A Luck-Out Garden Stuff Find

Woohoo!
I found such a ridiculous deal at Dollar General, it isn't even funny. I came home with over 120 dollars worth of garden stuff for . . . 12 bucks!

3 gallon carved terra cotta look-alike pots - 60 cents. (got 10)
1 gallon painted melamine pots - 20 cents. (grabbed 10)
Cute little pot feet - 30 cents.
Square glass vase - 30 cents. Glass stones for fill - 10 cents.
Hose watering extensions - 80 cents. (I can place my hanging baskets anywhere I want now!)
Wheeled pot movers - 30 cents. (they only had 2 left)
3 piece patio candle set - 35 cents. (got two, one for a gift - they're pretty!)
Large glass plates to use for saucers - 10 cents. (got the 14 they had left)

They had some other things, like tiki torches for 15 cents, and the regular white hanging pots, or trowels and hand rakes for ten cents, but I didn't get any as I was out of money at my twelve bucks. And that was because I'd found HUGE tropicals at Lowe's for a buck a piece! I got a sheffleria (to replace the one that got too cold in the house last year and died), Burgundy Ficus robusta, Asplenium nidus, a pink Peace Lily, a 6 foot Majesty Palm (I know-stop shaking your heads! I'm considering it a challenge) and a ridiculously huge Golden Pothos. I know I'm taking my chances with how cold it gets in here when we run out of heating oil, but for a buck, I'll take the chance. They had perennials for five bucks, and on the way out I saw a sign that said "all nursery, except mums, 50% off" so they were only 2.50 each. Ugh - to be rich for a day!

We'd stopped in Dollar General on Sunday and they had tons of the coconut-lined metal hanging pots that were 1.20 and with the new sale price would have been 40 cents, but someone must have gotten there before me and grabbed every single one of those on Monday when everything got priced dirt cheap. I wish I could have afforded them at the 1.20 price, I would have bought them all then.

All in all, it was a pretty good way to spend the 20 bucks I'd been hiding away for the last six months to splurge on something. Time to start snagging all that change I find around the house again. Maybe I'll have another twenty by spring!

Start Of The Indoor Winter Jungle

I've dragged every pot and container possible in, and actually found places to put them...for now.
Cuttings of a few choice coleus - OK, every single one :) - have been plopped in jars of water everywhere.
Pots of impatiens - and yes, of course, cuttings! - are situated on every available horizontal surface.
Fuchsia and Polka Dot plant cutting are jutting proudly from pots for some winter messing about.
Seeds are collected.
Houseplants are snuggled back inside. Asarina and Thunbergia are falling lushly from the ceiling in overflowing, hanging pots.
Rosemary is snugged against a south window. (I really shouldn't have planted tropicals with them ~sigh~)
Tons of cuttings now started for my niece.
The last of the zucchini and green tomatoes will be hauled in today.
Seeds of broccoli, onion and lettuce are collected and drying.
Flowers for drying and pressing have been cut and hung.
Geese are beginning to head south.
I'm ready for tonights frost. For the first time in many, many years, this gardener is ready.

When The Locals Tell The Truth,

there's hell to pay.
There was a story about our own little Rome, NY on Good Morning America this morning.
Needless to say, the Chamber of Commerce wasn't too happy that the locals were more than willing to let the reporters know the truth about what's going on around here instead of sugar-coating the fact that we're struggling for the basic necessities and everything is NOT fine:

The Economy Hits Home

We've had two burglaries within a tenth of a mile of us in the last two weeks. There has never, ever been a break-in on our road. Ever. People are getting desperate.

I've Been Manipulated!

Back in August, I thought I started a Begonia.
Ha!
Try again - it was a weed. A buttercup, to be exact.
Weeds are such manipulative buggers. This one got me to care for it as if it was a rare find.
It's either Ranunculus sardosus (exactly what the leaves look like, but not the flower) or Ranunculus scelaratus (exactly what the flowers look like but not the leaves).
Grrr! Do I feel like a true idiot.
I guess it's no different than a plant I want to grow - they manipulate me rather well also.
I just have no clue where the seed for this sucker came from - maybe the potting soil?
Maybe when I don't feel so ... slighted?... I'll scan and post some images of the flowers. ~sigh~
Oh, well. On to the next experiment! :)

Ok...scanned the little bugger:

Out Of Their Element

I saw an interesting butterfly the other day flitting around the Phlox. I didn't pay much attention, other than to gasp, grin and mumble that he was so pretty.

I couldn't get the thought of him out of my brain since this was one I'd never seen before, and I decided to do a little net hunting.

Interesting - it turned out to be a Papilio palamedes! (another one of those times I wish I had a friggin' camera)

Well, very interesting if you consider that for me to see one, he was way out of his range.

According to the Butterflies and Moths of North America site;

Range: Along Atlantic coast from southern New Jersey (rare) to Florida; west and south along Gulf Coast to central Mexico.

Hmmm ... if it's rare to find one in southern New Jersey, what was he doing way up here?

Another sign of GW and everything moving north?

With the way stranger things have been happening in my own yard lately, I'm keeping an open mind on this one.