Tit for Tat

Eric couldn't let me be the only one with stuff in print! LOL So he had to out do me and get himself in an herbicide ad campaign in a national magazine!!! I'm married to a model!!! This product is an herbicide for ground ivy and Eric had given them a raving review for it's effectiveness. So they decided to have him be the spokesperson! This ad is from Lawn and Landscape Magazine. I guess it's supposed to be in others and he has another company talking to him and trying out their products.

"Buy this product or I'll knock your lights out" (ROFL!!!) Apparently the photographer told him to look serious. This is the "I mean business" look he mastered in the Coast Guard dealing with people breaking the law.

Cool Stuff for Mr. Larson...before I know it, he's going to have "people" and a posse. LOL Anyway...on to plants.

I acutally had germination a couple of days after we set everything up. I'm glad I started with lettuce because they germinate fast and so far have been easy. The above photos was as of the beginning of this week. The greenery is just cotyledons or the very first set of baby leaves.



I took these below photos just yesterday and now the real leaves are starting to emerge. Some are just green and some are speckled with red spots which I know is a variety of lettuce because I've grown something like this outside before. I've only had to add just a little bit of water since it's been running...I totally could have left it alone and for a while. But I'm like a mother hen with this crop because it's my first. I'm really using great self control on not buying a 3 pod Aerogarden off of eBay for just flowers on my marker desk next to my drafting table. I would like to get one...I don't think my self control will last much longer.

New Garden Gadets and Lake Larson is famous

I'll start with the cool news that just happened today. A year or two ago, Laura Rice (the author of Practical Horticulture - a college horticulture textbook) contacted me and wanted to use some photos of Lake Larson, a tigerlily of mine, and another garden I had designed. I said okay and then didn't hear anything about it again...until today. So, the Fedex truck shows up and dropped something off at the door...I thought Eric had ordered something because I wasn't expecting anything. This was in the package -


My tiger lily photo!! (I'm not particularly fond of them...but I guess they will have to stay now)


Lake Larson back during the first season we had the wet pets -


Lake Larson as the focal point as you start the book....freakin' cool!!!


I didn't see the other photo she had asked for which is a bummer for the client...I had told them about it when she first contacted me. I wonder since all of the pics are in black and white, it didn't have the pop that it has in color. :(

But, on to the rest of my post! I have been toying with the idea of getting an aerogarden after talking with a client of mine who had one. I looked and read the reviews online from people who had them and that sealed my decision. The only thing that kept me from getting it was the price...for a good sized one, they are around $150 - $200. Um, yeah...I couldn't really justify that. So, I started looking on Craigslist for one and got it for half of the price. That I can justify especially if it can take some $$ off of weekly groceries, I'm all for that. I decided to start out with the lettuce greens pack. I have been researching and learned that you can resuse the pods for your own seeds which I plan on doing once the lettuce goes by. Yesterday, the pods came and after a little technical difficulties with the water pump - we're up and running!!! I have it down in the basement because the thing is bright and I can also keep an eye on it since the office is down there too.



The close up of the pods....


My anti-cat device...high-tech isn't it. But, knowing how evil my cat is, I can see him ruining this in 10 seconds flat.

Birds of a feather feed together!

Happy New Year everyone!! I decided to take a little breather from posting over the holidays...not to mention, there wasn't a whole lot going on gardening wise either. It's been frigid here and I haven't been spending much time outside at all. I think throwing a ball around for Lars has been just about it for outside activities. I do have a new gardening toy I grabbed off of Craigslist I'll debut next week when I have it all set up.

Bird central has been very busy these past several weeks. I really have been enjoying the feathered visitors who come and have dinner with us. I added some suet cages for the Carolina Wren and the Woodpeckers. I snapped a couple of photos of the woodpecker a week or two ago (the last time we've had snow)....



I had a goldfinch who was coming regularly to the thistle feeder for a couple of days but I haven't seen him much this past week. The guests to Bird Central have been primarily the juncos, my pair of cardinals, house finches, and the chickadees. I have sparrows thrown in the mix there but they are not as plentiful. I haven't seen much in the way of nuthatches and titmice which I kind of find suprising.








The other night, we had a visitor of the furry persuasion. I was up late playing Wii **blushes** and heard this banging around outside on the deck. After I figured out it probably wasn't the wind, I peeked outside and saw this -


I'm fairly certain Lars could smell him...because he was all fired up that there was something outside. Lars (and Sam) have discovered opossums before and I can only imagine what they think of them...probably something along the lines of "ugly kitties". I grabbed my camera and popped it out the door so Lars couldn't go busting out there to investigate. Ugly kitty, indeed.