oh my why haven't we done a pet theme yet! we could talk about our pets and their antics all day can't we? i love my kitties, btw their names are Bolt and Reina, not boy kitty and girl kitty. lol

i didn't finish my seedlings yet but my neighbor sent me a message to come get 6 tomato seedlings from her today. i forgot. will try to stop by and grab some tomorrow. i made it out to go meat shopping today as we were running low. i wanted to make a few things before we start ramadan in a few days so that i wouldn't be cooking too much while i was fasting. i decided to grab a whole chicken and marinaded it tonight, i heard it turns out really good in the air fryer so will try to fry it for dinner tomorrow. will add some salad, garlic potatoes and buttered dinner rolls as sides. there, i've planned my menu as i typed this message!

todays BINGO word -

9. recycle

Wednesday is earth day.... that means you have 1 day to pick your item to plant. i think i have a perennial to put into the ground but i lost the tags for it so i have no idea what it is. it has tiny yellow flowers on it and spreads out wide... let me google it....

question for tomorrow - what was the first thing you learned how to cook/make and why? please post your answers to todays question on the chat thread, not to your partner. i want everyone to read what people say....

i remember teaching myself to sew when i was fairly young. i was making bows and scrunchies with needle and thread. the first thing i learned to cook was to make tea. being pakistani, i drink black tea daily. im addicted, its in my blood. its such a big part of our culture that we learn how to boil water and seep tea at a very early age. we not only make it for ourselves and the family, we also run to the kitchen to make it when we have guests visiting and the adults are talking.

more instructions on earth day planting tomorrow!

I did two recycle projects.....I was "succulenting" and I have been cleaning and dumping stuff out, so.....an evening handbag, jewelry and succulents!! I can hang it or not.

And # 2......

My husband died two years ago....he had several pairs of sketcher deck like shoes that he had placed in various parts of the yard. Well, I have never moved any of these shoes....I kind of liked them hanging out in the yard. So, I drilled holes in this pair, put in my cactus mix and since I have been "succulenting", I turned these very rugged and lasting honey shoes (LOL) into little containers. This pair of shoes was at the back garden gate.....they been through hell weather wise....harsh, sun, heavy winds, heavy rain......well, that is where these shoes shall return....LOL!!

Annie, love your succulent ideas. How heartwarming that you have left your hubby’s shoes where he left them. The succulents are really a great idea tucked in them.

I can’t remember the first thing I learned to make but since my grandmother didn’t want anyone in her way in the kitchen, it was eggs and toast. Lol. Most of my cooking was mastered after I got married.

I think the first thing I cooked with my Mom was pancakes. I was pretty young, maybe 5 years old, but do remember my Mom making darn sure I did not burn my young and sweet little fingers and hands. All these years later, I am so careful to not burn my older and not so sweet fingers and hands, Certainly a lasting impression!! I rarely make pancakes nowadays....not sure why. But my Mom was an outstanding cook and was 100% responsable for me loving the kitchen, the prep of food, the creativity......and the fun of it all. Gosh, I miss my Mom!!

Happy Evening!

Annie

Great idea, Annie, and what a special memory!

I remember what I made when i first cooked and that I invited my great aunt and uncle over to enjoy it with my family. Have no idea what the recipe was called, but it was a piece of bread and you put a slice of cheese on it and then a piece of bologna and then put these on a cookie sheet under the broiler and the bologna would curve up into the shape of a bowl. I don't know my age at the time.

Annie, I love that recycling idea! So nice.

I think the first thing I cooked may have been eggs over easy. I used to watch my Dad make it for me and I eventually tried it. However, I think I learned crocheting from my grandmother and sewing from my mother before that.

omg love the recycling idea with the shoes! everyone is so creative with the posts... great job guys!

Todays BINGO word -

15. Organism

i was able to get into the garden today! bad news... my garden bed is full of grass again. oh my. i was able to spot some malabar spinach in there, and some purple broccoli. i will keep digging tomorrow...

i started some new seedlings and put them out in my greenhouse, zipped it up and now we wait. i also took my orchids outside and put them in the greenhouse too. one of them is giving me a flower stem coming up from the side. i think its the same plant as last year but i don't remember.

assignment for tomorrow -

PLANT YOUR ITEM FOR EARTH DAY AND POST A PICTURE OF WHAT YOU HAVE PLANTED. post a picture either while planting or post planting. we would like to see it in the ground. if you have time to SHARE anything, please share why you chose what you chose to plant.

Happy Earth Day. I’m waiting for the temp to go up before I head outside.

Happy Earth Day. I agree with Margo. I am waiting a bit, will be going out to plant soon. It has been cold again here in NE Ohio. I witnessed snowflakes yesterday afternoon. :(

I love everyone's pics and recycling posts too. Annie, I had tears in my eyes when I saw what a beautiful thing you did with your husband's shoes. I was so choked up I could not even post at the moment. What a beautiful and enduring gesture of love.

Regarding my "ugliest recycled trellis ever", Annie, I first used a nail gun to keep the larger branches in place then I used jute twine to secure, then for the smaller branches that I added in for a more artistic affect, I used hot glue and then the same jute twine to secure more permanently. I will use rebar to stake in the ground and will grow something vining, either scarlet runner beans or black eyed susan vine. I am leaning towards black eyed susan.

I will post my pic and some more comments tonight. I am taking lunch at 2 pm to do my planting.

Then I will be back to work until 6 pm.

Have a great Earth Day!

Susan and Margo, so funny about the temperature. It is so hot here so I only planted my required plant and stopped. I realized most of my seedlings are not perennials. My alpine strawberries seedlings are but they are too small to transplant just yet. I transplanted tomato seedlings so that I had at least a seedling planted and also transplanted a rosemary I had rooted from a cutting for my perennial

I had some figs I grew from cuttings that I was going to transplant too but it was too hot for me to dig that many deep holes so I will save that for the weekend along with my other seedlings.

Happy Earth Day everyone!

Happy Earth Day! I just came in from planting - two types of Rudbeckias and some white Scabiosa. I have more seedlings to plant but there are several storms on their way on Thursday so I only wanted to put in some seedlings that I thought could deal with heavy rain really soon. (The ones in the black container were planted in Feb. 2018 ; the others were wintersown this year.) Once we can shop, I need to buy paint and repaint my garden gnomes - in person, you would see he needs some fresh paint.

I hope everyone has a good day!

Well I was able to plant my Hosta Abiqua Drinking Gourd during my lunch break

Step 1 - Here is where I dug the hole and was putting it in the ground

Step 2 - Here is it all planted nicely and watered. Can't wait for it to grow.

This is what it will look like when it is fully grown. I had one of these at my previous residence and I loved the way the birds would come and drink water out of the cupped leaves after the rain. I am building an area to attract the birds in the back yard and putting in bird feeders and I thought this would be a nice addition to that area.

I was also happy to see the oakleaf hydrangea cuttings I took over the winter are starting to get new leaves. I had to do some pruning which I should have tried to do right after it bloomed since it blooms on old wood. Oh well, I will be happy with half the blooms this year. It grows so quickly that it was reaching the top of the garage in a matter of 3 years.

I hope everyone has an excellent day.

happy earth day everyone. love all the progress everyone has made in planting today!

just wanted to say that its totally understandable if its too hot or too cold for you to plant today! You get an A for effort anyways. looking forward to seeing what else everyone is up to...

I planted my new coral bells and totally forgot to take a picture. I will try to do that tomorrow unless the forecasted rain is too much. I am going back to the local greenhouse tomorrow to get a couple of flats of annuals.

I was excited last week to discover that bluebirds have hatched in my bluebird box. Mom and dad are busy grabbing the mealworms I put out for them. I want to see if I can work my phone camera around the opening to get a pic of inside.

My husband ordered a greenhouse for me today. It is 6x8 and I am super excited. I have wanted one for years and had given up hope that I would get one. I have a lot of seedlings started and I hope I get it soon to get those growing bigger.

hey everyone. hope everyone got their plantings done for today.

todays BINGO word -

21. Navigate

i ended up going to lowes to see if they had any perennials i could save. i bought a bunch of stuff called mounding perenials. im not sure hos big they are supposed to get but i had random empty spots in my landscaping that i wanted to fill in.

for my plantings i started with a yellow lantana that i had purchased last year which i never got to put in the ground. then i added mounding perenials here and there. here are some pics -

this is the yellow lantana, the butterfly blue pincushion flower, and the morning star deep rose sea thrift

this is called rapido white bellflower

i still need to order mulch and fill in the garden bed. also need to start the sprinklers so that everything can stay hydrated.

Wanted soaker hoses. Found 1, 2 stores closed at 5:30 and I missed it by 7 minutes. Went to big store and asked clerk kid #1. "We don't carry those," he said. I knew better. Clerk kid #2 said they had nozzles to soak with. Customer in the aisle said, "You mean SOAKER HOSES?" Yes. She found them hidden on the shelves. She should get s discount or a prize! Still not set up with soaker hoses, but I just need time now that I have the hoses, a timer and the elusive washer!!! Heidi

My Earth Day planting from yesterday.....

Rudebeckia Goldstrum

Extra stress at my house. The bad storms yesterday blew a tree down that landed on the roof of the attic above the garage (attached garage so essentially "the house".) Thankful it wasn't my bedroom, but now I'm trying to find someone to come to repair the roof and cut up and haul off the tree. It sure scared us when it came down. All the roofing and tree people are terribly booked up because that was the 3rd time in 11 days with severe storms. I guess I'll have to wait my turn. I have other trees that need to be cut down and trimmed; I assume the rest of that will get on their schedule when they get freed up a bit more.

I hope everyone else is safe.

By the way, I'm hostess for May. I assume most (if not all) of us prefer to wait a bit longer before sending things in the mail. Let me know if that's not the case. I'll come up with a theme where we can play some games and post some pictures so we can keep in touch during May.

Jeanne, so sorry to hear about the storms and the tree damage to the house. That is scary and I am glad you are ok. We have been pretty fortunate that we haven't had any major issues this spring. It has been pretty chilly here but warming up slowly.

Take care of yourself. I wanted to tell you that I love your viburnum. Do you know what variety it is? I saw one when I was traveling in near the Ohio Kentucky border at a service plaza a couple of years ago. It was in full bloom and looked like yours. The fragrance was heavenly and I put it on my wish list, only I am not sure which one to get.

Planted some more hosta and shade loving perennials in my new garden bed in the back where I moved some of my azaleas too. I hope to be able to enjoy the backyard more this summer. It was shall we say, drab, when we bought the place three years ago this month.

I hope everyone is staying safe and healthy. I am blessed to not have to go out much. I work in Pennsylvania, but due to all of this we have been working from home since Mid March and are expected to work through at least the beginning of June if not longer from home. I would be more comfortable not mailing anything at this time, although it would be a great time for a plant exchange...hopefully it will be better soon and the fall would also be a nice time for that.

Keep forgetting to post what I’ve planted. Here are my two new coral bells.

Susan, my virburnum is a Chinese Viburnum and as far as I can tell there is no fragrance associated with it. There are several varieties of viburnum so I suspect you saw a different kind. I don't like floral fragrances so I specifically pick out plants that don't have much fragrance. I like fragrances associated with herbs most of the time, just don't like the floral fragrances. I even pick out my roses based on little to no fragrance. I know, weird!

smitties, love the plantings for earth day and love the little glass name plates. awesome recycled item!

jeanne, so sorry to hear about your roof. i can't believe it, thats devastating... i hope you get that addressed soon. we also need to have our roof checked.

so sorry for being MIA guys, i totally forgot yesterday.... we had a busy day cleaning the house. today we started fasting for ramadan and i took a nap for a little bit because i had a headache. so we were making little goodie bags for the neighbors with dates and chocolates and i heard aloud crash. i looked outside and my greenhouse had crashed! omg i was devastated. everything we had replanted had crashed to the ground.

i was more upset about my orchids. i thought they liked being in a greenhouse so i had stuck them in there. well yesterday they SEEMED fine to me.... today they were all brown, soggy and even had root rot when i saw them crashed to the ground. i am just devastated. i sat and fixed all of those and it was time to break our fast. took out left overs...

here are the BINGO words for today -

13. Ocean

20. Voyager

2 to day as i forgot yesterday, i will also try to do 2 per day so we can get a winner soon... only 6 more days left in April.

Jeanne, i am fine with the swap either way. i think most germs are gone once they go through the mail and reach everyone, i would be ok with swapping but i will go with whatever the group wants. would love a thread to keep us all connected...

will update tomorrow once i get my greenhouse back up and the seedlings that i can find picked up... :(

Jeanne, I am good with whatever you do...however, I would prefer not having to mail anything.

RE: your roof.....thank goodness you are safe.

Urooj, I never got the greenhouse at Aldi as they said they ran out of them. The wind was a concern when I was looking at it to buy.

To all, have a great weekend....be safe and be happy!!

Annie

hey everyone. hope you guys had a great saturday. i have had a headache for the past 2 days that will just not go away. i finally decided to take some aleve and i am hoping that it will help relieve it.

todays BINGO words -

19. Wanderlust

17. Mineral

i went to get my car inspection done as my sticker is due for renewal in April and there are barely a few days left. i wonder if they are going to be allowing extensions for those because of the stay in place order.

i received a nice surprise today when my sisterinlaw sent us an Edible Arrangement! The kids really enjoyed it!

I haven't posted a question in long time... so sorry about that... i thought of one just now...please tell your partner how this stay in place order is effecting you, be it positive or negative. and if time permits, please post HERE what you are looking forward to most when the order is eased!

I am looking forward to taking a trip to visiting family. I never thought I would look this forward to standing in an airport security line, but I do miss it!

Have a good weekend everyone, hope you guys get some gardening done this weekend!

Urooj, seeing family is certainly the thing I look forward to the most. It has been a very stressful and lonely time. I have someone coming out tomorrow to deal with the tree that fell into my roof and then later in the week, someone will come out to see what the damages are to the roof. So much to take care of right now. We have thousands of trees right near our house so I know I will worry from now on, whether it's high winds or a storm.

I did pick some roses this morning to cheer things up indoors. Here's a picture of Polar Express and Amadeus.

Also, I want to let everyone know that I will be posting the May Heading for FOTESS early. The Kentucky Derby is usually on the first Saturday in May and since that won't happen as usual this year, I have planned a special Gardener's Derby for us. Stop by before May 2nd to pick the horse you want to win.

I'll also be having a game that involves answers or photos or both to start after our Derby race so more fun ahead!

Please continue to join in here until April has passed. I'm really enjoying our April topics!

love the roses jeanne. i went to lowes on earth day and i bought a rose called red masterpiece. i have yet to get it in the ground but im excited to see it bloom. my neighbor has a fragrant red rose in her front yard and its breathtaking, but i think i want mine in my backyard so i can see from my bedroom window.

todays BINGO words -

18. Bedrock

10. Terrain

I only have 4 words left so i hope someone is getting close to BINGO... i want the winner to tell me which store they want their gift card from. susan sent me a lowes gift card last month and when i finally went to lowes i forgot to use it. that's OK, it gives me an excuse to go back there!

did not go out to the garden today. some days my garden makes me sadder than it makes me happy and that a ME thing, not my gardens fault. my fig tree has turned into a fig bush and its doing OK. my neighbors fig tree was 4 times the size of mine at the beginning of the season and mine has yet to catch up... i don't know what i'm doing wrong.... i heard figs do better with 2 so I may have to get another one sometime soon.

i love the theme for next week. excited about picking my horse. i don't mind if we switch over a bit early, the month is almost to an end. i just need to see who the BINGO winner is, as i didn't keep track of the boards myself this year like last year. i'm also waiting to hear what people are looking forward to once the shelter in place is lifted... is it a spa day? is it a grand vacation that was planned? a big milestone coming up?

for us, this is the first summer that my husband will have 2 weeks off in a row. i don't think we have ever taken a summer vacation! we were looking forward to going to spain! we have not planned our trip because i was worried it would not work out but my husband was saying it might be possible! i don't know.... i don't want to schedule and lose money if we don't get refunds. if we don't get to travel international, we will go and visit family in another zone. we don't have any immediate family in zone 8a.

let me try to post my roses again...

fragrant tea rose

fragrant

this one has since opened up and looks like a peony. its so pretty.

knockout roses

Susan ... you will love your Abiqua Drinking Gourd hosta! I absolutely love that hosta! Here is a photo of mine today ...

.... this is baptisia grown from seed. This is its third year ... and its absolutely beautiful!

love all of the flowers jayeanne... are those hostas in the bowl miniature or just small cuttings? as far as i know hostas can get real big and they look really small next to those garden gnomes.

BINGO words for today -

7. Arctic

8. Greenland

if no one gets bingo today, i will pull 1 word tomorrow and 1 wednesday... lets see...

ok so believe it or not, i had a productive gardening day today. i set my greenhouse back up and put all of the fallen pots and dirt back in pots. ok... so aside from 2 things which i picked up and got back in the pots nothing is marked so i am hoping that the seeds sprout and i get something. there will hopefully be a ton of surprises and i may need help with IDs.... lets pray for that!

Oh and guess what i did with the greenhouse this time, i added sandbags to the bottom rack so that it doesn't blow away this time. now i know this isn't fool proof but i did try to skoot it back a little and it wouldn't budge so here's hoping. heres a pic - its play sand in sandwich bags, and i inserted those into book covers :)

i did not get a partner for my fig tree in case you were wondering. my garden bed has 3 things growing in there. 1 is a cucumber plant.... can't tell you what the other 2 are as i don't remember. its all filled with grass again! i did buy ground cover on my earth day trip to lowes so i was going to put that down. it was hot in zone 8a today!!!

word is that the governor is opening the city up slowly... Friday we get the mall, movie theatres and stores opening up... we will probably stay indoors for a little bit more and see how things go.

Urooj, I sent you a message.

Jayeanne, beautiful pictures!

Really pretty plant pictures!

Urooj - very creative plan for your green house - I wouldn't have thought of that!

We are still having some cooler nights here (in the 40s) so I continue to move my seedlings outdoors in the morning and back in the garage at night. They seem to be doing well though. Right now I have basil, plantain, day lily, sweet pea, and a few others that have sprouted. So little time for the garden this spring, but it does bring me lots of joy to see things growing and in bloom. I have 3 vases of roses that I brought into the house over the past few days. They last and last.

I realize I haven't done it yet, but my show and tell for the month will be pretty boring; It has to do with recycling milk jugs and labeling plants. Will try to take a few pictures and post them later today.

Let's see if I can think of what to say that goes along with the pictures I took. I really enjoy winter sowing and have always had good results using one gallon clear plastic milk jugs. So that's the recycle part of this. You may be able to tell how I cut the jugs. I love using my rechargeable scissors - so much easier on your hands when cutting through the plastic. Even before I make that opening though I poke some drainage holes in the bottom of the jug. Depending on your weather, you may just be able to leave the jug like this (I do), but if your weather requires it you can attach the top back to the bottom so that more than the hinge holds them together. The few times I've reattached, I've used duct tape to do it. I also use duct tape to identify the jug. I do this by writing a number using permanent marker on a piece of duct tape on the bottom of the jug. That number continues to be legible all winter here. Often, a year later I can still read it. You do not leave the cap on the jug.

The number on the bottom of the jug corresponds with the variety of seeds that I plant and I record that information in a little notebook. I include the date I planted the seeds, the source of the seeds (often from a trade or by company that packed them) and when I know it, I include the year they were packaged. I try to remember to come back once the seeds sprout and write in "S" and the date. That's for future reference and I can see how long it took. The jug on the right shows you that once the weather gets too warm, I cut off the top so I can water more easily and so that the seeds don't get too hot. You can certainly re-purpose this part as a funnel - or with the cap back on - you could use it as a scoop.

Last one!

Bingo!

Jeanne, I love that gift idea!

Congratulations on Bingo, Emily!

Apparently I am not receiving all of the posts to my email.......and some of my recent posts have not posted. Go figure!

As far as how this COVID in house stay put way of life is affecting me.....it is simply the way it is..... not a darn thing I can do about it......I just have fun in my house and yard.....I have plenty to do.....I am not bored......My siblings and I go back and forth.....from my house to one other siblings and then back here.....we take a few days and break from each other......and then start it back again. So four of the six siblings are here probably until Sunday. The twin nephews and one of my neices are here as well taking exams. We have a great time. We discuss all the problems of the world. And, of course, we don't have all the answers on how the problems of the world will be fixed. But it is always a darn good discussion.......to many laughs. We were outside poolside last night/this morning until 2 am drinking wine, listening to 80's music in hysterics, just having a great time. We will do it again tonight and again tomorrow night. I feel strongly that a good, fun attitude is a must. In life we must make the best of a bad/not so good situation. If we don't, we will drive ourselves crazy.I don't even think about what is my first want to do thingie will be. It will be whatever it is.......

Happy day!!

Annie

Annie, man that sounds like fun. I sure wish I had sisters. A pool would work too. I have the wine.

It‘s hubby and I seeing this through. We have FaceTime thank goodness. I literally spend an hour at a time with my two year old grandson who lives in Arizona. He asks to see nana. My daughter and sil are working from home so I sit and watched him and we talk as best you can talk to a two year old. Sometimes he just works in his tablet and I’ll set my phone down where I’m busy gardening etc and he is perfectly happy with that. Often he’ll say “take nana” and he’ll pick up the phone and we’ll walk around. He’ll even put me on the floor in his room and shut the door then say knock knock nana. I find it’s wonderful time spent even if it is on a phone.

Retail is opening back up mid month but I won’t be going back to work til there is a vaccine. If I have to wear a mask, I’m not in a safe environment. Customers are not required to wear them but workers are.

Congrats on Bingo Emily

Congrats Emily. you did win BINGO this month. it was a fun game!

Annie, you better watch out, I have your address :) this is exactly what i do with my sister when we get together. we sing all kinds of songs and just laugh. i also wish i had siblings close by but i don't know if we would break quarantine... my family is all in the same state but they are not getting together. so... i may be sitting and karaoke-ing by myself anyways... they drop things off to each other, and wave from the window!

love the story about your grandson Margo. you have a lot of patience. you remind me of my motherinlaw. i call my dad for a few minutes but he doesn't talk to me for too long. he's usually busy watching the news or youtube. lol. he is also not visiting grandchildren!

love the lilies jayeanne. they are so pretty. i have a ton of lily seeds but i don't plant them because of my cats but i do love how pretty they are.

jeanne, i love your recycled project. the blinds as markers is a good idea. i like the baggies you made. those are cute. i love to sew and worked on some masks, a blanket and me and the little one made a "bed" for the kitties. she pushed the pedal while i guided the fabric. she was happy to tell her father that she made it all by her self with help from mom.

also for my recycling project I decided to use my old airline bags as board game piece storage. there are so many little pieces with each game that its best to keep them in bags. i use zip locks but they still seem to open up, so the idea of using these zip up pouches from international flights are great for storage. here are some pics -

i think we have a few more days in April, so I will try to post tomorrow. I know that Jeanne was planning on posting early, but she has a lot going on with the tree damage. However as soon as she posts, we can wrap April up!

Emily, I will send you your BINGO prize soon!

Jayeanne, those are nice daylilies. Mine haven't flowered yet.

Jayeanne and Annie, my cucumber seeds have sprouted!

I have been staying home and doing stuff around the house and garden. You would think I would get a lot more done but I don't know where the time goes. I have been keeping in touch with folks via text, email, phone and FaceTime. Thank goodness for the internet!

Here's the FOTESS link for the May topic. I should have thought to add the link here before now.

https://www.houzz.com/discussions/5904480/may-fotess-participation-games-and-photos-for-group-members#n=10

Sleigh bells(azaela)

annie... post your choice of flower for the derby on the may thread...

since this is getting confusing, i am officially closing out April!

Had a great time ladies! thank you for making it a fun month getting to know each other better.

lets head to the Derby!

Annie, I see your choice here and will list it under the May heading. No problem.

Urooj, thanks so much for being the April hostess. You were fantastic and we had lots of fun!

Congratulations on Bingo Emily.

Loved learning more about my partner.

Urooj, you were a terrific hostess. Thanks so much for a great time.

Everyone, I loved all the sharing all the pics etc.

Thanks for a fun month Urooj. Awesome job hosting.

Urooj,

Thanks for a wonderful month of April.......GREAT TIME!!

Happy May to all....be safe!!

Annie