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#191532 05/15/05 04:14 PM
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Gecko
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Gecko
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Hey Gals!

Look how creative everybody is about growing their favorite things! I'm so proud of y'all! I fuss when the temperatures threaten to go below 40 or so. I think that's probably why I'm so fond of containers. I hate to lose the plants I love most. I have an Irish primrose---I don't know the species name, but it was wild growing---that my father brought back in his pocket through customs from his mother's farm. I dug a tiny piece of it out of his garden the day he died and it has done well enough that I split it with a sister last year. It's a lovely thing, creamy yellow with very erect flowers. It blooms a bit later than the retail ones, which will winter over if kept well watered through the summer here. I don't know exactly what the trick is with these, beyond keeping them well watered in the summer. I put a few in each year, but seem to get only a couple of returns every spring, except for Dad's. It stays well put.

I visited the garden center today to pick up a payload of annuals to spread around...and some mulch and fresh potting soil to work into the tops of the big containers in the front. I got some Gerber daisys, Begonarum (which I don't trust at all...sometimes the hybridizers go a little nuts, don't they?), and many standards, sweet alyssum and the like, verbena, and several others. I'm beat! Oh yes, and a big, old jug of the magic elixir, Osmocote. It packs a punch and keeps going. I sprinkle a bit in each hole before I plant and I don't have to feed anybody until late summer, just watch overfeeding New Guinea impatiens, they drop dead!<G>

Rotted tree stumps are some of my very favorite containers!
Here I thought I was the only one who saw the potential in a tree stump. That soft center is so enticing. Filling it with soil and watching something grow out of it is magical, isn't it?

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#191533 05/15/05 04:25 PM
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Gecko
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Gecko
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80s with no humidity can be real nice. I would have started those veggies inside a while back, but you should be able to get some ready started at the garden center. Since you have such a bumpy ride with the weather, you're probably wise to wait a bit to get things going.

Your perennials seem to know when to bloom anyway, don't they?

Best,
Mary Ellen

#191534 05/15/05 08:00 PM
Joined: Jul 2004
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Newbie
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It was 81 last Sunday and today they say their might be a frost. <img src="/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" />

#191535 05/16/05 07:38 AM
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Koala
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Koala
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Sounds like you are about to be very busy planting! I just love flowers. We have tried to plant things that attract hummingbirds. They are one of my favorite bird visitors that we get. On Saturday we had a pair of Baltimore oriels at our bird bath. We have a mama squirrel with 4 babies in our yard. The babies just came out of the nest and they are like little monkeys rolling around on the ground fighting playing and chasing each other around the trees. I think those squirrels love to tease my dogs! My dogs have had a time chasing them.

Connie


Don't be afraid that your life will end, be afraid that it will never begin.
~anonymous~
#191536 05/16/05 04:50 PM
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Gecko
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Gecko
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HA! HA! HA! Daisy, my Jack Russell is mightily provoked by all the squirrels around here! They are so cheeky, they come and look in the kitchen window. She goes berserk! I've tried tiptoeing to another window and letting her out to get a good run at them, but they're way to canny for her. In any case, they go up...and the JRT is an "earth dog" that works on vermin that hide in the ground. Still, she would dearly love to get a taste of squirrel tail.

Her latest foe is the racoon that has just wakened and started coming down from the hole in the top of the oak right outside the door. First night out he got in the trash and she's kept her eye on his comings and going since. Every night at dusk, she's sitting in the kitchen chair looking out the window; and unfortunately, the old devil comes home at 4:00 am, so she has to let us know that he's back. I could do without that.

The racoon is very bold and hissed at my son and the dog one night when they were out on the porch. Good thing the critter won't come down when we're outside. I'd hate to see her go after him because he's bigger than she is for one, and the 'coon just rolls over and guts the dog when one tries to take them on. I've gotta watch my Daisy now!

Yep, it's wild even here with NYC on the other side of the water!

Best,
Mary Ellen

#191537 05/17/05 07:16 AM
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Koala
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Koala
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LOL...poor Daisy! We have a Daisy as well, ours is a sheltie. I think Daisy must be a pretty popular dog name! Connie


Don't be afraid that your life will end, be afraid that it will never begin.
~anonymous~
#191538 05/17/05 08:28 AM
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Gecko
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Gecko
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That is so weird. Even the birds are acting different. We had robins all through a hard winter, which I don't remember ever seeing. Now today, I saw a most extraordinary bird. I can't wait until my husband gets home to examine the birding books. It almost looked like a magpie, but had even more white on it and in different pattern. It sat in the top of my oak for a few seconds and called "bleep, bleep" almost. Then it was gone. I hope it stays around for a few days at least so everyone can catch a look!

It's not even 8:30 and already my day is made! <img src="/images/graemlins/music.gif" alt="" />

#191539 05/19/05 11:34 AM
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Gecko
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Daisy Dear got her name from the garden of course...but she has a perfectly round black spot on her back, a couple of inches from her tail that reminded me of the center of a black-eyed Susan. For some reason, she was a Daisy to me.

I had a sheltie, fabulous dog. He was named Consort Uptown Tennis White by the breeder-gack!-so he became Tennyson, Tennie, to me. He was a lovely blue merle that I met when he was a pup. I declare that I "wished" him to go 16 1/4 at the shoulder, and when he made that, he was mine as he was no longer any use to the breeder for show or breeding. It broke my heart when he died at only eight. What a wonderful dog! A hair factory, but I dealt with it.

Daisy is a little rebel and I love that independence in her. It works in my favor when she comes to a whistle or clap. No one can believe that you can train a JRT. Well, you can. You just have to convince them that their going your way is enlightened self-interest on their parts. <img src="/images/graemlins/smirk.gif" alt="" />

#191540 05/20/05 06:27 AM
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Koala
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Koala
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Shelties are great little dogs if you can get by the barking. Yes, and lots of hair to deal with! But give me that hair over short great dane hair any day! One of our danes is very sensitive and can drop hair at the blink of an eye. And it is white so it shows on everything!

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Don't be afraid that your life will end, be afraid that it will never begin.
~anonymous~
#191541 05/20/05 10:57 AM
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Gecko
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Gecko
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You have a gorgeous sheltie! Yes, the barking is shrill, but it needed to be heard even during gales in the Shetlands. Take it from me, the voice of the sheltie is as it is for good reason! One of the tricks I learned was to keep a coffee can with a few stones in it and shake it when the barking started, saying "No!", "Quiet!"...or whatever your "Stop!" word is. It is very effective, especially if you praise/treat for the correct response. I'm sure with all your dogs, you have plenty of your own tricks, but this one worked for the sheltie mouth. August and Woody are beasts! No wonder you like container gardening!

It was very funny last night, Daisy took on a neighboring pit bull/lab mix because he was stepping in the raised bed while trying to say hello to me. She knows no one is allowed into the flowers, and felt it her duty to inform Finn, who she generally tolerates very well. She's not aggressive (except with varmints) but will tell others off when she thinks they're misbehaving. She is a jealous little thing, though, and if another dog comes too near me, she gives him the time of day. Silly Daisy.

We have some rain for the first time in about three or four weeks, which hopefully will alleviate some of the allergy problems almost everyone's been having, give a good drink to the gardens, and bring on some warm sunshine. It's an uncanny spring. By now, everyone would be in shorts. I'm very warm-blooded but still wearing heavy sweaters and quilts. The beaches open in 10 days! Not normal at all. Is this an El Nino year or something?

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