Well I felt somewhat accomplished today. The bed is planted and weeded, garden planted and compost all around. Tomorrow will find me throwing the wood mulch, planting dahlias and then if I am totally crazy I'll weed the jungle.

I don't think I'm that crazy.

And - the counties next to me have frost warnings! I'm not covering up as our low is to be 42. I know a total gamble. But I don't feel like tapping off h the garden, beds and planters. It might come back and bite me, but I'll just let it go.

Jeanne: I too loaded up on aleve and ibuprofen before I even went on out. I've got another iris grouping blooming and it smells good too. Enjoy your blooms as you are working in those beds.

Pepper: well having littles visit is always nice. Enjoy getting ready to return to work.

I'm off to just ignore the dip in temps tonight and get moving tomorrow and hopefully find some success.

Good day all!

I'm contemplating the day ahead for me. First off, we were ok and no frost for us and with that I can rejoice as I did not cover anything and hoped for the best. Today I have the dahlia bed to contend with as I had started all of mine in the house and it's time they find the real dirt. We will be opening the bed up a bit more. I still need to get cages on the tomatoes and let them take off. And I forgot to put up my bean trellis. Well one must get those supports in place.

Do any of you who grow tomatoes do anything special with them? I always put egg shells in the hole to help with blossom end rot. I'm interested in what others do as your must do when caring for them.

I think I know what direction I'll move today. Now let's hope I can get it all done. Happy day to you! I'm off for my cuppa joe and a doughnut. Total breakfast of champions today.

Top of the morning, to ya all.

I will be putting grass clippings in the vegetable rows today. DH finally mowed yesterday and will pick up the grass today. I like to put grass around my tomato and pepper plants and between the pea and bean rows to keep the weeds down. I'm not good about hoeing so I go the grass clipping route. I have cages around my tomato and pepper plants but need to stake the cages around the tomatoes. I might sprinkle some epsom salt around the tomato plants. I think that is what my BFF did. I need to put up the panels for the peas to climb. I like to do that before the plants get too big. Maybe I can get DH to help me with that today too.

Have a great day.

Gm.. sounds like you guys have been and are gonna be busy! I started a planner to let me know what I need to get done, prioritize, keep track of dates. Been doing it since about mid April, should have started a lot sooner.

Looking at what I should have done yesterday, I didn't do too bad. I got some chicken wire up to protect plants/beds, fenced a bed, planted some tomato plants, pricked out mustard, planted some carrots and radishes, harvested, mowed (first time of the season for the back, it was getting way way tall!) Finished the second compost pile of the season, turned the first compost pile of the season, started working a little bit on grading the transition from the garden to the grassy area, put down cardboard on the pathways, decided to use wood chips on top of the cardboard and throughout the garden pathways, weeded (I like to just stop and drop at any given time and pull out 20 weeds wherever I'm at), enjoyed the company of my son when he came out saying what a nice day it was, talked with some neighbors, and stopped to appreciate a flower or two. Didn't get the garden sufficiently looking nice enough to take a picture. First thing I do today!

Today, I have to protect the strawberry plants as they are starting to fruit, water some containers, harvest greens inside the house, plant annual flowers out by the mailbox, cleanup the entrance to the house and mulch, prune back lilac bushes, make labels for my seed containers, plant whatever I have remaining, and fence more beds.

Last night I went out after dinner. Neighbor dropped off his fresh grass clippings. I added layers of green/brown to the compost pile and topped it off several inches above the top. Figured I spent 20 minutes doing that, one hour! It's not like I was working slow! And I buried my freaking compost thermometer about 8-12" down into the pile. Forgot to remove it before adding new material for the third time yesterday. Pics are in the Soil and Compost forum under a thread called Compost temperature dropping, or something like that if you'd like to see.

Another nice day. Didn't get started as early as I planned, but I did work on the garden planner some.

Thomas: sounds like you have been ambitious! I checked out your compost photos. Can I ask why you don't use paper? Is there an issue with using the bleached VS unbleached stocks? I use banana and orange peels, coffee grounds and filters (just our own), grass clippings, fall leaves, goat or chix poo, straw or wood shavings with said poo. I did and do have a lot of worms so I'm hopeful that's good. I don't usually hot compost as I have read on. But I keep trying.

Jeanne: it's always nice when we get help. I have yet to get in the dahlia bed. How did the mulching go? Is everything in finally at your house?

AM: well we got kid1s 4H Test garden planted at grandmas. I was reminded why I'm appreciative of my sandy soil. Good grief! They live about 10 miles away and its always interesting when I dig there, such heavy clay. On top of it I had to be mindful of black bear. Makes you work quicker! But they usually don't visit at the noon time. We'll see what happens with the garden. We also have to make sure that the deer don't decide it's their smorgasboard.

I found all of my jar seals and old lids. I have to drill holes in them and write the names on for both dahlias and tomatoes. I hang them on the cages with zip ties. If I'm super fancy I spray paint them black. Today I'm not super fancy. I hang them where I can see them and then they are marked.

It's such a lovely day out the temp is right, the sun is warm, and blue skies. I could have a whole summer like this! Too bad by Tuesday it will be 90. And right as my irises are all set with buds. This gal can't win - the last few years I get the early bloomers and then the middle blooming ones never survive the heat up and the later ones in about 2 weeks time do fine. So I'm missing a lot of different colors.

Will be heading out here shortly. I hope all goes well and the flowers all take off! Then this week I'll douse myself in bug spray and tackle the jungle. As is, I discovered last night after getting cleaned up somebody bit me three times on my face. There are pluses and minuses to working in the gardens! I do so hope that doesn't happen too often in the jungle.

The ones you lose to heat cut them as buds getting ready to open and take them inside and put in a vase. Then you can enjoy them.

Amanda, every time I knock a bud off a plant especially an Iris or Daylily or Lily, I take it inside and put it in water. I almost always get a bloom.

Today was a great day outside. I got a lot done and am pleased. I finished mulching the flagpole bed. At each end of the bed is a tribute to one of my parents. The railing on each side is from our porch given to me by the people who bought their house after someone else trashed it. Anyway, I did not completely finish my mom's side yet but will soon. I am really happy with how my dad's side turned out.




DH picked up the grass clippings and last thing I did outside was to spread the clippings between the peas and bean row and around the broccoli, pepper, and tomato plants. I am so glad to have that done. Now I need to water it all in the morning so the grass settles on top of the small weeds that had started to grow

I hope you all had a great day inside or out today and have a wonderful nights sleep and a fantastic day tomorrow.

Well I got a bit more done. We opened up the dahlia bed today a bit wider and I managed to get everyone sighted and in the lineup of how I'm planting them - mainly by height and then somewhat by color though I know they won't bloom at the same time. Sadly though I only have 6 dahlias, 2 delphiniums and my mariachi salsa helenium. I still have the bulk of the dahlias and all the annuals to do tomorrow before we get more rain. I ran out of supports for the dahlias and will have to get some this week. Since I don't expect huge growth in a few days I will grab them when I go to town for clinic.

But thus far though everything is somewhat small yet and not much color besides green, it's looking good! It has lots of potential and hope.

And I had fresh morels today! My FIL does a grand job with them and they were good. Got to love spring in WI with natures hidden gems.

Pepper: I always forget to bring in the buds. I know better but that doesn't mean I get to it. I will hope that I can get them to bloom at least for a few hours on the plants before the extreme heat. What do you surround yourself with plant wise?

Jeanne: how nice you honor your parents. Are these things from your life that were special to both of you? Do you do this yearly? Yeah for grass clippings! I hate weeds. This year I have a ton of Creeping jenny or Charlie or whatever name you'd like to give it. I've heard it called either. All I know is it seems to be everywhere! Tomorrow I'll have to hurry my planting as we are to have thunderstorms again. I looked at the weather app and most looks like noon time. So I'm hoping I can get out at first light and get things done!

Thomas: how did your strawberry protecting go? Are you netting off from birds or do you have other opportunists? I made my own cloches out of the little wire baskets they sell at dollar tree until the plants I'm protecting from the rabbits take off. They work great for my purposes.

Alright all - have a good evening. Dream good dreams - the world is too crazy right now and thinking about plants is a good help and who can be angry at a flower? More at you tomorrow. Hope everyone is pleased w their progress.

Dangnabbit I only got an hour and fifteen to plant. When I looked at the future radar it was all going south of me until 11am. I was out taking my time to plant, trim up and fertilize when it started to rain. I almost got all of my stuff away except for emptying the wheelbarrow and bucket of weeds. I think I have about 12 more dahlias to plant as well as all the annuals for that bed. I'm also out of my tomato cages that I'm using for support. I need to figure out how many more and make a run to menards while on the clinic visit tomorrow.

One can not win w the rain of late. Deluge? Who knows I saw yellow on my map and said that's it for the moment. I also need to mark up my planting map as I moved things around as I always do.

Have a good day!

DH informed me that it was going to start raining so I hurried outside to put my wagon of dirt back into the garage and pick up some other stuff. I hope it does rain because that was one of my chores this morning--water the plants in pots and in the raised beds and the grass clippings I put in the garden.

I still have not brought up my boxes of Dahlia, Canna, Calla, Peruvian Daffodils, Gladiolus and whatever else. I need to do that soon and get them planted. Not sure yet if they will go in the ground or go into pots??

Jeanne: this rain was to stay down by you and not come up my way until later. Argh. My DH said we are to have strong storms tomorrow w the 90+ temps. I had wanted to get the planting done and watered in but that is not happening as planned. I just hope I can get it in by end of day and get that soaker hose laid down and ready to go with these crazy temps we are flipping to. It's as dark now as it was at 5:15 this morning. Maybe I should go back to bed and sleep through the rain.

Good luck maybe we'll both have success getting back out there.

I did not get to the strawberry protecting. AND... big hole in the strawberry bed this morning. No plant damage but sort of made me ticked off that I never have the time. I didn't get anything done yesterday. However, my son was doing a thing or two for me while I was working and he came in... told me he saw what was digging the large holes. The chipmunks. So the covering that I'd put on top of the strawberries wouldn't have helped. I really just want it to protect the fruit from whatever might eat it. For once the strawberries are doing 'well' and I"d like to harvest a pint.

Most positive thing I can say for the day so far... I have sweet peas! First time ever! Last year they got to the flowering stage and then were eaten by the groundhogs. Should be able to harvest in a day or two.

Attending an online meeting. All they are talking about is the protesting that is going on. I could have planted so many things. Just got a delivery and after reading your post, thinking it might be my dahlias.

Well I need exactly 14 cages to have everyone supported correctly. It works for the space I work in as I tend to be a bit more organic then squared on a line. Plus last year it seemed to help them when we would have lots of wind with our storms. So I'll try again this year.

I hope after dinner to go out and get the rest planted and the hose in place. If so, then I'll give them a good soak tomorrow morning early. I was just reading about high heat days and the stress associated for them. I'll have to see if I have anything to act as a sun shield as 91 is the high for tomorrow. Where I live, that's hella hot! I know I have fabric and old tulle someplace, I'll have to look.

Jeanne: were you able to get back out? I think the weather I was looking at locally was kind of wrong with where those storm clouds were headed! And it hasn't rained at all this afternoon. So I'm laundering all the summer clothes and switching out winter and too small from the kids closets instead.

Thomas: did you get your dahlias? And if so, did you figure out where they will go since you were shopping for annuals? Make sure to keep in mind they like to drink as they get ready to bloom. You'll also want to read in fertilizing them as you can either end up with just leaves or tubers that don't winter. The folks on the other thread are really knowledgeable about what to do when. And I loathe the sneaky 4 legged variety! I have moles, tons of moles. I understand the frustration!

I'm off to get the kids as they stayed over w family last night since it's technically summer. Then it's home to patty burgers for the grill, I've got the beans in the oven; we'll just do cookout tonight as the hubs is working from home this week (every other week from home now) and he can get the grill ready in there before his day is done and we can eat fairly early tonight as there is no commute to deal with.

Enjoy the planting sessions!

The dahlia bed is done!!!!! That includes the few perennials I tucked in and all the annuals at the other end. I laid the soaker hose and let it run for some time as it's about 85 out there right now and the old sand of course is drier then dry because I ran out of my compost. Fantastic. Not really. But I'm hopeful I can get the new one cooking here soon enough.

Not looking forward to the temps and potential storms tomorrow, hope all the plants survive the heat up or the wind.

And hope y'all stay safe w potential for crazy weather!

The delivery was the original compost tool that I purchased from Amazon. Ammy lost it somehow before it was picked up, so I had to cancel that order and reorder. The customer service person said if the order every showed up to just keep the item. OK. No argument here.

When I came in for the evening, I did see that the dahlia order arrived. Still no clue where they are going to be planted. Will have to think about it tomorrow. I did order some felt bag containers which I could use.

I finally got some chicken wire placed across the strawberry beds. It's not really meant to be protection, but more of a deterrent. Pic is below. I also got the rest of the tomato plants and basil plants in the ground.

Supposed to get back to the upper 80s tomorrow. Then cooler with rain which means everyone around us will get rain.

It's a slower start to my day since it will be so hot out today here I am not rushing to go weed. It's above 70 right now. That doesn't sound bad but I'm enjoying my coffee and breakfast, I have the news on and saying hello to you each.

I plan to go out here shortly and put a sheet over those I planted yesterday. I'm not sure how it will stay in place when the storms come, so I may be running out there to get it right before it starts and pull it off.

I'm glad the planting is done. That's always a huge job. Next up is the weeding but I'll wait for a cool down later this week. Then I'll douse myself in deet and go slay the damnable nettle.

Thomas: that looks like Fort Knox! Strangely my rabbit population has been reduced. I think it's because I have a neighbor who has added two more dogs to their yard. That's fine as the rabbits were too eager to decimate my garden last year.

Get those dahlias going! I forgot, but did you just get all tall varieties? Or did you get some of different heights? Make sure you fertilize at planting and keep watering well. Look forward to your photos!

Pepper: how's your garden growing? I've been through Missouri twice in my life, I remember a lot of rolling hills along where we were. Long ago my ancestors farmed on the western border and one day I aim to get that way. Do you have any flowers growing now too?

Jeanne: you and I look to be under the potential for the heavy rains and possible tornado activity today. Does your husband still farm? You look like you have a lovely view, are you close to the Big Muddy? That's what amazes me living in this area. I find it to be lovely on the views and its uniqueness.

I looked up the daffodil you'll be planting. What a wild head on it. Do you have lots of daffys? This year was the first year I had nice size clumps and lots of flowers. I'm looking at breck to possibly have a fall order. I'm also looking at Schreiners and a possible iris order. One can never have enough flowers around the house.

Hello to anyone lurking!

Ok I need to get ready and head out with my sheet and make a dahlia leanto for today's sun and heat and give everyone a good soak. Stay safe friends. Enjoy your day ahead!

I hear you about the heat. I think it was Sunday morning I went out at 7:30 and said.. no way too hot and went back in. LOL. I walked the garden this morning before 7:00 but I was tealess. Temp wasn't bad. It was nice seeing the garden in better shape. I wish I had my phone. I might go walk the garden again. My son did a major move/haul job for me that was a "it would be nice" aka no where near a priority, and that helped clean up the garden and the yard considerably. Still a month behind on maintenance due to the garden extension that we added, but yesterday I saw the garden from inside. the shed and it was like, wow that thing is getting big to me.

I'm not sure about the heights of the dahlia plants. I looked more at color shape and size of flower. Will have to research before planting. Not sure where they are going. I might put them in with a bed of daylilies. Not sure I want to use my felt bags for them as I was planning on using them for succession planting of edamame. I need to add plant dahlias to my planner and get it prioritized. :)

I had the son make some slug traps with beer in them. Didn't see any slugs, but I didn't see much beer in the traps when I went out last night. I'd suspect he drank more of the beer than he put in the traps but I know he doesn't like beer. LOL Other than that not sure if I mentioned I have sweet peas about ready to harvest, a day two at most. First time harvesting for me. The plants did really well last year until groundhogs ate the garden.

Time to go make breakfast and walk the garden. Enjoy the hot day...

The dahlias are protected for the time being. I grabbed the oldest ugliest sheets I had and set in my green posts and made my own little tents. I'm soaking them for about 35 mins. I know it may be unwise later In the day of the rain amounts to much but for now I'll feed them and keep them happy.




I had a splitter for my outdoor faucet but my handy little kid2 moved it. Probably for an experiment of some sort. I'll have to clean the garage to see if I can find it. Grrrr.

Thomas: it's lovely when you see your gardens grow and look great. If your contemplating your felt bags for dahlias make sure they are big. I think on the dahlia thread Melissa has good info on sizes to shoot for as tubers like their space as do the resulting stalks. I have a friend who swears by food grade diatomaceous earth for slugs and all annoyance bugs. I have not tried it yet but did pick up some in case I did need it to try.

AM: Oh the heat and humidity already! Good thing it's a clinic day and then I'll spend the day INSIDE cleaning. With school now done I can kick the kids out of the rooms I need to work on to watch a movie or read or draw and today I'll work on the kitchen. That was our classroom. Time to clean and wipe down everything! Put it all away and make me feel good about that accomplishment but I'm sure that in a blink of an eye it will all be out again.

Enjoy your days!

I have both veggies and flowers. Flowers all over the place. Lots of blooms starting to happen and I need to get outside here in a few and spend a few min getting stuff done. I just took today as a lazy day since I've been taking a coworker home and have alot going on with family.

Pepper: lazy days are good for the soul! I'm sorry family is a lot right now but sometimes that all comes at one time mostly when you least want it. What type of flowers do you have in your yard?

AM: the winds with such heavy heavy force and then the rain was suppose to be super heavy and in the end that portion was uneventful. But the amount of wind associated was crazy. Supposedly we have more to come this evening. I popped outside to get the sheets after it ended and they really weren't wet at all, just off the posts which I figured would happen.

I have one dahlia that looks stressed but the rest ok. I haven't gone out to the garden to look but it appears all cages are still standing so that's a plus.

In my front bed I have some small nasturtiums coming up. Fantastic! Some years I've had zero germinate and I never know why. Then while in said front bed I have decided to order a few more irises as I looked. I have a bunch to split and I have a bunch to move around as I have a ton of one color in one spot. I don't have what I'd say is a true purple iris that I grew up with in the hip 70s-80s. I have a lot of different colors but no longer any deep purple. That will keep me busy looking tonight.

Hope everyone faced w/ these storms stays safe. What a bunch of crazy. I think I'll end for the evening. Tomorrow kid1 and I have a date to go shopping. Phenomenal growth and last summers stuff is too small. That should be fun.

Have a good night all! Look forward to seeing your good growth.