hope it was wonderful!

This weekend has been awesome. It's the first real gardening weekend I've managed this year! Either the weather or gigs have kept me away up til now. My parents were in town and they had a great time watching me and DH buy stuff, put in stuff, weed stuff, etc. And they have more gardening experience than us, so it was fun discussing plans with them and having them tell us that we're doing well! What we did: Weeded lots (the weeds sure loved the three weeks of rain we've had!) Pulled out grass to create a bed under my lilacs (I just stuck bulbs in last fall coz I was lazy, now I'm regretting it as I have to carefully yank grass out from around the plants--frittilaria and grape hyacinth--without yanking the plants). Have a ways to go with that bed, but made a lot of progress. DH mowed the lawn and took apart the scary riding mower and changed the fuel filter and sharpened the blades. He also pruned back lot of the small trees--especially the nasty honey locust trees with the evil pointy thorns that jump out and grab you if you go anywhere near them (I *hate* those trees. I really want to take them all out and replace them with something else but I havent managed to talk DH into it yet.) Planted out allysum, clematis, bleeding heart, hellebore, one black iris ("Before The Storm"), Nemesia, something I dont know the name of (orange petals, blue center, kindof daisy-like in look). Bought hanging baskets: terracotta million bells, purple petunia and something white and something lavender mix. Made railing planters: white petunia/red million bells/blue lobelia. Saw the first hummingbird of the year! Yay!!!! Bought Bayer's Rose and Flower spray to treat the lilies for red lily beetle infestation. I'm going to treat them until they get to full buds and then stop before they flower. I'm hoping that that way I'll get rid of the beetles before the spray would be killing bees as well. Sat on the deck swing for the first time this year! Mom hung out and identified all the birds. She's President of her local chapter of the Audabon society (in Putnam Valley NY) and had a blast. We have a LOT of birds on our property! So cool!

You've been busy! Thanks for the great post. I love hearing about who is doing what, and when. This past weekend I changed out three of my four huge window boxes to winter interest plants (the boxes are large and came (neglected) with the house so I've nailed them along the top of the boring wooden fence surrounded the front yard so neighbors and passersby can see/enjoy them (I painted them to match the house)). The new plants look great and should provide some nice spots of color through the upcoming months. I've also been doing some pruning and a lot of grubbing out of poorly placed plants that I inherited with this house. The yard is tiny and I don't appreciate a huge overgrown red-twig dogwood, mock oragne, and purple smokebush right in the center, heh heh, so they're all being moved more towards the garden edges. Like you, I've been taking cuttings of favorite tender perennnials like coleus and fancy-leaf zonal geraniums (I've got an 'Alabama Sunset' coleus (my very favorite) that I've been carrying along cutting to cutting for many years now; same for some of the fancy-leaf zonal geraniums). Other than that, the rest has been basic garden maintenance and moving things like potted agaves under the eaves for winter. This weekend I'll spend time cleaning up frost-damaged (okay, dead, heh heh) plants, and starting a new compost pile. Keep the plant activity updates coming. Happy gardening, Grant Here is a link that might be useful:

Thank you Rita. Its been a terriable day.I found tiny ants so small I could hardly see them in my pantry they even got in the peanut butter so except for a few cans everything was a total loss. I have been crying off and on all day. couldn't have happened at a worse time. Tim has had problems with this ear for months...last spring I took him to the ER for strep throat and a clogged feeling in his ear. Doc told the RN to irrigate the ear as it had a wax ball...I seen this happen but wasn't fast enough to stop it...nurse used a large syringe with a long plastic thing on the end..she filled the syringe with sterile water and instead of placing it just at the opening of his ear..she pushed it down into his ear..Tim screamed...to make a long story short..the doc came in and said all was fine that Tims just sensitive..laying on a blue pad on the bed was the used syringe and blood was on the pad not a lot just smears...the doctor wrapped it all up and instead of throwing it in the trash in the room she removed it from the room...Tim was holding his ear and very much crying.we left and drove 45 minutes to Pittsburgh Childrens Hospital where we found there was a large hole thru the ear drum..exactly what I knew. Anyway Tim has had 4 infections in this ear since. No I didn't talk to an attorney but I should have. When it rains it pours. I didn't get a pic of Amiee so ill try when she gets back. They left here at 1 and Amiee has called me 6 times now. LOL She thinks she will come home soon and says her feet and legs are going to swell a lot tonight but she knew this would happen...sometimes its worth the pain....I know that might sound harsh and I don't mean it that way but if your chronic you realize some things are just worth it..I hope this makes sense. By the way she wore a more flesh toned pink shadow, but in my opinion went a smidge heavy on the liner Lol. She looked very cute. Kody told her she was beautiful and he would be watching the guys closely LOL.. Oh she said she's hungry that all the food was greasy and she won't eat anything she sees visible oil on. I am sorry I didn't get a pic I was so overwhelmed here that by the time I thought about it they were pulling out. You are all the best.