Margaret (Serendipity) and Cindy (zone_envy) are comeing too - if Cindy doesn't have to work, that is. I meant to call Gale last night but never got around to it.

I'm taking Friday afternoon off, so i'll be in Thunder Bay by supper time. We can finalize everything then.

Where did you move to, Kelly?

I bought a tiny house on a double lot on the north side (Port Arthur) of town off of Balsam St. It has beautiful trees in the back yard but nothing in the front. The lady that owned the house before me detested yard work and I'm told that the front yard which is now a barren desert used to be full of HUGE Pine trees. The so called lawn is struggling to grow in what I assume is very acidic dusty sand. Soooooo....any ideas you have would be greatly appreciated.
I am going to move all of my plants from my old house, but I am really struggling with the hardscape and placement of the flower beds.
Also can't decide if I want to add a deck or patio...etc. etc. I probably should live in it for a season to get a real feel for it, but I have to move my plants in the next few weeks so the location of the beds has to be decided.
sooooooo.......you have to come and have a peek see if you have time.
Kelly

Hey gang

Let me know where and when! Hope we make this an afternoon get together as I am going out to dinner with hubby Saturday night. It is our anniversary! 27 years... I keep saying it is time to trade him in but it would take me to long to train a new one! Hehehe!

Danni

Waaaahhhhhh! I knew it, I knew it, I knew it! I have to work....sigh. Went in to work today and my name was added on the schedule for Saturday 8 to 4. This working for a living SUCKS:(

Well, you girls have fun - maybe we'll get to meet another time.

Congrats on your new house, Kelly. How exciting to have a whole new yard to fill!

Happy Anniversary, Danni! Hope you have a wonderful dinner.

Cindy

HEY TBay Gals!

I'm totally ready to go greenhouse hopping this weekend!

Haven't posted in ages and was thrilled to hear from Kelly last nite.
Looking forward to seeing everyone again.....sorry you won't be able to make it Cindy....bummer!

Hope a few others will be able to go as well.

Give me a call when you arrive in town on Friday Marcia.

Talk to ya'll later, Gale

Glad to finally hear from you, Gale! :) I thought you had completely deserted us! I'll call Friday evening and make some plans. Yay!

Cindy, maybe we can still work something out. My parents go to church in Current River, so maybe i can swing by on Sunday just so we can say we've met! On another Forum i go to, they have what they call the Axe-Murderers List, which is made up of people who haven't met anyone else on that forum, and thus are potential axe-murderers. LOL I haven't met anyone there, but Gale came and vouched for me. They have by my name "CLAIMS to have met a whole slew of people from GW". Interesting misspelling of "slough", no? :)

I must remember to pack the axe....

Aaaaack! Leave the axe at home, Marcia! That is hilarious.
We're going to try to have a garage sale on Sunday, so you can just follow the signs to my house:) Couldn't be easier! Perhaps you can bring the whole congregation with you - we got a lotta stuff. The more the merrier, lol.

Seriously though, stop by if you get a chance. It would be fun to meet you. Hmmmmm, the only time I have ever seen you you were wearing a housecoat. How ever will I recognize you? I AM assuming you won't be wearing the house coat to church;) LMBO.....

Cindy

Cindy... you never know! LOL :>

Hey, everyone!
Looking forward to the get-together on Saturday. Been putting together my wish list and resisting temptation in the meantime....good thing I have a truck (or maybe not such a good thing, LOL).
Kelly, looks like we are almost neighbours. I live off of Wardrop, almost at Hilldale.
See everyone on Saturday.
Margaret

Good Morning All

I got your e-mail Marcia...It would be great if we could start a little earlier, say around noon at my house if that works for anyone who wants to come by. I would really like to get some input from you if you donÂt mind. Then we could all meet at Vanderwees for 1:00? IÂll send you my number and address.

Cindy too bad you have to work, but just think of how many plants you can buy with the money.
LOL @ Marcia re: Axe......DonÂt worry, sheÂs harmless even in a housecoat. Actually it was too funny when Gale and I met. She invited me over to see her pond and Marcia was quite worried for her as I had not been on the GW all that long. Well, it turns out that my mom taught her in school and we had actually met when we were little. Although weÂve become good friends, IÂm still harbouring a slight grudge over the "oh my ..... do you ever look like your mother" comment. Lol
WeÂll plan to get together another time.... IÂll get Marcia to give you my number and address on Sunday.

Congrats on your anniversary Danni. I canÂt find your number, so send me an e-mail if you want to come by as well. If not, weÂll see you at the greenhouse. At least youÂll be able to find us this year... :) Really liked your website by the way...your yard looks awesome.

We are really close Margaret. Gales on Hilldale as well, and I think Cindy is in Current River?, also very close by. Please come by as well if youÂde like to see the "before"....

Looking forward to seeing everyone,
Have a Great Day
Kelly

Maybe we'll all have to turn up at Cindy's garage sale on Sunday - trowels in hand, looking to dig up some Replete daffodils! LOL

Okay, earlier at your house, Kelly, and then Vanderwees by 1:00. It'll be fun!

(Only 45 minutes till i get off work for the day! Kindergartens coming shortly.)

So, let's hear the details ladies! Did you empty out all the greenhouses in town? Were there any axe murders?

Marcia, sorry you couldn't make it to my place but....I met your mother!
What a sweet lady, she's so cute, lol. She came to tell me that you were on your way back already. She also seemed quite pleased that she found me and that she told you to drive down to the highway (Hodder) to look for signs. Like all good mothers she was right! She also mentioned that your MIL, I think? was rushing you so you had to get going.

Sorry I didn't get to meet everyone this time, but at least now Marcia's mom can vouch for the fact that I'm not an axe murderer!

Hope you guys had fun!

Cindy

LOL Leave it to my mother! Did she talk your ear off, Cindy? She's right - my mother-in-law was "ahem-ing" in the back seat. And then she was worrying that i'd go back to look for you once we got back to my parents'. I would have if she wasn't there!

We had a great time! I drove to Gale's, checked out her new growth, then we drove to Kelly's and checked out her "virgin" yard. The possibilities!!! She has to post before and after pictures. I'm sure her yard will be spectacular by fall! After that, we headed to Vanderwees where we met up with Margaret and Dannie and Dannie's daughter, Ashley. We had great fun perusing all the plants, but we were relatively restrained. I bought annuals to take cuttings from, and some yellow pansies (i always succumb to pansies). Of course, there were NO enablers whatsoever in this group! We had lunch at the restuarant, and then went to Landsdale Nurseries on Arthur Street. Time passed so quickly - it seemed like just minutes before we had to leave for other commitments. Gale, as usual, was so generous that i ended up with an extra tray of plants, including a clump of arabis that i had coveted! Thank you, Gale!

It was a lot of fun - ladies, mark your calendars for next year at this time!

P.S. We saw a great yellow and red million bells at Vanderwees but they only had it in a hanging basket. :( I checked the garden centre at Walmart in Dryden on the way home and they had it in a hanging basket too. I was tempted to pinch a cutting, but i didn't. Will have to keep an eye out for it!

So....is it still considered restrained if it's spread out over two days?

There I was, Sunday morning, back at Vanderwees. Absolutely love the cobalt blue pots, so a couple more followed me home, along with a few more plants.

Had a great time ladies - was good to meet all of you!

Margaret

I hear you Margaret. I very nearly did the same thing on Sunday. I was all ready to head out with hubby and buy plenty but he hadn't taken the mini-greenhouse thingie out of the shed, although I see he took it out today, so I think a visit to the nurseries is not far off in the future.

I did get into the front flower beds and got those weeded. Everything is coming up in the front including the hostas. I don't think I have ever seen them this early. The lasagna bed I did last year has absolutely great soil. This is the way to go when making new beds. Everything in there is looking huge and healthy...all except the echinechea (sp?) who is just peeking out of the ground. It survived but it looks pretty skimpy. I hope it just needs time.

The beds in the back yard have stuff that is quite large already but a lot more needs to come up. I am going to have to divide some stuff to fill in the spots where the dogs trampled the ground this winter.

Anyway, the get together was a lot of fun and I can't believe I managed to restraint myself to a few packages of seeds and one hanging pot of strawberries. Not easy when you have a daughter who thinks it is her job to spends mom's money.

Gale, brace yourself cause the first chance I get, I am going to go check out your yard. I looked at it on the net and it looks awesome and from what I can see the pictures are a few years old. I am sure it looks even better now that things have filled in more.

Anyhow, I have more school work to get done tonight. I am presenting at a conference in a week and I need to make sure I have my speaker notes done.

See you later,

Danni

Sounds like you all had a great time!
Marcia, your mom was a sweetheart. She came in and chatted for a couple minutes and went on her merry way.She really was pretty pleased with herself for finding the right house and I'm almost certain that there's an "I told you so" in your future, lol.

Cindy

We had a great day. And as usual I showed no restraint!
Gerbera Daisy, Begonia's, Geraniums, Vinca, Bacopa, 3x Verbena and 2x Million Bells, all to make cuttings from. And a Lemon Thyme that Marcia and I split. So actually all things considered....

And of course you had to go back for two more of those blue pots Margaret, everyone knows that things look better in 3's. lol...such a small world, we've only known each other through work for ohhh 20 years or so.

Once the weather warms up and I get some things planted we'll have to organize some kind of tour/exchange if any of you are interested.

I'll spring sow the Basil for you Danni just to give it a head start. I'll also have tons of Garlic Chives once I get to the lake to do some digging. Was there anything else on your list that I had? Drop me a line when you have a chance in the next couple of weeks.

I really appreciated your input girls, and IÂll definitely take some pictures as things progress. I picked up 4 sections of lattice fencing that should be up by this weekend along the "woodland" garden so I can get my neighbour to give me back my side yard. ItÂll be temporary until he finishes his fence, but something has to be done to establish my property line and provide privacy. A little to much "wander over" for my liking so that should help.

IÂll give you a call this week re: trees this week Gale. That will make all the difference in the world one I get some trees started in the front.

I also want to get a dump truck load of top soil plopped in the front yard in the next couple of weeks, so if you know of anyone that has really nice screened soil could you please let me know.
Anyway, let's get together again sometime this summer!
Have a Great Day
Kelly

So sorry I have not been diligent w/ checking ALL Garden Web Forums. I usually check Northern Garden quite regulariy. So I missed this fine opportunity to meet w/ fellow garden enthusiasts.. I would have loved to join you all. Better luck next year (for me!).
Geo

It's usually the last weekend in April, Geo, so mark it on your calendar for next year!

Cindy, my mom didn't actually SAY "I told you so", but it was there in her voice! LOL You know, if i had been smart, i would have checked your address from the seeds you sent me (i must have it around here somewhere), but i didn't, so it was my fault, really. Oh well! You'll have to stop here for a pee break on your way out west!

Margaret, what other plants did you buy? I've been looking for that million bells plant here but haven't found it yet. One more nursery to check at, but i don't know when i'll get there. Darn - i LIKED that!

Kelly, have you started your cuttings yet? I did mine last night - well, just the bacopa. I still need to do the million bells. No time, no time, no time!

I can't promise to make it to Thunder Bay any time soon, but maybe i can get there in the summer sometime. If so, we'll have another get-together for sure!

Well, this is the way it happened, Marcia. Decided to go back and look at the blue pots again. One of the ones I picked up was like a big ceramic basket....so I had to find the right plants for it....which turned out to be some more of the trailing petunias and geraniums. Then, wouldn't you know it, another clematis (alpina 'willly') jumped into my basket!
Probably will be back there this weekend. Will check on the million bells - they said those would be ready this weekend.
Margaret

Ah hah! You had your eye on 'Willy' all along, Margaret! LOL You'd better drive your cart past those clematises a little faster if you go back this weekend!

Don't forget to take pictures!

Hello, everyone.
Thought I would share a photo of one of the planters that insisted on coming home with me the weekend after the TBay get-together. Has a 'place of honour' in my favourite spot in the garden. Of course, it would be nicer if it would get a little warmer and I could actually sit out there!! Soon, soon......
Margaret
P.S. I hope this photo works - if not, back to the drawing board!

Looking good! What kinds of plants do you have in the container? I agree about not being able to get out and enjoy the yard right now. It must be my fault because i dragged out the patio chairs! LOL

Both your pictures worked, but the one on the other thread is a little small to see. I'd love to see a larger view. :)

Hi, Marcia.
Plants in container are two Supertunia 'Mini Whites' and a red geranium - chosen purely for the colour contrasts.
Did you ever track down any of the million bells that caught your eye in Vanderwees?
Think (hope) I have this photo thing figured out....will update the other thread too.
Margaret

No, but i haven't been to the bigger nursery in Dryden (Schmidt's) yet. There was one in a container at Walmart, but none in the bedding plants. I may have to steal cuttings! >:)