the rain all over again. Our driveway is a river and more rain is coming. Tim picked up and then dropped a flat of tomato seedlings on the floor. I was not amused but resisted the urge to kill him. I always tell y'all that he is a plant killer---when he comes into the garden, plants die, which is why he stays out of the garden at last 99% of the time. Now he has expanded his killing to innocent seedlings growing under lights indoors. I scooped up everything and saved what I could. There is a reason I always start more than we'll need to plant. Despite the broken and dead seedlings, I should have enough to plant since I wasn't planning on having that many this year anyway. Marleigh, Your husband has my sympathy. I cannot imagine how frustrating all this panic shopping is for people in his industry right now. I saw lots of reports today of many grocery retailers cutting back their hours, even 24-hour stores closing down at night, to allow employees to clean, disinfect and restock and I think that's a great idea. I hope it makes the situation more manageable for the store employees. Here's your book at the website of used book reseller, half price books online: How To Cook A Wolf Larry, Your nutrients do look high, but your soil pH is great. I hate soil tests. Trying to decipher them makes my eyes cross and my brain explode, so I haven't had one done in years. I figure if something is deficient in my soil, I'll be able to see signs in how the plants do or don't perform, and the plants I grow look fine each year and produce well so I just don't worry about it. Your area is like mine---high in minerals. That is the one good thing about clay soil---we are having to scramble and add various nutrients to the soil. Nancy, Are your freezers full of a lot of fish? (grin) That would be my guess. Our freezers are so full after we crammed in the ice cream that we cannot buy another single thing that needs to be in the freezer, but we will eat well without shopping while the coronavirus rolls through the region and makes going out increasingly risky. I did think twice about not going to Gainesville today, but I think this could be our last good weekend to be out rather fearlessly, so wanted to do it. The whole time we were out, I never heard a single cough in any store except in Wal-Mart where one woman was hacking up a lung just outside the lady's room, near the water fountain. Her coughing was so hard and painful it scared me for her. I hope she isn't walking around in public with pneumonia or bronchitis. The cases of coronavirus in the DFW metro are rapidly expanding although I haven't seen reports of any deaths from it yet, as they are similarly expanding in various other major Texas cities, so I think we'll avoid Texas after this weekend and just go north to Ardmore. Tiny is such a garden cat! I used to grow valerian for our cats, but it was such a garden thug that I really didn't want it in the garden and eventually dug it out. Sometimes a volunteer valerian plant still pops up in the yard outside the garden. Valerian has a pheromone that affects some cats the same way that catnip does, and our cats seemed pretty fond of it. They'd walk on it, lie on it, roll on it, etc. just as they did with catnip. Graham crackers with milk was a favorite childhood snack of mine too, and one I still enjoy occasionally as an adult. Rebecca, I am glad you grounded your mom. I'd be doing the same if my mom were still here. I worry about you being around all the sick people that come into the store, so please take good care of yourself too. I've never had anything from High Mowing Seeds that didn't sprout, but I've also not grown zinnias as winter-sown seeds or started them this early since they are true heat lovers. So, I don't know if you've got a germination issue due to the seeds or if maybe it still is too cool for them. Zinnia seeds ought to germinate in about 4 to 8 days if the soil temperature is 75-80 degrees, but will be considerably slower in cooler soil temperatures. I don't "think" the seeds would get cold rot if wintersown, though, because mine reseed every year and I get tons of volunteers in the spring. If cold, wet, clay soil doesn't kill them, then being wintersown shouldn't. Maybe your seeds just need some sunshine and warmth. Jennifer, I always expect late cold weather, but was thinking this might be the Spring that we don't have that. Now it looks like, from your forecast, there's a cold night lurking out there. I don't want to go look at my forecast because I don't want to see the same thing. I don't have any tomato plants planted out either in the ground or in large containers, but my son does, so I'll tell him he needs to watch his extended forecast. While the fruit tree blooms are fading as tiny fruit begin to appear on the trees, the native redbuds are blooming everywhere around us now, and a couple of days ago the first Indian Paintbrush in our wildflower meadow began blooming. While both of these plants will jump the gun and bloom before the end of the freezing weather, they usually don't get too terribly far ahead of the weather either, so seeing the paintbrush blooms made me think that maybe the cold weather is behind us now. Oddly, the redbuds are blooming just about right on time, and not a month early like the fruit trees were. It is interesting that they didn't jump the gun and bloom far too early. Look how much I wrote y'all! I practically wrote a book tonight. (grin) There's no one awake but me. The grandkids aren't here, the pets are asleep and Tim is upstairs, presumably asleep although his phone keeps ringing so I think he is half asleep and getting crisis calls from work. Today, at the airport (and at any US airport with inbound international flights where passengers must clear Customs), US citizens and residents rushing home to beat the travel ban found themselves packed into the Customs area like sardines (by the thousands at DFW) as they lined up to fill out questionnaires designed by the Department of Homeland Security and U. S. Customs. Let's just say that frustrated travelers were posting photos and complaints on Twitter and leave it at that. Maybe it wasn't the best choice for them to fly off on trips overseas with the coronavirus pandemic making travel more risky? The airports did not create this situation, and those two government agencies are trying to catch people who might be traveling inbound with coronavirus so they can keep us all a bit more safe. It just seems like an unfortunate situation for the travelers to find themselves caught up in. Maybe they should have stayed home and planted gardens or gone panic shopping or something.... Kim, I hope you're having a great time in west Texas. Dawn...See MoreRelated Professionals
Belmont Landscape Architects & Landscape Designers · Prairie Ridge Landscape Architects & Landscape Designers · Stoughton Landscape Contractors · Edmond Landscape Contractors · Belvedere Park Landscape Contractors · Elkridge Landscape Contractors · Fort Wayne Landscape Contractors · Metairie Landscape Contractors · Painesville Landscape Contractors · Santa Ana Landscape Contractors · Fort Pierce Decks, Patios & Outdoor Enclosures · Glasgow Decks, Patios & Outdoor Enclosures · Lincolnton Decks, Patios & Outdoor Enclosures · Richmond Decks, Patios & Outdoor Enclosures · Riverside Decks, Patios & Outdoor Enclosures- 5 years ago
- 5 years ago
- 5 years ago
- 5 years ago
- 5 years ago
- 5 years ago
- 5 years agolast modified: 5 years ago
- 5 years ago
- 5 years ago
- 5 years ago
- 5 years ago
- 5 years ago
- 5 years ago
- 5 years agolast modified: 5 years ago
- 5 years ago
- 5 years ago
- 5 years ago
- 5 years ago
- 5 years ago
- 5 years ago
- 5 years ago
- 5 years ago
- 5 years ago
- 5 years ago
- 5 years ago
- 5 years agolast modified: 5 years ago
- 5 years ago
- 5 years ago
- 5 years ago
- 5 years ago
- 5 years ago
- 5 years ago
- 5 years ago
- 5 years ago
- 5 years ago
- 5 years agolast modified: 5 years ago
- 5 years ago
- 5 years agolast modified: 5 years ago
- 5 years ago
- 5 years agolast modified: 5 years ago
- 5 years ago
- 5 years ago
- 5 years ago
- 5 years ago
- 5 years ago
- 5 years ago
- 5 years ago
Related Stories

GARDENING AND LANDSCAPINGNew This Week: 3 Fire Pits Herald the Start of Summer
Toast summer — and marshmallows — with these sizzling fire pit designs recently uploaded to Houzz
Full Story
KITCHEN CABINETSNew This Week: 3 Kitchens With Boldly Colored Cabinets
Ocean blue, timeless green and vibrant yellow hues create standout spaces
Full Story
KITCHEN DESIGNNew This Week: 3 Wonderful White-and-Gray Kitchens
See how playing with materials, tones and finishes can change this classic color palette
Full Story
HOUSEKEEPINGTo-Dos: Your March Home Checklist
It’s time to rid yourself of winter’s heaviness and set up for spring
Full Story
KITCHEN DESIGNNew This Week: How Dark Can Your Kitchen Go?
These 3 kitchens wow with dark cabinetry and drama
Full Story
GARDENING GUIDESTexas Gardener's March Checklist
So long, freezing temperatures. It's time to kick off spring planting, lavish attention on lawns and sprinkle seeds to your heart's content
Full Story0

MIDCENTURY HOMESHouzz Tour: Pools and Martinis Inspire a Palm Springs Remodel
Weighed down by black-heavy ’80s style, a California desert home gets a fun and lighthearted look just right for its midcentury roots
Full Story
GARDENING GUIDESSoutheast Gardener's March Checklist
Start fresh by envisioning new plant combinations as you tend to fruit trees and rosebushes — and watch out for those darned voles
Full Story
MONTHLY HOME CHECKLISTSTo-Dos: Your March Home Checklist
Get ready for sunnier days, whether you have an hour or a weekend to spare
Full Story
EVENTSSpring Tour: Landscape Designs for Living
Northern California yards in a spring garden tour show that landscape design is all about the experience
Full Story
slowpoke_gardener