I wouldn't laugh OR yell. 'Cause it'd be a pot-and-kettle call.

Debra, ya have some work there to do! Has the draught improved at all in Texas?

Debra you truly bring new meaning to one rate box

No rain, none expected anytime soon. Supposed to be back up to 100 by Tuesday. But I remember 1980. After the hottest summer on record, the following spring we had a record amount of rain. So mebbe...

Yeah, ran out of containers. Been keeping them wrapped in their newspaper packing and keeping that wet until I could get containers ready. Then saw a thread about a teacher using boxes to make a garden for the kids. Thought, why not? It works--at least for now.

Sorry to hear the draught continues

The first annual Hosta Seed Growers gathering was really fun. We went for steak on Friday night and were absolutely stuffed. Several of us from Iowa gathered in the parking lot and gabbed for a good hour before going to our rooms to rest up for the day on Sat. Lots of gab as the circle of chairs expanded each time another person or couple arrived. Great pot luck and lots of door prizes supplied by Jeff of LOG, and some hosta from Mark Zillis. Everyone got a Powder Keg (streaked Powder Blue) and odd Blue Mouse Ears based hosta (don't know if they were imperfect tissue culture, or what}, and soy candles that Jeff and his wife make, along with a choice from a table of other stuff. Good food, company, and general chat.
They plan to do it every year and share knowledge of growing seedlings with other growers all around the world. There will be an auction of the Hosta Library very soon to fund the gathering and contests they will have next year. Gonna be even more fun.

wow.. sounds like you had a wonderful time!

I was wondering.. how well do hostas do as a houseplant over winter? I've gotten several hostas and of course, they're in containers up here on my 3rd floor balcony. I brought them all inside except for the biggest one-I'm waiting to bring it in, since the weather is going to warm up again. One of the hostas that's inside is actually going to bloom! I thought it might open today, but it hasn't yet.
Will I need to do anything special for them once they're inside? I figure since they like shade, they should do ok indoors near one of my windows.

They really need the winter dormancy to do well. You could put them in a cold dry place and bring them in early if you want to push spring ahead a month or so, however.

I have some hostas in pots that I kept divisions of..I'm wondering if I can leave them in the pots (dry) and keep them in an unheated outbuilding..

I do it every year with some of mine. Somebody I know recommended that you place something between the pot and cement if you have a floor (mine are in bins, so already not in direct contact with the floor)
I don't water from the end of Oct until i go in and see the hostas are waking up in the spring (early Apr.?)

Its raining is SE-OH, I should be either setting the garden off to bed or going grocery shopping.

I think I'll take a nap instead. The past few days digging into Ohioan clay, makes door #3 look good.

Thanks, CJ I will do that.

Tom, isn't a nap REQUIRED when it is raining in SE-OH and a person has diligently been digging in the dirt for the three days previous? It surely is a rule here.

lovemyhouse said:Tom, isn't a nap REQUIRED when it is raining in SE-OH and a person has diligently been digging in the dirt for the three days previous? It surely is a rule here.

Well, I did get some of my shopping done. I *think* I have enough soil components to top off my barrels of bonsai soil stuph. Sifting it won't begin till the garden beds are fully pooped.

I shoulda picked up a few bales of hay too. Its looking ever so much that I don't have enough OM to fully feed my garden beds. Oh well, maybe monday.

It's dry here tho we had some light rains a week or so ago. I'm planting garlic cloves and the soil is so dry and hard that I have to water both before and after putting in the clove. Still finding garlic sprouts that I either missed the last time I dug them or they have sprouted since then. Either is possible. I watered other plants while planting a few at a time.
\
I piled up a bunch of the dried grass & weeds I've pulled so far and burned them in a spot in the yarden. I'll likely have a bare spot in the front lawn for a few months but it will fill in. I'll help it along with transplants of Gill Over the Ground.

Tomorrow promises to be wonderful yardening weather again so I'll plant more garlic, pull and burn more dead grass and weeds and get them burned. So much to do and so few nice warm days left to get it done.

GOD bless and keep each of you.

I too had a few escapee garlics. I stuck 'em in with the asparagus' bed as I set that one up. They were scrawny, if those escapee's don't plump up, they can go whole next summer into mirapoix as is.

I tried something new this year, growing potato from seed. I got back a few berrys for next years planting and a whole buncha 'new potato' sized spuds. Most of those I'm putting back to field in a deepely mulched bed, where I *think* it may be possible for them to overwinter.

My hope for that spud plantation is for them to be able to get their grow-on as soon as the season opens, independent of my ability to plant them clonal-ly.

SE-OH in the land of hills and pawpaw, I've gotten a couple flats of hazelnut and paw paw started. They can slumber over the winter next to bonsai, all mulched in out in the main garden bed.

Oh, gosh, it has been so many years since I've burned weeds and leaves and such. Back in Indiana, the 55 gallon barrel in back was for burning trash and all kinds of stuff. As far back as I can remember (which goes a year or two ) they haven't done anything like that 'round here. Mebbe out in rural areas, but even there it's not common due to the pretty much year-round fire danger. These last two posts have me remembering fall up North. Don't want to trade my Texas Winters to go back to it, but I did love that season.

Here in WI we have a fire pit that we can use year round, bon fires, burning of weeds n' things, Nothing like a backyard fire in the middle of January with snow all around but for the sitting area around the pit. We have been known to sit without coats, as long as yo0u don't get too far away from the fire your are warm.

But I remember winters from Fort Worth, Dad moved us up here in 1966 and let me tell you.....that first winter was indeed uite the shock to out systems. I just knew I'd never be warm again.

Well, Hello everyone! I have a Red Flag Warning here 6 pm...

Just watch for fire around here but I has some green already but the leaves is pretty dried...

SnowElk, be careful. Love the dogs.