Boo. So sorry to hear that, Kyla! Always such a pain to have to make the trek to mail something back and then wait for its replacement. Hope they're able to send you the right size!

Thanks! Well, Gardeners Supply has good customer service, and will mail me a paid return label so I won't have to pay postage.

Meanwhile, I am learning some specifics about how the soil imbalances here are showing up! First with the southern blight info, and now with the ID of that weed, which is a bad one! called Yellow Nutsedge. Dave IDed it swiftly.

This is a good article about it:
http://www.missouribotanicalga...

I am a stubborn cuss and refuse to use non-organic methods. So I continue doing my best to improve the soil and create the conditions for balance....

Here is my latest challenge....now he comes out and sleeps in the sun..GRRRRRRRR.

LOL pretty brazen! :-D

Uh-oh. He looks like a goner to me!

Welp, Catmint, we didn't get your compost built this weekend, did we? Unless you snuck it by me somehow!

LOL Kyla you caught me redhanded! The to-do lists we draw up for ourselves with great hope, and then the reality of life sets in. (sigh) After 3 hours on Saturday morning puttering away, my ankle hurt so much I retreated to sedentary indoor activities for the rest of the weekend. oh, well. I am hopeful about this coming weekend!

That darned ankle hurter! As long as you get to it before things freeze up outside, it will be fine. Too bad I don't live closer; I'd come set it up for you and you could direct operations from a handy chair.



I whittled away at my list a tiny bit yesterday, but things do keep adding themselves to it. I got my messy potting area straightened up (list item) and I got a few kale seeds sown in small pots out there (list item) I would so love to manage some kale before deep winter. Kale does well in early frosts if you can get it to that point. I may have missed my seed starting window by too much but we'll see.

I went out and tried to find some cheap rainboots locally, but didn't see anything that would work for what I intend. I also learned I should keep my camera closer to the back door! because I kept having to go upstairs to get it.

I love how these look from the back!

would love it if you could come up--maybe for our first swap! @Roses_R_Red had mentioned finding a date later this fall when we could swap both seeds and plants. Then of course @HollyAnnS is going to have a swap in PA on Sept 13. And maybe I could host a swap someday! :-D

Interesting about the flowers from the back--I had never thought of that, but you're right! They are cool looking! Are those Rudbeckia?

I know what you mean about the to-do list that just keeps adding to itself!

No! Those are those coreopsis I keep photographing, mainly because they are the most healthy looking plants I have right now, aside from all the small ones, the groundcovers and the brachyscome.

As for to-do lists, I have realized mine contains many items that have multiple tasks, so I don't necessarily get to cross things off even if I am working away at something.

Like "organize bedroom". HA!

Anyway. Here is one of my upcoming garden challenges:

Much of that sunny bed looked kind of like that at first -- once the plants leafed out and started blooming. There is that perennial short coreopsis, I think it's called Moonbeam or Moonbow. A lot of that! there is also spearmint in there, and monkey grass, and black-eyed susans and coneflowers. Thave been daylilies -- mostly the orange ditchlily type -- and two varieties of iris, most of that has been moved. In this picture you can see a little splash of red which is the end of bloom for a monarda my cousin bought this year and planted there against my advice -- I wanted the area cleaned up first and knew it would be a long time before I got to it. But the monarda has been lovely there and I ended up saying instead, no, let's leave all that growth because for a while the goldfinches were hanging out as were a few hummingbirds, and they both fed there and needed a little cover!

Now it seems those birds have departed so I am looking at clearing this patch soon. The monarda already has mildew on its leaves. And I will have to try to dig out that oak.

Catmint, I hope I can make it to a swap and/or visit or gathering or what have you. I have no car! however, so it isn't very likely.

The coreopsis are beautiful!

Maybe more detailed to-do lists that outline each step, just for the satisfaction of crossing things off?

Looks like a lot of pretty stuff going on in that bed. Definitely worth it to keep the Monarda just for the hummingbirds and goldfinch! I've had one coming by my yard recently, drawn in by the Cardinal lobelia and Red Salvia, both of which are blooming now. I just saw him perching for a while in the cherry tree. I hope he/she decides to make a nest nearby.

Dig out an oak? whew! that sounds like a job!

Well, that's too bad about the car thing, Kyla. We'll just have to be on the lookout for some other gardeners from the Richmond area you could ride up with! Too bad I'm not closer--I'd offer you to ride up with me!

Thanks! And I have looked at the member list; there are several in Richmond, but none I've encountered here yet.

I am chipping away at my list! I have made progress! Yay, me!

And oh my yes we will keep that Monarda and I want to get more! It's just that now I have to work around it carefully when I clear. And yeah that tree is bound to be a bear. Things like that have always been just cut off above ground and you know what that means, no doubt: a little sprout with a honkin' big stem and monster root system. This one I have not inspected to see whether it's been cut much, but I bet it has. Not quite sure what I will do there.

And the goldfinch are not gone after all; I saw one pair just this afternoon. There are still seeds there for them so I am postponing the deadheading. I just wish there were more for them, but, next year there will be.

I have splitters on both my outside faucets. The water pressure is not enough to support the movement that the sprinklers need to operate. I can hand water a little with one of the hoses and then turn off that nozzle so that the sprinkler on the other hose will oscillate. Has anyone else had this problem?

Yeah. That's one reason I haven't hurried to get splitters here. There are two outside spigots and if I run a sprinkler off each, the pressure in each and hence the coverage is noticeably less than if I run one at a time.

I don't know if there is a fix for water pressure woes.

We had to empty our flower boxes and containers because the neighbor's chickens had ruined them. They not only got in them and scratched but they sat in them to keep cool. The little ones jumped up on the large containers to get a boost to fly over the fence. I am really angry and when the neighbor comes home this will have to be the end for sure. I do not like being a nasty neighbor, but the damage is now in the hundreds for those chickens. The gardens around the house and the small house are all damaged and the mulch scratched away. This spring the new grass seed had to have wire put down to keep them from making holes in the new grass plots. Just been a disaster.

Those plants were getting old but we had a few weeks of them yet and now we have nothing. We are not even buying Mums until the chickens are gone. We usually fill them with mums in the Fall for the Halloween/Thanksgiving season. I am so angry. It rained last night so I am going to wait until it dries off a bit today and cut the sorghum before they ruin that too. I want to dry it.

Hope for the best and maybe it will happen.

Oh no this sounds awful JB!

What a shame, JB! I know I've seen chickens be harmonious in a garden space but this sounds like there are far too many of them and they are not well cared for by their owner. I hope you can resolve it with the people involved easily.

Too bad those chickens don't eat the groundhog. Or vice versa.

Here, we had a section of dead tree come down sometime this morning! It did little damage, and I was able to move it back up against the fence as it was lighter than it looked due to dry rot. (thinking hugelkultur now of course. )



I didn't like that little blue chair anyway, and not much had been done on that side yet.... but still. (Those are really bad pictures! Oof.)

Then, when I went to go back inside, this greeted me at the back door!



I was able to open the door carefully to get the camera again without disturbing her, but after I took these I moved her to a better spot and hope she will rebuild! I love those spiders.

glad there was no damage. Dry rot--doesn't sound good!
that is a big spider!

It was an old dead tree that had been there for years probably.

I don't think the spider is all that large for that variety but this reminds me I was going to search for more information about her. I was surprised the web was built that fast, and over the threshhold of the door!