I'll be shmoozing with the public, since this weekend is my fall open house. In the meantime, I'm killing myself to make the place look as nice as possible.

Connie

I'm leaving the garden behind this week-end for the LA County Fair to enjoy cotton candy and caramel apples. I'm also going to Disneyland on one of the days from morning 'till night. I love getting on Space Mountain and the Indiana Jones ride and I always feel like a princess being near Sleeping Beauty's castle. :)

Juliet

I'm expecting a rose friend from this forum to visit my garden for the first time and hoping that the recent super heat wave will have left something for her to look at. Fortunately the scenery of hills and valleys is still intact.

Ingrid

I'm going to a wedding in Quebec City . . . For me, it's one of those 'you can't get there from here' destinations. I have to fly west half-way across the continent and connect with a flight that takes me BACK eastward, almost half-way across the continent. The return is equally as off-putting. Don't ask why the he** I agreed to do this. If there's not an open bar at that reception I'm going to be very disagreeable.

College Football starts here!! Our team is not very good but I`m a fan. Tailgating marching band, lots of fun! Lesley

Amen about the college football! Go LSU tigers! And then all the other SEC teams too!

I'm giving my usual Saturday morning routine of spending a few hours with the roses a break to go to the Chico Farmer's Market instead followed by lunch at our favorite Thai restaurant in that area. The long weekend creates a welcome chance to break our usual schedule a little which is nice. The rest of the weekend will probably consist of garden puttering and maybe, just maybe some housecleaning:)

Come to think of it I haven't looked for rose nurseries in Chico yet although I hear there is a plant vendor at the market. Hopefully some savvy rose vendor will have a booth also.

Kate

Being retired, it's all one long weekend. Good and bad. I feel compelled to do something productive every day, so in a way, I never get a break! It's supposed to cool off significantly by Saturday, which will be good.

Saturday mornings are cemetery days. I am hopeful that we get a good turnout of volunteers, get some stuff done, and have a fun lunch afterwards.

Sunday morning is Sacramento Farmer's Market, and I stop in before to see how the Sheriff's Work Crew in the cemetery is doing. We have plans to get together with my niece's family later in the day. 18 mos old and 3 yr old great-nephews. Happy times.

We may go to the beach on Monday. I need some healing time by the ocean before going back to Ohio to deal with my mother's estate.

When am I gardening at home? Since every day is the weekend, that's the plan for Thursday and Friday mornings, along with writing my Oct garden column, and doing some other paperwork.

Sounds pretty good, doesn't it? Lucky me. Have fun, everybody. Connie, I'm sure that things look great already - hope things go well. Wish I could come by!
Anita

First shipment of roses arrived yesterday, and the local nurseries start their sales. Time to break out the shovel and compost.

It's not a holiday here. I'm up to my ears in an extremely varied assortment of tasks, with gardening unfortunately lagging well behind more urgent chores. I don't dare make up a to do list. My daughter starts school in two weeks--middle school, first year--and life should quiet down a bit then, even though it looks as though we're going to be taking her and picking her up, which means driving twenty miles a day six days a week.
When I find time I work on the paths in the propagating garden, and as the weather cools (it's still very dry) I'll be weeding again in the big garden. We'll begin transplanting once it has started to rain again, I hope later this month or in the first part of October. The plants are reviving and so am I. I need to begin working on rose orders.
It's fun to hear people's plans: we lead such a variety of lives.
Melissa

I need to begin exercising again. Lots of back problems coupled with way too much time sitting at computer either working or playing are an aggravation. I must tone up in order to do my gardening. And there is always watering to do along with clean up and planning the fall garden (including the planting of a few cuttings I got started this winter). I always have too much to do. I think the idea of a holiday weekend is to rest, right?
Mary

Gosh, after reading everyone's plans, I think I need to get the Slapchop (as seen on TV) to stop having a boring life! (some of you will hopefully know what I'm talking about!)

We'll go to my daughter's high school volleyball game on Friday (which will take me half of Saturday to recover from) and then it seems to be the plan - MY plan, anyway - to tackle some of the half-finished projects that are all over around here. If we work real hard, we might even get one of them three-quarters finished by the end of the weekend :) If I only had either more strength or more tool knowledge, I could just do stuff myself!

I do have one new large rose bed that is ready to be planted.....I've been savoring that fact and have just been waiting until the soil settles and the heat dies down a bit.

Lynn

I have 2 friends in from Washington and Pam (Younquinn) & her husband David are visitng from Australia. I do hope to get to either Wave Hill garden or NY Botanical Gardens with Pam. I went to Brooklyn Botanical Gardens with them on their last trip.

Oh the typical weekend chores:

1. Sweep the walkways
2. Weed the flower beds
3. Water & feed the roses for the Autumn flush
4. Spray the roses with mancozeb
5. Lay down compost and mulch
6. Fill in holes in the backyard left by the tree removal company
7. Repot the twigs from Vintage & Heirloom into bigger pots.

I'm taking my last vacation day on Tuesday so I have FOUR days! Hopefully, I'll get the final coat of white paint on my homemade picket fence and get it set up for Red Cascade to run on. DH will like that because the fence pieces are blocking his garage/workshop. I need to get several climbers (Jaune Desprez, Sdlm, Full Moon Rising & Wm Allen Richardson) in the ground. I need to put out compost & pine straw in two beds. I need to move Noella Nabonnand to a sunnier spot and put a Bleeding Heart vine in her old spot. I have the spot that was NN's to fill and have to make the decision which one will go there. I need to tie up Crepuscule & E Veyrat Hermanos. I think there's more but I'll be happy if I get to most of these.

Sherry

Planting a dozen new roses from Vintage with one hand; packing for two weeks vacation (Ashland and the Oregon Coast) with the other. Oh, and seeing my shrink -- but not about my rose jones!

Katie

We are hosting the "meet the new grandchild" picnic on Sunday. Lots of relatives visiting as 3-week-old grandson makes his debut. We truly love children so this is a happy time for DW and me.

As soon as I get home tonight I will begin the weeding, trimming, mowing, sweeping routine which will take me straight through until Sunday morning. Then its Miller time.