bounceswoosh
Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Umbrella?
-
Women skiers, this is the place for you -- an online community without the male-orientation you'll find in conventional ski magazines and internet ski forums. At TheSkiDiva.com, you can connect with other women to talk about skiing in a way that you can relate to, about things that you find of interest. Be sure to join our community to participate (women only, please!). Registration is fast and simple. Just be sure to add [email protected] to your address book so your registration activation emails won't be routed as spam. And please give careful consideration to your user name -- it will not be changed once your registration is confirmed.
Gardening
- Thread starter artistinsuburbia
- Start date
Umbrella?
pinto
Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Flagstone is natural, pavers are manufactured. Can you tell which it is? Stone will probably have layers in it.
MaineSkiLady
Angel Diva
Close-up inspection of the stones: they look manufactured, thus pavers. Generally widely available.
bounceswoosh
Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Interesting. I may end up just doing a brick border along the back, anyway =P
Jenny
Angel Diva
I took one of the leaves in to the store and asked them. When I googled it, the pictures and descriptions seemed to match what they said, so I figured they must be right. They were doing a ph test of some other dirt for me, too, so I took some from near one of the affected plants and they checked that. Haven't done a full soil test, but I'm sure it's not great. We're pretty clay heavy in our yard, although not so much that it dries like cement. But it's not a light dirt, that's for sure.
surfsnowgirl
Banned
Finally went to the nursery today. Took a while to feel the urge. Bought some tomatoes, basil, lavender, banana peppers, cherry peppers and some squash and zucchini. I actually helped this time. I used to just sit back and drink my beer while DH did it. This time I decided I needed the dirt therapy. I am so glad I participated this year, felt great to get my hands dirty. Felt like it was very therapeutic. Plus when I mention our garden I will no longer get dirty looks from DH cause I was right there with him doing the work 
Kimmyt
Ski Diva Extraordinaire
DH and I got a random urge for yardwork this weekend and cleaned out a massively overgrown shrub bed on one side of our yard. It was filled two very unpruned Russian Olive trees, a variety of opportune saplings originating from said russian olives, and a bunch of other shrubby bushes that weren't bad looking, just partially dead and in need of thinning out, as well as a juniper that is slowly trying to take over the world. This looked much easier than it was, mostly because Russian Olives are evil tree that have thorns ranging anywhere from 1/2" long to 3" long. Seriously, those things are monstrous! The wall of shrubbery formed a nasty thicket that was unsightly and unkempt. So we went to work with saws and clippers and hatchets (which let me tell you is GREAT therapy when your frustrating at your non-verbal toddler who decides that he doesn't want to eat anything but is also starving and has found out how very loud he can yell). After two days of clearing it looked so much better. We pulled down so much greenery that we completely filled the bed of the pickup and two large 96 gallon compost bins. But we finished it! Then I went and spent far too much money at the local nursery on large perennial flowers to line the fence and add some color. I put in Jacob's Ladder and Columbine on the shady side of the remaining olive tree, and in the sunny part there's Bee Balm, Delphineum and Lupine. I'm quite pleased with it and think it will look even better once the perennials fill in a bit and start to bloom, if I can keep them alive that long!
Before (the bed is on the left of the picture, I didn't have the foresight to take a true before picture as this one was taken a few years ago):
After:
As for the veggie garden it's doing passably. We went from a month of 40-50 degree days to full sun and a blazing 85 today, although most afternoons we do get rain showers. Most things are doing well, the tomatoes like always are trying to get big enough that the flea beetles won't bother them anymore, and some squirrel or bird has eaten almost all of my nasturtiums and cucumber seedlings, but other than that aside from it being a pretty late start to the season, I think things are finally starting to grow.
Before (the bed is on the left of the picture, I didn't have the foresight to take a true before picture as this one was taken a few years ago):
After:
As for the veggie garden it's doing passably. We went from a month of 40-50 degree days to full sun and a blazing 85 today, although most afternoons we do get rain showers. Most things are doing well, the tomatoes like always are trying to get big enough that the flea beetles won't bother them anymore, and some squirrel or bird has eaten almost all of my nasturtiums and cucumber seedlings, but other than that aside from it being a pretty late start to the season, I think things are finally starting to grow.
bounceswoosh
Ski Diva Extraordinaire
The afternoon rains have been nice. I have only had to water my veggies once or twice so far.
artistinsuburbia
Angel Diva
No fall snipping unless you want it dead or gangly looking. do it now or next early spring.
surfsnowgirl
Banned
More gardening today. Bought a bunch of flowers for the front porch. Also bought a eggplant. One of my coworkers brought in some tomato plans that were extra at their house so I took one. Guess her hubby rejected them for their house. They looked pretty sad but I am determined to make the one I took home thrive, we'l see. My zucchini and squash are still living, haven't killed them yet. Other tomato plants are looking good.
bounceswoosh
Ski Diva Extraordinaire
My veggie plants all look amazing, and I have barely watered them in the last month ... I guess there's an upside to all this rain. I always think rainfall does the plants more good than treated water from a hose - minerals and whatnot. Definitely the whatnot.
Jenny
Angel Diva
I think the resident rabbit is some sort of mutant. The rabbit repellent just seems to make things tastier, like hot fudge on ice cream. And it doesn't matter whether or not the plant is supposedly distasteful to rabbits, because this one thrives on that sort of thing. Stupid rabbit. How am I supposed to enjoy my flowers if I have to put them all in jail for protection?
surfsnowgirl
Banned
I am waiting for our fruits and vegetables to come to fruition so I can have deer eat them. Nothing worse than checking on your stuff in the am only to realize someone was hungry in the middle of the night.
bounceswoosh
Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Well ... it rained again today ... a lot. Still no need for watering. At least afternoon thunderstorms are more typical for Colorado than all-day rain.
