Right now the sun is causing more damage than the bunny. It's beastly hot here, and will remain so until mid September, unfortunately. There aren't a lot of flowers that do well at this time of year.

Hey Betts ... I read on a random fact site that garndening is the best exercize to prevent arthritis. I posted the actual statement somewhere in the posting contest thread. Not sure where though, that thread is huge!

Two days without rain...I might be able to get out in the garden...finally. The heat index is getting up to about 110, so my trips outside are sorta short. I saw about 4 little monarch caterpillar's on my parsley yesterday, they had eaten about half the leaves off it, so that was neat...I very seldom see cocoons tho.

That's so cool DaaaZ. Yes, I think the caterpillars crawl off to make their cocoons. I once saw one tucked under a fence post, and beach sent me some great photos of Monarch chrysalises on the eave of her house. I haven't had too many serious butterflies yet. Ours are most common in the early fall. But I've got plants ready and waiting. My fennel isn't as big as I'd like it, for the swallowtails, but I've got great rue, butterfly weed and passion flower vine. And it's so hot I'm having to water my plants like crazy. I lost a couple when I was out of town last week, unfortunately.

I saw a Swallowtail butterfly laying eggs on the rue yesterday. So, I'll have baby caterpillars soon!

Cool...today lots of zebra longwings were in the garden. I don't know if I would ever know when they were laying eggs. I had to cut back my knockout rose, it was starting to stick out in the grass and stick the lawn mower person er hubby.

I probably should let this thread fade away but it's my favorite hobby. I'm still trying to get all the weeds out from summer and plant some fall plants. I've got a few in the ground and hope to buy a few more today.

Ah DaaaZ, we can't let this one go You're the only person I can talk to about gardening! Not much going on in my garden right now. I need to divide my daylilies....perhaps when I get home.

Happy birthday jon and jplewismusic!

Does anyone have Dafodils yet?

Not yet. We've had unseasonably warm weather this winter, and I was wondering if it hadn't gotten cold enough for daffodils. But this weekend we've had a cold snap so it will be interesting to see what happens.

We don't have them yet either, but usually by mid February ... then they get snowed on.

We can't really grow dafodils here...but my snapdragons and pansies look pretty good. I'm working my fanny off trying to get everything cut back.

I have buds on my daffodils now! I adore daffodils. So sunny and cheerful. Maybe some gardener can tell me something about feeding birds too. I bought this bird seed from Walmart, and the birds just refuse to eat it. I think they may be picking out the sunflower seeds and leaving the bulk of the seed just sit there. We do have a dog we let out from time to time, but I think the birds aren't afraid of the dog as much as they don't like the seed. And I bought a large bag of this! So why do they sell seed mixes that the birds don't like?

Good question Arts. Maybe squirrels will like it.

I think it's almost time to fill my hummingbird feeder. Yeah! I get lots of them and they are so beautiful.

Around here squirrels will eat anything, even the oranges. I have heard my MIL and my neighbor complain about finicky birds that wouldn't eat the bird seed that they bought...when they changed seed, the birds were back at the feeder.

Hummingbirds are so cool....it's funny, I will usually see one hummingbird in my garden...once or twice last summer I saw two. I keep thinking that they will bring more of their friends but so far no luck.

I just like the colors. Some people get all into it.

The birds are probably in shock this morning because it's pretty cold for Florida....when it warms up I will be out in the garden working. ugh!

I've got all sorts of cleanup to do. I don't cut down any of my dead flowers until spring comes (in case a butterfly has a cocoon on one), so now it's time to do it. Boooooring, but necessary. We had a hard freeze just two days ago, but it doesn't seem to have hurt anything, oddly. Our daffs are blooming,as are the redbud trees.

I'm making some headway with the weeds and have almost everything cut back. Hope to be finished with that by the end of the weekend. Lots of milkweed has come up, some of them already have caterpillars chewing on the leaves.

Good news! The grackles found my bird feeder after about 2 months. They are the large, blackish/bluish birds with iridescent heads and evil yellow eyes. But the other birds noticed the grackle parties every morning and have begun to join the banquet. So now I am having trouble keeping up with them. Too bad grackles are not attractive! Why can't I have more pretty cardinals or finches?

My hyacinths are blooming and they smell divine! We often walk by the long row of them and just stop to inhale deeply over and over. My daffodils are doing very well too!