She is an awesome dog. She does get hyper, but only when she sees her leash. The person who had her when she was a pup had intentions to fight her. And when said person's mother found out she stole her and turned her over to a new foster home. the foster mom got her a new home, but the woman's child had an anaphalactic (spelling) reaction to her, so they returned her. The foster's personal dog, a german shepherd, then tore into her very badly. Iike very, very badly. So the foster took her to the vet to be put down, reason was she didn't feel like dealing with her anymore. The vet refused to put her down since she was not a bad/aggressive dog, and asked for her to be surrendered to the vet's office. She had been living there for the last month. I saw her on petfinder the day you posted a link about a dog you were looking at. She is a perfect fit here. Extremely tolerant of the kids and sweet as could be.

Sounds really cool Adrian, I'm very happy for you and a smidge jealous.
I'm kinda wondering if she might be pure Pit.
I didn't think we had any Dog Parks here in Oak Ridge, but when you mentioned taking Rosie to one I did a search today and may have found one.
I'm gonna go check it out tomorrow when I pick up Char for house viewings.
You gonna be taking Rosie on regular walks?
You guys are in an apt, right?

I suspect she might be pure bred too, she is not as stout as most pits i have seen in real life though. No purebred pits allowed in the apt. complex though, so don't tell.

We do live in an apt. Right now she gets one long walk per day, and separate outside play time that consists of an hour of tug of war because she has made it clear that she does not fetch....anything, lol. We will go to the dog park a few times a week m-f in the evenings while it is still light out later. Saturdays and Sundays for sure year round. We have one a mile away from our apt., and of course potty breaks regularly.

Hey guys, I need some yard beautifying input.
The beds directly in front of my house look awful and I want to work on them.
I love plants but I do NOT have a green thumb, so I need some input on something really basic and low maintenance that I can put in there.
Just plain green shrubbery is fine, I mostly need something that is hardy and easy to find this time of year at a Home Depot.
No exotic stuff that has to be ordered for me.
Also, should I just use regular mulch over them or what?
There is currently some off white pebbly gravel stuff in there, but there's a lot of weeds and grass growing up through it and I'm not sure how much is salvageable.



Sounds awesome to me.
I hope there's a long, happy doggy future ahead of you.
I love the pics you posted of your son laying on her and her licking your face.

Morning WL.

Weets, what is the sun exposure, winds, and type of soil in your beds? I personally don't care much for pebbles as a mulch material. I prefer using cypress mulch, but you have to top it off every year and it needs to be 2-3 inches deep.

Try to find some perinnels that are drought resistive and dont need alot of water. liripes, sun cone flower, aster, bar berry bushes ( they can get big) , snap dragons. If it gets alot of shade you could plant some hosta.
Juniper, dwarf spruce.

I spent the last couple of months re landscaping. I just took down a tree and planted two new ones. I helped my daughter plant a small butterfly garden in a 4 x3 bed. I still need to finish the north side of the house that pretty much gets all shade.

I would clean out the beds and get some more topsoil/compost mix. Plant in that and then get some weed control fabric or use newspaper before you mulch. Def mulch. It helps to prevent weeds and hold moisture in. HTH.

Thanks for the input guys, that helps.
It is SO not my area of expertise.
Star, it gets full sun and faces East.

Happy Sunday WL.

It is my one year wedding anniversary today!

If you dont have to get barberries please don't as they are invasive and take over. there are lots of alternatives. Cone flowers, juniper and yew. Oriental poppies are nice, They have very pretty flowers and aren't fussy at all. Also hollyhock and lupine are nice. Plant all three from seeds, they'll come back year after year and reseed themselves.

Morning WL and congrats Adrian!

I agree with Star and DT.---( Edit- Mark too lol )_

Boxwoods also make nice fillers. Fire thorn / bush helps break up the green. Adding a variegated shrub adds some color as well.

Since you already have it down, perhaps you could rake up/out the rock and use to make a "river" of rock to break up larger areas of mulch.

The weed block or newspaper really helps keep the weeds down.


Happy Anniversary AB!!!

Never heard of Bar Berry bushes being invasive. You need to prune them back like any other shrub. make sure to give whatever you plant the needed space to grow. Oh I forgot to mention Day Lilies also.

This is the commonly sold one, and it just takes over, especially in moist areas. the deer do not eat it because of the spines, and in my area where the deer population is out of control, the deer clear out the undergrowth and the barberry takes over.

Its a real pest killing off habitat for the native species of plants and animals.

LOL, different kind. I was talking the crimson or golden ones.

this

Congrats AB!
That first year can be a big year of adjustment.

I just finished picking out some Pansies from Home Depot with the boys and putting them in a (previously very forlorn) planter on my front porch.
It was fun doing a little project together with them.
It's funny how amazed they are at how much work it takes do something simple like that.

With kids around, I wouldn't plant anything with spines or thorns.

Boxwoods are nice, but have to be pruned to shape. I don't like to plant anything that I have to shape all the time. Goldmound spirea, gold mop cypress, bird's nest spruce, dwarf alberta spruce are good structural shrubs. Fill in with daylilies, irises, coneflowers, sedums, cranesbill, and annuals for additional seasonal color.

Weed fabric and newspaper are definitely a must to help keep weeds at bay before the mulch goes down.

Weed fabric AND newspaper?
Or do I just use one or the other?
So I plant stuff, then put weed fabric and/or newspaper down, and then mulch on top of that?

Use either. Weed fabric is more exspensive and will last longer. Yes, plant, put weed fabric or newspaper and then mulch. before mulch you can put down some Preen also. Then water, water as needed.

yes either or on the weed fabric and newspaper. If there is a lot of previous weeds/grass, then I use both. Preen is good stuff, but it does keep seeds you may choose to plant from coming up too.

Another nice shurb is the dwarf crepe myrtle. They should still be available in your area, probably on clearance since their bloom season is over.

imo weets

same species, different strain.

or we use the plastic bags the mulch and soil comes in. we poke some holes in it to let the water seep thru. long-lasting and cheap.

The best solution for low maintenance plantings is to use native plants. Here's a link to information on native plants there in TN. http://www.se-eppc.org/pubs/landscape.html

+1!

Natives are always the best choice. And you'd be surprised at what cool native plants there are. plus there is no fuss with figuring out if it'll overwinter

tho dhauts landscaping plan is very tempting

I try to use natives as often as possible, though there are some plants that I love that are not natives that I do use in my flower beds.

How long do you think it should take a small rock of GSP open up after it gets into the tank?

GSP can be unpredictable. Some of it seems to be very touch sensitive. Most will open in several hours, but the sensitive varieties can take a couple of days. Happy to be of zero help..

Very true- sometimes a week or even more!

so i'm thinking of making a trigonal prism shaped dart frog tank with my scrap glass...

edit: actually my parents would prolly kill me if they got back and saw another tank

K, good. It was just a tiny free frag at the LFS. I figured I can't go wrong with reef weeds so I grabbed it . The ric's I picked up at the same time are wide open and happy. I was really excited he had 2 full size pink yuma's.


Dart frogs are my old obsession. I have a hard time not putting up another Viv, then I look at the electric bill.

Do they require a lot of equipment? I was under the impression they just needed a light source, heat source and maybe an aqualifter or something if I did a waterfall.

Thats about it, light to grow the plants, heaters aren't necessary if you have a decently heated/cooled house. The big thing is humidity monitoring, they need about 70% humidity, you can manually mist or invest in a mister system with a humidity sensor. A waterfall is nice because it helps with the waste cleanup, and they eat fruit flies which you need to culture.

must... have... caffiene...

mornin WL

I'm right there with you, heading off to get my caffeine fix now....

Caffiene---check
Instant oatmeal---check
Situps---check
Sanity--- not in check

Morning WL. Hopefully everyone had a good weekend!



I was going to try to go coffee-free today, but all of this coffee talk is making me want to make some. I have a feeling my boss is going to force me to literally run to court today to make a deadline , so I suppose the juice could be helpful.



Life is more fun that way.

good luck MJ but running in a suit is not a good idea.

Unfortunately, I have first hand experience in running in suits. I've had to do it a number of times already this year. I'll ditch the jacket and tie, and the somewhat cooler temperatures will help. This is on my list of things that makes me sometimes wish I had my own practice.

Morning folks

Work is really like a bunch of zombies wandering around looking for the coffee pot until about 11 or so, especially on Monday

Ohmigosh, this is hilarious, Lil Dude and I are getting ready to go look at a house that used to belong to one of the members of my local Reef Club!
I went to his house once to borrow a test kit.

Morning WL.

4 day work weeks for the next 3 weeks!

That is all.

lol @ Weets

MJ, I used to be a mechanic for years. My parents broke down about 4 hours away from home and I ended up driving down to fix thier car on the side of the highway. My dad's words exactly were "I am so glad you arent something useless like a lawyer or something". Unfotunately there are times I feel like everyone says that about me and those are the times I wish I were lol.

From my local forum:

HA! that's hilarious.

Major LOL @ New Mexican Lion!!!!
That's awesome creative thinking!!!

So I really like the house, it's perfect.
Now I'm back to the place where I have this bad suspicion that it may not be realistically possible for us to sell our current house for enough money for us to get a new one.
Hrmmmm....

That's hilarious! Seems kinda like a statement/joke I heard about lawyers many years ago:

"Lawyers are like nuclear bombs. You only have them because the other side does, and once you use them, you can kiss everything goodbye."





Oh, and I love the Mexican Lion!

i'm so full of cart food. foooodd coomaaaaa aa aaa a...aa......



also, this is cool

scoutmob.com

Amber, that made my day. Thank you!!!

Have A Good Day WL!!

I saw it and just knew I had to share it with you guys. I'm glad you all enjoyed it.

I enjoyed it so much that it went on my facebook page.

afternoon WL. what an exhausting day. I hate my ecology class! i really really do.

Lol at the lion