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Windy, SendMe's comments on meadows made me think that a meadow border might also be appropriate for your planned garden. You could add milkweeds to bring in some butterflies.
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Thanks for the suggestion Garden. The management here won't allow 'weeds' especially the Oxalis with the little yellow flowers, and only in my yard. Go figure.
I will plant a specialty butterfly plant (a weed) in May. Or maybe just a hummingbird plant like the neighbors have, the one butterfly we did have liked that red flower.
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An elderly Italian man lived alone in New Jersey . He wanted to plant his annual tomato garden, but it was very difficult work, since the ground was hard. His only son, Vincent, who used to help him, was in prison. The old man wrote a letter to his son and described his predicament:
Dear Vincent,
I am feeling pretty sad, because it looks like I won’t be able to plant my tomato garden this year. I’m just getting too old to be digging up a garden plot. I know if you were here my troubles would be over.. I know you would be happy to dig the plot for me, like in the old days.
Love, Papa
A few days later he received a letter from his son.
Dear Pop,
Don’t dig up that garden. That’s where the bodies are buried.
Love,
Vinnie
At 4 a.m. the next morning, FBI agents and local police arrived and dug up the entire area without finding any bodies. They apologized to the old man and left. That same day the old man received another letter from his son.
Dear Pop,
Go ahead and plant the tomatoes now. That’s the best I could do under the circumstances.
Love you,
Vinnie....
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Disclaimer: This gardening joke above is for entertainment purposes only, it is a joke, Bookluvr posted it, so I moved it over to the gardening thread (with the help of my husband, who insisted on a disclaimer.
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See that? Caregiving from a distance, we call it.
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Sendme- I have read something similar some years ago...caregiving from a distance for sure, lol!!
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GA....update on burning bushes....really turning now....Q is whether they survive the strong winds coming tonight and tomorrow after our tremendous rains....
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Mina, I made an error when I wrote sometime ago that the burning bushes were turning. We were at the same place yesterday and I noticed those early bird bushes were stripped of leaves, but others were turning red. Now I'm wondering what the first bushes were....must do some research to discover what other small shrubs turn color early. Maybe there are early, mid and late season burning bushes?

I've noticed that the trees were really battered by winds today; some of them are almost bare. By the time the wind and rain are through tomorrow, I don't think there will be much left.

Too bad it's dark now - you could run out and cover your bushes with something to protect at least some of the lovely color. I think the system tomorrow is really going to strip a lot of the trees and leaves of color and it will really look like November before it even arrives.
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GA...you are very good to respond so quickly, BUT I don't think you were necessarily "wrong" about seeing brilliant red burning bushes earlier this fall....I did, also, even in my own neighborhood, soooo....I think mine (facing East and basically foundation planting at front of house, under some big, shady trees, etc) are just "late bloomers" so to speak.....they are the most hardy shrubs....incredible growth every Spring but w/out getting "woody" below....quite like them....I'll let you know how they survive tomorrow's wind but, as of this afternoon, they look pretty "hardy"....
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Mina, fingers crossed your bushes still have leaves after the battering we're taking by the winds today. Almost all the trees are bare....the lyrics to California Dreamin' keep popping in my mind...

"All the leaves are brown and the sky is gray"....
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Mina, how are your burning bushes? Did the leaves survive today's onslaught? It's beginning to look more and more like November now.
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GA - The thought of landscaping my yard and accenting my home's beauty with decorative grasses, year-round sweet scented flowers in every hue of the rainbow, and raising mouth watering healthy vegetables in my own side yard calls to me. It is a vision that floats in my dreams.

Alas, the good lord failed to gift me with a green thumb. I can't even keep an air plant alive.

But I do make use of a form of garden therapy! When I have one of those rough days when I come home from my stressful 9 hour work day, find that my dear father has cranked the furnace to a tropical 78 degrees in the house, discover that Dad's companion dog has left a little "oopsie" inside the toe of my best leather high heels sometime this afternoon, burn the meatloaf I planned to feed us for 2 meals because I was trying to unload the dishwasher & load the clothes washer at the same time, realize that in my haste to get my afternoon cup of coffee that I failed to actually turn the coffeemaker on 45 minutes ago, my youngest daughter texts me with a request that I crochet another baby gift for her to take to a shower (only in 4 days, Mom),,,,AND THEN my sweet & wonderful better half skips through the door and asks why dinner isn't ready.......

......I lean back, close my eyes and envision a large and lushly green 5x7 tomato patch in my back yard that my husband's body is busily fertilizing from 6 feet underneath.

It's a garden and it's therapy, right?

LOL - thank goodness every day isn't as charming as the one I've described above.
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Pfontes, have you been talking to my wife? She made a similar threat just the other day. I'm gettin a little spooked here..........
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Pfontes, Not that I'm glad you have those kinds of days, but I realize I'm not the only one!

I'm going to PM some links to beautiful sites that I find so relaxing, especially when the upkeep for them is more than I could ever handle. It's kind of nice to enjoy such elaborate gardens when someone else is doing all the work.

But please, no husband's body fertilizing the tomato patch! Compost works great instead!

And honestly, I don't know how you manage to do all you do.
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But GA - it makes me SMILE! What could be wrong with that? hehe

I do have those days - but as my British friend used to say: "sometimes chicken....sometimes feathers." - I try to take a deep breath and plan how I'm gonna fry it up when I get a chicken day!
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Oh, smiling is definitely good, and very therapeutic. Many of us here also smile when thinking about le chocolat. Some of us are even chocolaholics. We smile a lot!

I like the chicken analogy, but now I'm getting a hankering for chicken and it's too late to start cooking one. Umm....chicken with dressing complemented by freshly picked home grown sage and red onions, white and sweet potatoes just freshly harvested from the rapidly growing colder earth, eggs from perhaps a neighbor who raises his or her own, salad of romaine, spinach and parsley just freshly picked before the November winds render the garden bare and ready for its winter nap. And of course pumpkin pie from the smaller pie pumpkins...or maybe pumpkin cheesecake. yummmm.

And you know you can use the feathers in wreaths? Add a few pine cones, sprigs of arborvitae or juniper, a few berries from yews, perhaps some oregano flower heads, and you have a nice fall to winter wreath.
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I can't grow burning bushes here in my zone, however, considering a Tonto Crept Myrtle tree for the front yard. A small tree would be ideal which this is and it runs maroon colored in the fall.
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GA....lol....now I can't get that song out of my head! (Thanks! At least it's a great song that I haven't heard in quite a long time...ha!ha!). Yeah...crazy couple of days of weather w/the long, big soak followed by the high winds and really cold temps today. To make matters worse, my furnace wouldn't come on.....it was 58 degrees in my house w/the winds howling.....BRRRR.....luckily, the furnace guy got out to me in a couple of hours so everything is toasty now and I am once again a "happy camper"....(What are Maslov's basic human needs? Food, Shelter, Warmth?...yessss, for me).
Good news on the burning bushes....was out right before it got dark when the wind was (finally) starting to die down....they are in tact and have almost completely turned that magnificent cherry red. Kinda glad they are "late bloomers" because you are so right about most of the other leaves being almost totally gone now.....so, at least I still have some lovely late color. Thanks for thinking of me and my bushes!
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My vacation for next week has been approved and I have a box sitting here with 120 iris bulbs for planting. Thank goodness I have a Chiropractor appointment kn Tuesday!! Monday will be iris day,lol!!!
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One of the items I got from Mom's house is her, what do you call it (?), bulb digger? It is circa 1950's, about four feet tall, for standing on like a shovel, with a wooden handle. The wooden handle actually has a floral band painted the length of it. I may just have to take a picture and change my avatar.

So much stuff missing and broken!
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Mina: Maslov's hierarchy of needs: food, shelter, warmth, gardens. Oh, I guess money would help too.

Glad your burning bushes survived the winds!

Sharyn: 120 irises? I am in a serious state of iris envy! Names, colors, please....let me dream vicariously!

Crepe myrtle isn't meant for my zone, but it is so pretty I'd still like to try it. Guess I'll have to wait until I get my Victorian conservatory built so I have a place to over winter it!

Can anyone imagine having that kind of greenhouse attached to one's Victorian mansion? That must have been a gardener's lifelong dream come true.

Anyone grow elephant ears (colocasia or alocasia?) If you're in a Northern climate, how do you overwinter them? I generally lose everything I try to overwinter in the basement b/c of the high humidity.

Glad, I've seen the much smaller bulb planters that look like a trowel but have a curved, more roundish blade. I'm wondering if what you have is a "dibble"? It can be short like the bulb planters I've seen or it can be as you describe - looking something like a pogo stick.

I think that's quite a find. Some gardeners I know make their own, but one from the 1950's is a real treasure.

As to those broken things...are any of them clay pots? If you want a creative project, you can make your own stepping stones and embed broken clay in them to create your own designs. Are you familiar with hypertufa? It can be hazardous to your health though if you don't wear proper respiratory protection.

Pfontes, I just remembered that the slogan of a long time gardener I met on another forum is something to the effect that the sign of a good gardener isn't a green thumb; it's brown knees. I would add sore back and legs, stiff hands...but of course it's all for a good cause.

I think I've missed responding to some posts so please don't think your contributions have been ignored. I need to set aside some time to go back and reread what I might have missed.
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Great idea!! I will check with OSH for a bulb hole digger. Sure will save my back.
GA-they are Dutch iris blue magic with yellow throats.
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I love irises, the blue and lilacs especially. I think I've seen photos of the blues with yellow throats - they're so cheery. I feel myself being pulled away to the pile of gardening magazines...someone, stop me please before I order things I know I can't get planted!

Years ago when I started ordering irises from Schreiner's, I would get a free iris with every order. One was Indigo Princess, a magnificent deep lilac/purple one with ruffles like a can-can skirt. It was just so beautiful.
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I won't be ordering anything more this year. It is too temping to order plants, etc for the garden and then become overwhelmed with getting it done.
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I picked up a trowel with an extendible handle...to 34 inches. I think this wool work fine for planting the bulbs as we have very sandy soil. There was a bulb digger about 4ft tall but I thought it was heavy and it hurt my right knee and hip to lift my foot up on the foot bars for pushing it in the soil.
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Bouganvillas have become winter food for something BIG! But they are on my front porch for the cold protection. Big half circles, tiny holes, withering leaves from leaf curlers. Who knows. Heartless when it comes to grasshoppers, worms, or bugs, but if its a bunny, it's okay. Should I just give up the fight? Maybe start again in the spring? Maybe it's Zink the skink eating at night?
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Yes, GA it is a dibble. I googled it though I did not see ones like mine. Tge most similar ones were all metal. They dig about a three inch diameter hole toplace the bulb in. In loose soil they would be easy to use, but hard clay soils would be difficullt.

Sharyn, I have a hard time with the shovel action too!
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Carpenter bees usually are responsible for the half circles on leaves. I get that on my roses too.
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Thanks for that, SharynMarie! Guess they are hungry. Could not bring myself to kill any bees, unless it was a threat. Will be taking the planter off the porch.
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They are not harmful to the plant Send, they just cut the leaves I guess for their home, lol!!
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