Fun thing to do today
 

Years ago I was surfing around and found a company in Madison, Ohio called Bluestone Perennials. My mother grew up in Madison, and I got it in my mind that I wanted perennials that grew in the same dirt my mother lived on. What can I say? Anyway, I ordered some stuff and loved it, so I ordered from them a few times, and probably will again someday.

And while my mother was alive, she was touched and thrilled to see flowers blooming that started in her hometown! :D

Do any of these places ever send you free seed packets or anything like that?

I have two flowerpots that I usually plant stuff in during May, but I'd like to put some seeds in and start growing something else. They sit outside my front door. I don't know if my landlord would say anything, but I'd like to start growing SOMETHING that I can use on my salads.

That I can't say. If I see any that do, I'll let you know okay?

You need lettuce and such? I know here, at the *Dollar Store* you can get stuff like that 10 for a dollar.

If the landlord said anything I'd say "What? Like I know where THAT came from?"

:rolleyes:

:D

Move out here to the country, woman. i'll share my tomatoes with ya.

:)

This time of year I am going crazy with all the catalogues and ready to start landscape jobs! We've done a couple already and I want to be outside so bad, but just as soon as we get started doing something, the weather changes.

Friday night we had a weather front come through here, the temp dropped 20 degrees in 10 minutes and it hailed 3 inches!!!

But I am busy with designs and telling people to wait!! Wait!! Wait!!! Anything they plant should be protected...it will freeze!

Brain, we should get a plant/landscape thread going! I am sooo ready!

Whenever you're ready, I'm there!

Hey, my BFF just bought a new house. Her dh will have to landscape this spring - his first time. I may be asking for your expert advice.

Aw, that was really sweet and thoughful of you, Blessings. It really touched me.

I don't too far from Madison but I have never heard of Bluestone Perennials. I am going to look them up.

A few weeks ago, I placed my annual order from Burpee and Harris seeds. I will start my pepper and tomato plants next weekend. My blackberry and raspberry bushes are on back order.

I'll Plant basil or rosemary!!!
 

Hi. Move out to the country?? That's all I would need. My friend lives out in the woods in New Jersy, and she has raccoons and animals coming up to her back porch. THAT IS NOT FOR ME. I'm a city girl. I do not like bugs. I don't think I can grow lettuce in two flower pots, but something like basil or rosemary. We have those type of little plants (available in May), I think I'll plant them. I use basil all the time in my salads, and I use rosemary on my chicken. The only problem is during the night, people come and cut thinks off of your garden.

Now picture this. I live in an italian neighborhood. Everybody has a backyard. The people who own the homes use their backyard to grow grapes off of vines. and one guy has this TREMENDOUS backyard with trees that bear fruit, vines that grow strawberries, blackberries (you have NEVER TASTED ANYTHING SO DELICIOUS), well, he grows everything. So once a year I take a walk around the corner, and when I run into him, I say: "what'd you grow this year? and he goes, oh oh , come and look. and I leave with zucchinis, peppers, blackberries (enough food for the week). My landlord then taps on my back window and gives me bunches of grapes and these green 6 feet long zucchini things that are growing from the ceiling of these viines.

See, I get the goodies, and I didn't do a thing.

I can just imagine me planting and weeding, and pushing away bugs. I think I would die. I'm such a wuss lol

I have a very funny story about bugs. That will come after my first story.

When I was 24, my parents upped and moved to Florida. I was told the following: "if you want to come, come"

I didn't go. I had a job and a boyfriend so I got my own apartment.

Well, I will never, in all my life, forget the first time I arrived at Tampa Airport in sunny Florida.

My parents pick me up, And it's hot. HOT!!!

We get in the car and it starts to rain. But it's not raining on the other side of the street. I look at my father and said: "how the heck can it be raining on one side of the street and not the other side?? He said "if you think that's amazing, you haven't seen anything yet".

We land in the driveway of their home, and I'm going oooh, and aaah, it's a nice Florida house.

As I get out of the car, THIS FLYING THING LANDS ON MY HAND. It looked like a giant waterbug (you know me and waterbugs, right??).

I start screaming and my father burst out laughing and says: 'oh, these are palmettos, they are flying waterbugs". FLYING WATERBUGS???? JEEEEZ.

So I run into the house, and get all settled in. They then say "let's take the other car and go for a drive, we'll show you around Florida.

I get in the car and notice these screens on the front of the windshield I ask my father and he says: 'Oh, these are for the love bugs'. I said 'What??"

And he says "you'll see". and BAM. A thousand bugs hit the windshield (they are called love bugs because they are always mating, and they come two times a year in Florida), wasn't I lucky??

I'm screaming, and he's laughing, and we go through the swarm, and he's showing me Palm Trees, and all I want to do is get out of the car and go take a shower.

We get home, and I get out of the car and there's a gazillion of these love bugs all over the car and windshield. He had to get the hose and wash off the car.

So he goes into the back of the house where he was laying down a patio. All kind of square tiles.

So I lay down in a beach chair, trying to relax in the Florida sun, when this THING hops over me.

I raise my eyes, and (try and imagine this). My father is picking up squares of concrete and there are these lizards jumping out of the ground (hundreds and hundreds of little green lizard things), and my father is picking them up with his right hand and he's saying out loud "oh, get out of here", (to the lizards).

I look at my father like he has lost his mind. I said 'are you serious, you are talking to lizards, you HAVE LIZARDS, in the ground???

He said "oh these little things, they are nothing. And they decide to jump on me. Well, I run screaming into the Florida Room (they call the tv rooms in Florida,..Florida Rooms). One of the lizards follows me and my mother starts chasing him around with her broom.

I'm watching this whole scene unfold and all I could think was 7 DAYS UNTIL I FLY BACK HOME.

Oh, I went back over the years, every few months. I got used to the bugs, and whatever else was flying around. I loved the heat. I remember News Years Day, waking up, and it was 89 degrees and we slept at a friend's house and she had a boat and a dock and she had grapefruit trees in her back yard.

I remember thinking. "Oh my god, grapefruit trees, I'm sitting in the sun and it's New Years Day", and it's 89 degrees.

I remember this like it was yesterday and it was almost 40 years ago.

memories!!!!!!!!!!

How do you trim back tomatoes and not lose the fruit? Every year, ours are so big that my husband has guide wires attached to the cages with stakes in the ground. Then he runs them over with the mower! :D

Sounds like my 1st trip to florida, LOL!

That first breakfast of fresh grapefruit won me over, bugs and all.

I happen to like the tiny lizzards and tree frogs though.

My nephews think I am the coolest old lady ever (I'm 44) because they catch the critters and I'm not afraid to hold them.

:p

I think they had me holding about 10 lizzards last time we were there. My sister had the willies.

Hey, as long as they're NOT in my drink I'm cool.

Just let me know ... you know I love to help! :D

You actually like to hold lizards??

I touched a snake once. It was at a bazaar near my home. We all went and there was this guy with this boa constrictor (a really big one). and he was walking around and everyone was saying "oh, snakes are slimy, snakes are yukky" and I said out loud "no they are not slimy". So some one dared me to touch the snake. I said "no problem" and I started to pet it (only bcause I knew that snakes ARE NOT SLIMY).

Alan thought I lost my mind. I said "go ahead and touch it". He said "are you kidding". The kids around me thought I was cool.

That's me. A person who hates, bugs, but I'll touch a snake. Go and figure.

Oh, I hate rodents. OF ANY KIND.

Once when I was 22, I took a trip to California with my friend. We ended up staying at my Uncle's house for the weekend.

I will never forget walking up to his daughter's bedroom (she was about 12.) She opens the door and there's a mouse sitting on her shoulder. I stopped dead in my tracks. I could NOT MOVE!!!

I remember my Uncle saying quietly and softly "Cathy, put your mouse back in his cage, Melody's afraid". All my mind kept registering was that THIS WAS HER PET!!!

Good lord. She actually had a mouse for a pet.

I bet all of you have mouse stories of your own.

My family is from Italy. They came here in the mid 1800's. They looked at a few places; took a wagon to the plains state and built a sod house ....I have a picture of my Great-great g'ma smoking a corn cob pipe and leaning on the house.

Anyway, some of the family kept going;most came back. They settled in the Detroit area which had many, many immigrants from Italy, France, Germany etc. They had ethnic neighborhoods....

Grandma had a small house when I knew her. She had roses (red climbers) that grew against the garage. She had Hollyhock (alley flowers we called them)growing on the fence by the alley. There were all kinds of flowers and vegetables. People always had gardens, both flower and veggie.

You are so lucky to be in a similar neighborhood.

I also have flowers, but keep the veggies down to tomatoes and early spring stuff like cabbage and lettuce.

I love to garden, but the heat and humidity in the south is kind of discouraging to gardeners. It takes a lot to keep things going in the hot months (me included:D).

I still have a lot to learn about what does best here.

Tootsie

What's wrong with Lizards, Salamanders,
Frogs, Toads, Spiders, & Snakes? As well
as Praying Mantis, Lady Bugs, etc ...

You almost had me on your side, UNTIL YOU MENTIONED Praying Mantisis (what the heck is the plural of Mantis??)

Anyway, I found an ant in my bathroom today. Since it's freezing outside, and the wind is howling, I have no idea how this creature got into my bathroom sink, but he was a goner in two seconds flat.

And of course I had to take out my Steam Mop and go over the bathroom again.

That is going to be one very lonely ant.

I could never make it on a farm. I'd be evicted in 5 minutes.

Jeez, bugs, lizards, salamanders (what's the difference between a geikko and a salamander??)

Speaking of lizards, I don't know if you watch American Idol.

But they always have this Vitamin Water commercial on.

The latest one has these lizards dancing to Michael Jackson's THRILLER.

You have never seen such a sight in all your life. I laughed so hard I think I broke something.

Salamanders live in water - gekkos live on land. And they have cute little suction cup toes.

And praying mantis is my friend because he is a voracious hunter. He kills off more pests than I can name. Mel, as much as you hate bugs, you should love that one because he's getting rid of thousands of bugs for you.

:wink: