Oh POOPIE

Take a moment to read Nesting Place's P.O.O.P.I.E Party! post. Too funny (and true).
Man I do love her new and improved wreath... wish the inspiration it makes me feel outweigh the stress. Ah, oh well. GG how about you make me a wreath like that? I am a good daughter! I will even trade you some free Kashi. Or perhaps one of you readers is crafty and has nothing better to do that make my home Boooteeful ... I will blog brag all about it, I promise!

Wonderful Wendy

If you live in the Charlotte area (specifically Union County) and like to landscape you will be thrilled that Wonderful Wendy's latest plant finds are $5 Butterfly Bushes and Elephant Ears. They are perennial and Bue-tea-full and at $5 such a DEAL! If you are interested, you can leave me your email/contact in the comment section or email me off blog for her contact info.

My Thrifty Thursday HT Finds!

Yesterday I stopped in HT for cash to pay the sitters (not very thrifty but needed!)and scored this extra large beach bag (the photo does not do the size justice), pitcher and 6 glasses for under $15 (75% off).
Seeing as a new beach bag was on my list and new glasses were on dh this was a Thrifty purchase and not an impulse purchase - right??? and since I am uploading pics anyway here is a photo of yesterday's garden haul (heehee) and the awesome forgotten fave bracelet that Mr J found and had restrung for my anniversary!

Got Questions?

If you are new (clueless) to gardening like me (hey - I am trying) then you will LOVE the Ask Nancy section of the Charlotte Observer. You can email Nancy questions and she posts her response! How cool is that!
I have found this and the UC Master Garden Line to be invaluable.

Bzzzzzz

Did you miss out on The Great Sunflower Project?
Well fear not! - Burt's Bees is giving away FREE Wildflower Seed Packets.
You can register here.

Amy's Veggies

Yesterday was a sad day. I have suspected something was snacking on my hard work ... and yesterday my worries were confirmed and then some. First I found a HUGE and I do mean huge Tomato Hornworm eating the Wicked pepper (that I promised to a UCM). I told my neighbor and said come look at the damage and low and behold what do we find. Tomatoes everywhere. My darling daughter, and 2 of our neighbors picked my Romas. Waah and my eldest son picked the flowers from my squash (in the way of his bug catching!) Double Waah! Who needs Hornworms when you have kids right?
They did do one smart? thing (at least Wonderful Wendy says it was smart) they chopped up pepper plants and scattered them to ward off critters/insects. Hmmmm - GG they may be Master Gardeners yet (unless they try another stunt like this!) Mrs. Fisher says they will grow back and if not she will share and Fru-Gal Ann says it is a great science lesson. What a beautiful (ie forgiving) thought. Lord why can't I see the positive side of things? Oh speaking of finding something in the unexpected Union County contacted me about my mystery flower! It is a Mexican Evening Primrose (not a morning glory as we had decided). So now we know :-)
Here are some pics of my garden "adventure"

My surviving Romas. A pleasant surprise as last night I thought they were all gone. now hopefully they will be ready before we vacation in <2 weeks.
Mama Hornworm from yesterday. Think it would win a prize at the Amazing Pet Show Friday? (my kids have not let me squish him YET but the 2 smaller ones I found today did not fare so well - someone has to pay for my losses!)
Can you say PICKLE? My family does not care for cukes (except ME, yummO white bread w/ mayo saltNpepper) but we are ALL looking forward to pickles.

Can you ID our Mystery Plant(s)?

My darling 8y daughter EB is in charge of the plants around our front mailbox. (I sooo have a brown thumb - despite my spectacular new veggie garden -ahem- and she is a Master Gardner in training, right GG?). Well this year she planted quite a variety of plants. I would name them if I could but then if I could I would probably not let an 8y plant the most prominent (ie only) flower garden in my yard, right? Anyhoo... half of what she planted is already gone:-( Sniff, Sniff (she has the follow thru of her mom!) But no worries this prolific pink beauty has taken it's place. For weeks we were weeding it out and it kept returning then I had the bright idea to leave it and see if it was a pretty weed -heeheee- perhaps a wildflower? (wishful thinking!) Well ta-da! While we were on vacation it grew like WILD. It literally is spreading like crazy so now we want to know exactly what it is? I emailed a few plant peeps and they have responded with guesses that include Poppy, Ice Plant, Morning Glories but according to Google photos those don't seem spot on so I am going to show you lovely ladies a photo and see who can ID it for us? drop me a comment - if you can ID it, I will mail you a treat for your garden!

Edit/Addition....
Ok Plant Peeps... if you live in my area (Union County) my friend Wendy has a DealiO!
Her hubby is an awesome landscaper and they have some left over plants that are priced TO GO!
this is what is left...
Impatients ($3 per flat)
Geraniums(red and pink, $3 per flat)
Sweet potato vines(oranmental) in light and dark leaves ($3 per flat)
Petunias (wavy and regular, $3 per flat)
Zinna ($3 per flat)
Purple fountain Grass $1 each
If you are interested drop me a comment and I will email you her contact info!

UNION COUNTY MASTER GARDENERS "GROW LINE"

UCCE is proud to announce their new "GROW LINE." Have a question about your trees, yard, or garden; just give drop them a message. Union County Master Gardeners will return your call/email and answer all your questions. The ph# is 704-283-3822 and the email is unionmg@co.union.nc.us.
They are also offering DISCOUNTED Rain Barrels! You can inquire about them here.

My "seedlings" are 50 days old.

Well my straw bale garden is coming along. I lost my watermelon and replaced them with lettuce and peas and I added pots of corn (that I had to thin out today come pick some up if you have a garden near by). My cukes are scragely (is that how their vines grow?) my cantaloupes have not grown in weeks and only 2 kinds of my 4 types of squash/zucchini are flourishing but the pepper on the left has 4 4" peppers. Woohooo I may just grow something after all :-)

My Garden

The current survivors are 2 cukes, 2 cuke seedlings, 1 celebrity tomato, 1 Mr. stripy (no roma seedlings anymore WAAH), 1 salsa pepper, 1 purple bell, several straight neck and summer squash and a couple of zucchini, a few lettuce seedlings (that will likely be a fall crop) and one lonely lil cantaloupe the only surviving melon. I am thinking I fried them with too much "good stuff".

Veggie Garden!

My seedlings are growing nicely so today I ordered my straw bales. I still can't believe I am going to grow a veggie garden (much less a straw bale garden!) I think I will have to buy some plants to supplement but I don't know how much room I will have so I will have to wait and see. B is VERY excited about it. Tomorrow we are planting our mailbox plants but it will be at least a week before the veggies go in. Longer if I can't find someone to water it all while we are on vacation.