I made lemonade! I found the part not at all where I expected but took a chance as it's right at kid2s height. Tucked on into a basket and there it was when I looked. Most delightful lemonade this year! Woot!

I need to go and plant the tomato. It's a San Marzano Roma I believe which is just fine. I like my Roma's. It's not big or super leafy and that's just fine. Will also check on the others as I have two that look good but are strangely leaning like they can't stand up. I think the wind was a bit strong the other day and they just said if I kind of lay funky I'll be protected. Or at least that's what I'm sure they whispered to me.

I think tomorrow morn I'll see about doing weeding HOPEFULLY it's quick but I'll survey the beds when I go out. The front is the worst it's like the rain allowed all such little things to spring forward. I'm to the point that it'd be nice to just let them self care except that's what I do in Sept not now. And I need to keep on top of it.

I got a new fertilizer sprayer. I never have luck w those things but figured I'd try a different style this year. And I got worm castings today too. Maybe it will be a help along the way maybe not.

Thomas: enjoy your reservoir - do you waterski or zip along fast or fish? Hopefully it all works out well and no flooding there. Nothing is worse then getting somewhere and they say turn around. So the ACME plan is coming together? Poor chucky and relatives. How tall are the dahlias?

Jeanne: how'd the house cleaning go? How long will they stay? Maybe a quick way to get them on their way is to say "help me on out". Or maybe that's when I say it that happens

Alright all - I'm off to deal with this last minute tomato. The hubs buried the bird last night so that was a help and hopefully the flies gathering are now gone. Of course he did mention he wanted to spray for mosquitos as he and kids will camp out in the yard tomorrow. I vetoed it as Ladybeetles were one of the things it will kill. I said no way, leave my friendlies alone. Maybe he can borrow the nephews thermacell instead and be good.

I'm off as quick as one can be. Happy afternoon.

I used to make a lot of lemonade when I lived in LA. A lemon tree grew in the backyard and I'd go out grab a lemon from the tree, cut it in half and squeeze the juice in to a glass of crushed ice filling the rest with water.... so good.

Scarlet, unfortunately, no boat tomorrow, the tags are expired on the trailer and the boat and the people that I have maintain the boat and put it in and take it out won't drop it in to the lake because the deputies have been patrolling pretty hard this year it sounds like. So I have to drive down to the lake tomorrow before noon and give both tags to my peeps so they can get the boat into the water next week. First world problems. :(

I went outside and played with pvc pipe today to work on the design of the row cover. I was going to use 1/2" pvc with T fittings. When I tested by myself, the pipes came out of the T fittings. My son came out to talk and I had him hold the pipe into the fitting while I bent the pipe. Well... while the PVC pipe is flexible, the fitting isn;t so much. Two of the three fittings cracked with a piece of pvc coming really close to hitting my son in the eye. WHODATHOT? So... I'm thinking that maybe, just maybe 3/4" fittings slipped over 1/2" pipe like a lot of videos on YouTube show might be the better approach.

Not sure the dahlias are actually up. The two tiny sprouts I see LOOK like they are in the right spot. If they are the dahlias, not so much in height. Maybe .5 inch.

I watered tonight, picked up a little, and basically spent some time enjoying the garden rather than working. That pretty much makes three for three the last few nights that I didn't really do anything. Oh well. Tomorrow is going to be a nice day.

I bent pvc really easily. If you have time I'll type it in a bit.

I made an arch trellis. What I did was follow a tute on YouTube. It was an older dude getting ready for Coachella. I used 1/2" pvc x 10 ft. String a heavier washer through the pvc, arc into the shape you anticipate will fit your need and tie the ends of string so you have a looser U shaped it won't be in a tight form yet. Boil water in a Pyrex measuring cup in microwave.

NOW BE VERY CAREFUL SO YOU DON'T SCALD YOURSELF OR YOUR HELPER

Use a funnel SLOWLY SLOWY pour the boiling water into one side of the PVC via the funnel. The heated water will cause it to soften just enough. You don't need to fill it full, you want to make sure it fills to what would be the center of the U. Now w your helpers help knot the string in the arch Shape you are looking for. You can also achieve this if you have something to wedge it between to form a tighter U. That's it, you can pour the water out once you get the arc you want. Get that string tied tight. I then laid mine in the yard to dry. It's not perfect but allows you to bend easily.

I support mine on rebar spikes driven into the ground right next to my raised beds. I left it up all winter - no issue weathered well.

Hope that helps!

That's cool about the boiling water helping with forming arches with PVC. The issue I'm having is I want to add cross support between three arches to build a framework for the plastic, fleece, insect netting, etc. People on YouTube were using 1/2" pvc and slipping 3/4 Ts over the pipes to add the cross support. Those Ts are then screwed to the 1/2" pipe to keep them in place and 1/2" pipe is then ran from one end of the row cover to the other. Typically the person will just either go under or over the arches in the middle of the bed, but I have a problem with that... LOL. I want everything nice and tidy and level. So I was going to make the arches from four pieces of pipe with T or + connectors building the arches and then cross support could be added... let me see if I can do an ASCII representation.. not to scale. this would be if you were to look down from the top of the structure with the ║ being the arches and the ═ being the support brace pipes.

║ ║ ║
║ ║ ║
╠═════════════════╬═════════════════╣
║ ║ ║
║ ║ ║
╠═════════════════╬═════════════════╣
║ ║ ║
║ ║ ║
╠═════════════════╬═════════════════╣
║ ║ ║
║ ║ ║

where ║ and ═ represent pipes and ╣ ╬ ╠ represent fittings. So the issue is that the fittings are made of more brittle plastic and when you have a 6' pipe and your try to bend it, the pipe bends uniformly because it's made out of the same material. but with short pipes connected with more brittle connectors, the connectors cracked. I pretty much decided I don't need it to really be nice and tidy and the cross supports can run over the center arches.

So if I understood your typed out drawing it'd be something like this sites hoops?

http://www.homegrown.org/forum...

Are you needing the tall height hence the center support/use of the Ts? And how wide are your beds your putting this on?

Wow, that image didn't turn out well at all. Should have previewed it. It looked nice when I created it.

The hoops on that site are pretty similar. Won't be as tall as those pictured and I'm doing two layers. The T is to connect the cross beams for supporting the plastic. Want the support in case we ever get snow again.

It looks lovely out today so maybe I'll get out there soon enough.

Thomas: the rebar posts gives mine the height as the hubs is close to 6'5" and he has to be able to mow in that area, the PVC arch slides on top of it - distance between posts give me the height of the arch. For me it provides stability, however I'm not covering it through winter with warming plastic or fabric. I do have mine covered w 2x4" garden wire as it's my climbing arch. It remained up all winter with no issue and had Weathered many a windstorm of late. The 40+" of snow did not pile on mine but I'm sure that's due to openness. Just an idea to noodle.

Good luck w your boat permitting.

Jeanne: how are the relatives? Will you be able to sneak out and do your outside while they are there?

Ananda: how's the weather down by you? Hope the knee is fairing better.

Birds are singing, sky is blue, breeze is nice. I should get moving and deal w the compost as the hubs is mowing and it needs a turn and a load up of balance. Happy day all.

Morning all,

No luck needed with the permitting of the boat. Just have to drive the tag down to the lake and apply the decal. Basically a waste of 2 hours of my day, but I haven't been out and about for a couple weeks so... I'll stop at Menards and see if they have any more tomato cages and look for some parts for the row cover. Try to drag the son since he decided not to go to work today due to a cut on his foot.

Might be getting a very nice surprise today. Sky is very overcast and I looked at radar and storms are heading our way!!???? Checked the forecast and the radar last night... Sunny for the next 8 days at least. How can they change this overnight? Not complaining... I'd rather have unexpected rain, than expect rain and not get it. Need to set the rain collection buckets out before heading to the lake. Of course I watered EVERYTHING last night.

When I walk the garden I see the empty slug traps and I keep thinking I need to get more beer to fill the traps... I've had Sluggo for the last three days.

Seeing a lot of weeds. Gonna have to start doing something about that. Mostly in the flower beds.

Have a good day peeps!

Well I went out and got the front bed weeded. Yep that crappy creeping and the crappy quack. I put in some worm castings (autocorrect does not like worm so if you ever read my post and it says work and makes no sense it's worm!) and see if that helps to. Long ago we pulled out all the "landscaping" 3-4 feet wide of rock. Nothing else, just rock all along the front of the house. It was the ugliest thing ever. There was one wigella that never bloomed ever but once and it never wintered worth a darn.

Anywho went to hurry to add to the heap and turn it before the hubs mowed And dang if my back decided to say hello. Grrrrrr. One can not be happy in what would be a lovely day to play in the dirt and get her outside jobs done. So I'm inside now on a heating pad. I got the heap added to though! The hubs had to help me up because when I tried it on my own it yelled louder and when you're yanked on Up quickly it doesn't have the time to say I hurt! But I can't. Really do that laugh because then I'd be stuck on the floor all day sorry I have to pick on myself!

Garden looks good, dahlias look ok. I've got three of them kind of struggling but I'll let them be and see if they pull through ok. I gave them some worm poo too.

I've got to plant a hydrangea yet and move my blueberry bushes to better light. As I sat out there, I spied my yard and I keep hoping the tree I don't like falls over in a storm and takes out my garage with it. But when you hope like that it never happens. Or if it does, it's a bigger mess then you ever want to deal with. Plus it'd wreck my dahlias, so for now I'm content w the crappy black locust and the crappy garage because it does actually serve the purpose for storage. It does have 4 walls, roof, electric and a door. So in that it is a building. Not my style of garage as in practicality but it works. Sorry, I lament on the things I'd love to be able to change. With time and money sure, but it'd be lovely if we were able to make instantaneous change. No I have not won the lotto just yet!

Happy late morning to you all. I think I need a strong coffee as I sit here.

Enjoy your blooms, your greens and the people surrounding you.

Thomas: sorry to read on your wasted trip. You'd think by now they could stick a chip in boats like a toll pass. It'd update as soon as you'd click pay now. Alas, who am I but a lowly person in the state and not part of making things quicker or efficient. Hah!

Jeanne: beautiful day for you too?

Amanda: what color is blooming at your house? I've got red surfina Tunies as well as orange calibroacha and night sky tunies. Otherwise a lot of good leaf action!

Scarlet, I really need to reread my postings before clicking finished. I meant to say I didn't need luck with the boat. Just needed to drop off the tags. The tags are dropped off, we went to the marina to look around and came home. All is good except for the ice cream place that we usually stop at on the way home had a LONG line and we aborted. Also didn't go to Menards because we were hungry.

I did manage to turn over the latest and greatest compost pile to a new bin, where it will sit until the new pile needs to be turned at which point this pile will join the existing cold compost pile in a third bin. The existing cold compost pile is actually reading 20 degrees warmer than the ambient air temperature so all is going well. The little rain we got this morning helped get some moisture back into the new pile which was really needing it. I added a couple gallons but really should have added more as I was turning the first half yesterday.

Walking around the garden, things are looking good. Really need to do something about the chipmunks though. I have it on my list to do just need to get some gum. Also when it dries out later today or maybe early tomorrow need to put down Sluggo.

Here's a picture of some lilies in case people didn't see them in the other thread of the Midwest Forum

Well I have two sickly dahlias. The one I planted the last two tubers I had left. It's the one that looks like Wisconsin Red. Not sure it is but it was awfully pretty last year, I'd be sad to loose it. The other is one of two kelvins. when I looked at the red in it looked like the wind had twisted the stem around and almost like it cut off its blood supply if you will. I'll keep tabs here and there and see what happens.

It's been such a lovely day outside but I've been in for most of it. Darn compost heap! I even used my knees to lift. So much for following the proper way to lift.

I may go out here in a bit and take some picture of my few blooms.

Thomas: nice lillies!

Nice Lilies Thomas. I can't wait for mine to start blooming.

I didn't have to clean my house after all. My DB said they weren't going to spent over night so I said that was fine. One of these days I will break down and clean.

I didn't go much outside yesterday. My DB and DSIL came over for strawberry plants so I helped them dig them up. I had 2 raised beds that had a few strawberry plants in them along with some other stuff so now the strawberries are gone completely from 3 of my raised beds and the area in between 2 of the beds. So glad that they are gone. I have one full bed of strawberries left for us. I may put the new runners into one of the beds we empties. I need to top them off with more soil.

Yesterday my other DB and wife came down with a bunch of wood to burn up at our other farm. So I suggested we have a picnic while we watch it burn so DH and I took our grill. My other DB who got the strawberries also joined us. I made potato salad on Friday. We grilled hambs and brats and had bush beans, kraut for the brats, potato salad, chips, and fresh green onions from our garden. My DB's wife brought the dessert which was strawberry/rhubarb cheesecake bars. They were pretty good. We visited and ate and watched the fire burn. Nice early evening get together. We all headed home around 7:00.

Today is going to be another nice day. I plan to weed the 2 rows of peas and 1 row of beans and have DH help me put up the pea trellis. I have more potting to do. I potted up a few Calla Liliy yesterday. I have a lot more Calla Lily, Gloriosa Lily, Canna Lily, Gladiolus, and maybe Dahlia to pot up. I finally brought the 5-7 boxes of bulbs out of winter storage.

Have a great day all.

Mostly a good day yesterday. Surprise rain, father son drive to lake, a lot of outside work done, but still not enough. LOL. I sort of enjoyed the afternoon and didn't really go outside until evening.

Sorry about the dahlias Scarlet. Hope they recover. I think only one of the two sprouts that I thought were dahlias is actually dahlias.

I got a ton of grass clippings! I was a week behind on composting because I decided to turn the pile into an empty bin which first had to be emptied. LOL. Got caught up, but I still have one neighbor who hasn't mowed in two weeks, and another new one that doesn't deliver. LOL. Will have to go pick that one up. However, the bin that I emptied is at least half full now and could easily be filled all the way by end of the day depending on what I do here in the next couple of hours and what I do when I get back from canoeing.

Jeanne, sounds like you had an enjoyable day! I might forgo hiking after canoeing and stop to see my mother since it's on the way back. Not 100% sure yet. Have to call her to see if she wants company. I just redid the two strawberry beds that I had, moved all the old plants to another area, and planted new bare root plants. I lost at least half of the new plants and there weather was FINE. Not happy. Also from same company not one of the heritage red raspberries sprouted. I got my money back for the redraspberries, but thinking I can get the runners from the plants and fill in the empty spots. Thing is I have two new beds that I was planning on using those runners to start more strawberries. :(

Need to feed the birds and trap the chipmunks.

Anyone have a good source for petunia seeds? I found one I'd like Lightning Sky, but I can't find seeds. Most online is like plants, plants, plants. I'm not buying annuals online for $4 each, plus $16 shipping. LOL.

I have night sky and pink sky, is lightning sky the burgundy ones w yellow spots?

Jeanne: sounds like you had a wonderful get together with family. That's always lovely! We had hamburgers on the grill and made s'mores thereafter. The kids and hubs slept in the tent last night for their first tent opportunity and that went well. Do you get together w your brothers often? That must be nice. Glad the garden is coming they're for you, sometimes it's lots easier then cleaning of the house. Maybe part of my opposition is I know within an hour I'll have cleaned and it will start to be icky once again. My mom reminds me I have kids. I wish kids came w an auto cleanup feature.

Thomas: canoeing sounds fun, will your son join you or is this a solitary adventure? Compost question: since I don't have a thermometer in my heap, how often do you turn and how far down do you turn? I confess my Fall/winter Heap once it freezes or has a pile of snow on top I don't turn. But I get a ton of snow and I'm not a fan of it once it piles up.

AM: returned to physical church today not was interesting w pews taped off and the distancing. The sun is out and blue skies, nice breeze wonderful! I have petunias today! Yeah yeah! The bloom boost helped my troughs. And own they are starting to get some color to them instead of all greens. Good stuff!

Hope you all have a nice day.

A few from my yard today and the new babies that hatched out!

And Thomas this is what one of my last time sprout dahlias looks like:

Scarlet, we went with the neighbors. 7 mile canoe trip, good time. Tired. Mentally, physically.

First nice pics. Second, I forget what... let me go look. Lightning sky, well I've seen a couple different pics. One is purple with more of white I think spots... like stars in the night sky. Another pic shows same purple but white center. I'm looking for the one with white spots.

Thanks for the pic of the dahlia breaking ground. I actually remember now that I've seen it. I might have been able to guess what the flower was if you hadn't told me. Not sure either of the plants I thought were dahlias are dahlias. LOL. I think it's only been a week so that doesn't surprise me. I was more surprised when I thought they sprouted.

Composting... 100 different ways to do it and after you memorize them there's 100 new ones. No wrong way in my book. Without a thermometer, what I would do is use a pitchfork to lift maybe 4-5 inches off the top. If water vapor comes off, it's good and hot. You could leave it alone, you could turn the pile, you could turn the top of the pile in place. Everything depends on what your goal is. You want fast compost? Turn the pile every other day. You want to do less work, toss stuff in a pile and forget about it. No wrong way to compost. Everyone has their own way, my way works for me, I love to compost, I love learning how other people compost hoping they show me something that I can incorporate into my own practice. With that being said, what I currently do is build the pile, stir up the top 6-7 inches with a pitchfork every couple days, add to the pile as it reduces, repeat, until its time to turn the pile and let it cook down. When is that time? Not sure. LOL. Whenever it's time. All depends on if the compost bin I want to turn it into is empty. If not then I need to wait until that pile is turned into the cold compost pile bin. A couple threads on the Soil and Compost? Forum. What is your compost system like?

I tried to make a hot house for one of my compost bins. I used CHEAP CHEAP CHEAP plastic that didn't last. Going to get some 6mil greenhouse plastic for the row covers and use extra to make a hoop house for my compost bins. Maybe crazy, but I like composting. It would be great if the piles didn't freeze in the winter and the worms had a happy place to live.

Thomas: the night sky I have pictured isn't super white as my more speckled ones are on the deck near mama robin and I'm giving her a break today to keep her on the nest w her wee ones.

That's one I took cuttings of last fall and managed to winter them over. I'd say they were leggy but they weren't as I'd take cuttings periodically. I love night sky. I bought a pink sky this year, though pretty in its own right it's ok, not quite my fav. I seem to recall my menards had a bunch of night skies yet in their tunies section. Maybe it's a local thing but I know they've been hot hot sale wise the last few years. Check outside on their shelving between the block and plants (most menards are set up the same) both stores I use have them on moving carts if I recall.

Thanks for the compost info. Usually my fall heap just sits until spring once the freeze happens. I generally set my jackolanterns on top and they make faces at me all winter As they decompose; as that's the view from my kitchen sink. This time of year I'm a tad crazy w compost making as best I can. I need more for my beds and around my burning bushes. So I'm making the next batch but would like it sooner than later. I've got my two sources for manure: goat/chicken. My unusual add-in is dependent on my brother: using skunky beer he's left at my moms. I don't know if it really does anything but it was a way to use it up!

AM: lovely day! I got some rooms cleaned and popped outside for a bit. Went for an ice cream cone and a drive as the kids are w their aunt. Didn't do anything in the beds or Garden. I take that back, I did cut back the one dahlia that had a wound that looked like it came from twisting in the wind the other day. The other one I'm watching I may cut back too and see what happens. I'm just glad all things are growing finally!