I'm looking for suggestions for perennial that can take shade. Also looking for catalog links that feature perennials. It's 28 this morning. Nothing to do but dream about spring!

While I'm dreaming about spring...I'm outside in a T-shirt and slacks putting up Xmas decorations. I found butterfly irises still blooming! We're supposed to have mild weather thru the weekend. Sure doesn't feel like Dec., but I'm not complaining. All the plants are put away and I'm ready for winter....for a change!

Too much football today! These are a couple of ornaments using oak tree fungi and cryptansias. Need a little moss, but not going out in dark to find it....

hmmm. I'm wondering how you did those ornaments!

Is that a confederate rose in your first pic? very pretty!

dh is outside painting the picket fence he just built. I am really looking forward to spring so I can plant my new cottage garden! I know I will have a few brugs growing in the garden!

his buddy came up to help build the fence...

I've scattered or planted some wildflower seeds...a few already up, staying low for now. I really do hope more Sweet Everlasting plants will come up by spring. I believe they're essentially biennial here, so the plants that didn't bloom this year might next year. Am having worse wild hog problems than ever, so some of the plants on the slope by the shed were uprooted. Right now, all I can do is try to save what I've just replanted over the last couple of days over there...damage control. Thank God for my fence...at least what's in my yard is safe from them! I have Chervil planted in pots and lettuce in the ground. I'll have to think about what else I'll do for spring. If we could get the new fence done, I'd have more "yard", but we'd have to pay someone to do it, so we'll see if we can afford it.

Yes, it's a Confed. rose and thank you. I used tweezers to "arrange" the sticks and mosses after I pushed them into the ball. Took about 2 minutes for each ball. Probably could have been prettier if I'd taken some time with them. I saw a photo in Better Homes & Gardens and copied it. Not sure how long they'll last, but thought it would be fun to give the neighbors. The Tillandsias I already had and the moss and fungi was growing on branches I picked up in front yard.
That's a really pretty fence (can a fence be pretty?). Are those solar lights on the posts?

I took my grandson for a walk today down behind the houses toward the creek. I didn't plan to go as far as we did, but had my cell phone just in case. We found so many plants with seed pods still on them because we haven't had rain or much wind. I picked a few to throw in front bed. He picked up every tree limb, rock, etc. I dragged a bag of stuff back up the hill. We did find a huge rock filled with fossil shells that he wanted to cart back....but it'll take going back with the truck to get it home!
Linda, I fenced an acre when we lived in Tucson. DH had put up the posts when he had to go "play war" and left me with a Great Dane, a 5 yr old, and a new pool that had to be filled. Sooooo....I went out every morning and nailed boards till I got it done. DH got home in time to make the gates.

Ours will be some larger metal posts dug and concreted about a foot into the ground, metal fenceposts in between and welded wire fencing (we want to be able to see through the fence), 5 foot tall, with a gate. Hog-proof, definitely...wish we didn't need to go to such extremes out here. Much of it down a hillside of mainly caliche and limestone. Definitely beyond my own capabilities right now, but we'll get it done sometime within a year. The fence from the original owners is 3 different kinds of fencing...I wonder sometimes why it was done that way.

Probably because they did it as they could afford it, and with the material available at that time. Been there, done that....

What you're planning sounds really neat. Definitely sounds like a job for someone other than "do-it=yourselfers!"

a fence around the property is way off for us.... too $$$ for now... but we hope to put a game fence up one day.

Yes, those are solar lights there where the gate is going to be.

the cottage fence dh just build is much nicer than I was asking for, I think so anyway. I just wanted something to keep the chickens out, where I can grow some herbs, veggies, or whatever in a cottage style. it's at the front of the house, so nothing too tall.

I love wildflowers too! threw out some seeds in a couple of areas after it rained. last year I threw them out before it rained---not sure where they ended up but they didn't come up where I threw them! LOL

Here's the fence, from a distance. I need to take that tripod down haha and the rest of those plants that either need to be tossed or put up!

I like how your house looks, Christine! And that fence is really NICE! Pretty darn good for a DH DIY! I can do okay sometimes with screws, nails, simple drills and stuff, but anything requiring a real saw...well, that thing makes me nervous!

I'm trying to get ideas for fencing. Right now, now we have a hot wire fence around the building site, but because the soil is so dry, it doesn't really keep the cattle out. Bill, our Angus bull, got tired of being alone. So he joined the cows by taking a short cut through the building site.

I'm also interested in putting up something that keeps water moccasins and copperheads out of my garden. One of our stock tanks is located about 200 yards from the house and the creek is about 1/4 mile away.

I've thought about keeping snakes away also. As far as snake-proof fencing, I've heard it's expensive to do it so it really works, but it's possible. Armadillos...that's another problem. They can't do as much damage as wild hogs, but they can get into my fenced yard and hogs can't.

Thank you Linda. He's quite proud of his work.

I've heard stories about how bulls can just walk through fences, if that is where they want to go. HA!

Our cat is good for taking care of the copperheads. Not sure about watermoccasins... I think the hawks and eagles are the only thing that messes with them around here.

Is there anything that that will keep armadillos away!? lol and hogs... I have seen large groups of wild hogs not too far from here but none on the property. Do they stay away if there are dogs or donkeys? We don't have a donkey but all of the neighboring properties do. I believe they keep the coyotes away, to some degree.

Hogs go where they want to. LOL. They are wily enough to evade many traps and about the only way to handle them is to have a hog hunt every few years. Or a bad drought. A neighbor organizes a hunt every few years, gets permission from all neighbors to cut fences and repair them in order to make a clean sweep of the area. It has been successful so far. The fences are well mended after they have been through. They make sure livestock are not disturbed and they clean up after themselves. All we have to do is keep the dog penned up when they go through.

Armadillos are something we have to live with. Every so often they come through and leave the yard pockmarked, but they get the grubs buried in the ground. So over all I figure that's a good trade.

We have a dog who is very possessive about her cattle and she does chase the coyotes away, but at night they still hang around. Blue is larger than most coyotes and our cats are indoor only. I have spoken with several area vets about coyotes. Their consensus is that as long as the newborn calves are healthy, coyotes won't bother them. If they are sickly, left for long periods of time by their mother or can't move around much (We have a one week old bull calf whose front legs are slightly bowed and haven't straightened out yet. We are keeping him and his mom close to the house until he is able to run without falling.), then they are in danger.

Sheep and goats are another matter. Small pets are also in danger. Donkeys may be OK as long as you have only one. However, I was warned that they are perfectly capable of killing calves or other young. I don't think that it is done intentionally, but in an effort to keep them away from a "potential enemy" even if that enemy is us.

A good well-done fence will keep the hogs out of a yard...they only tear up the part of our property that isn't inside our fence. I've tried with armadillos. I've blocked off various places along the yard fence they were getting in, but they always seem to get in somehow anyway. Dogs would help with the armadillos...if the dogs were left out at night when they come. But I think hogs are probably too dangerous to risk letting a dog confront them. BTW, we're listed as being in moderate drought now, haven't had even one decent rain in a couple of months now.

I wish I could get somebody to try to hunt or trap the hogs around here. I've talked to a guy who said he knew people who like to do that, but as far as I know, nobody has. Of course, there is a rule (often ignored) that people aren't supposed to go around firing guns here in the neighborhood, since the lots sizes vary...some less than 2/3 of an acre to as much as 5 acres. I guess it could be dangerous. But I wish someone would at least TRY to trap them.

One of my patients was proud to announce that he shot a hog (pregnant too!)
My plans for spring include a raised vegetable bed. I am determined to grow some good tomatoes! Also want to add to my clematis collection. I have kale and swiss chard growing well. This is the first year I am trying to grow arugula from seed and I see lots of seedlings.

Maybe when I get a shotgun and learn how to shoot. I'd probably have to have some kind of night-vision thingy too...they usually come at night if they show up at all. I can just see it...senior woman in camouflage clothes stalking the wild hogs at night. OMG, they'll probably make a reality show about that kind of thing sooner or later. I don't watch reality shows, but of course, if you watch TV, you constantly see ads for them. Then they sometimes sneak in promos for them on the TV news, or celebrity shows. Remember when the news was just somebody reporting on real news, weather and sports? Now you never know what they'll decide is news! I always expect them to interrupt some somber internation disaster news with....JUST IN, Joe Blow on Survivor caught cutting his toenails and flinging them at the other contestants...situation erupted into a fistfight!
Well, darn...enough of that rambling on!

You've touched on a subject that I can easily get "fired up" enough to jump up on my soap box and go on & on about! I agree with you wholeheartedly

I will confess that I watched some of the initial showing of Survivor.........curious about the " latest" in TV programming.....but it didn't hold my interest long and later,.....when I happen to see some of the later episodes of another rendition......I viewed it quite differently.......without curiosity....and a lot more disdain......I consider it another example of the kind of meritless .... even worthless,..... stimulation for our minds. I'm not trying to offend anyone who happens to enjoy watching this "lightest" of entertainment.........forgive me if I have,........I just believe that our American Society has been "guided " into putting our minds in neutral
with these reality shows.......it really is all relative...the subject of "entertainment". Afterall,.....some folks may actually be entertained by worse things that reality shows!