Polka dot plant is so cool. I dug one up from way up north and transplanted it at our last house and it loved the spot. They used to call it lungwort as apparently it was used to cure respiratory ailments.
Lemon balm is another favorite, it smells like it couldn’t be a natural thing, gotta get some for our new place.
@anon95954822 Put it this way…I stopped adding it up a long time ago, because if I knew I would probably commit suicide. In all seriousness, I’m an Accountant by day and usually have a few duckets socked away at the end of tax season. Well, I just didn’t this year and this thread tells you why. lol
As far as my ridiculous collection of potted plants go, they are frivolous, unnecessary and a complete luxury. But Darn It! Life is short and flowers make me happy and the older I get it becomes so much more about the little things, being happy and enjoying the moment. Plants definitely give me a lot of moments. 
@beacher I love the colors! Hoping it acts like a perennial here, a lot of annuals do. I have a lot of empty space while the shade garden grows in, so even if it dies off, it gives me something pretty to look at when I’m messing around in the back.
People swear that Lemon Balm is awesome for capsules and eases anxiety. I haven’t tried it. I just think it smells good so I grow it. lol I’m gonna try it in tea or something though.
This thrills me beyond belief. One of the new bareroot bleeding hearts with a tiny flower. Didn’t expect these until next year
Nice! I love the Bleeding Heart. Never saw that before… it looks like it’s bleeding… a really BIG drop of blood.
What type of birds will you look to attract to the house? In the southeast they used gourds for purple martin communities. They eat tons of mosquitos.
I built a some Bluebird houses out of the cedar scraps from jobs I did. You have to have a particular size hole for the particular bird you want to attract.
Now I want to build a bat house. I have one bat for sure, in my barn, so I want to attract more… and collect the guano, too. peace
How’s accounting working out for you? I took some intro classes while I was getting my AA, but the constant relearning and stuck in an office kinda turned me off to it. I’m a bit older now (32 now, 25 when I finished my AA) and I’m starting to look at it more like I need a decent paying career I can do while still having a family. I’m looking at getting back into school in August, twins will be going into kindergarten. I stopped after my AA due to relocating for a pretty good job (was only supposed to be 32k a year, by the end of the first year it was pushing 80k).
I hear those Alaska mosquitos can knock out a moose… 
That’s what I thought of. I lived in Montana and they have some that could down and Elk maybe. lol… vicious!
@GMan I didn’t know that about the birdhouse holes. Hmmm… I’m gonna have to do some research on local birds. Mostly, I just see little finches and crows, but a yellow parrot flew in my garage the other day lol. I’m sure it was someone’s lost pet. I just grew them cuz they looked fun and for fall decor. I had figured I would give a bunch away for my crafty friends to make things with. We have fruit bats up at the ocean cliffs of Palos Verdes not far from here, but not right here in the city where I am.
@ChronicMcBudz Well, I started doing accounting when I was like 10. My mom is also an accountant and I would help her at her office. By the time I was in college, I already had a base of clients that I did basic bookkeeping for. I actually started as a Psych major and decided however interesting it just wasn’t practical, so I switched to Business, Accountancy. Honestly, I think my job is tedious and boring as hell, but I’m very good at it and can always make a buck. The biggest draw for me is being self-employed though, I’ve always been a rebel and knew since my first real after school job that I wasn’t cut out for answering to a boss or working for other people, so here I am. I’m not sure I would be happy working for a firm doing the same job. Doing the supervised hours to get your CPA is rough, you get dog hours for dog pay, after that however you can make a good salary. Just my opinion though, you are never too old to go back to school. The way I see it is the time is gonna pass anyway, why not do it?
They gey pretty big though its the no-see-ums that’ll tear you up…so tiny they look like a cloud of pepper hovering 
Oh my! I get skeeter syndrome. Damn mosquitoes kill me! Once on vacation in Hawaii one got inside my pjs while I was sleeping. I stopped counting at 32 huge welts. Damn near ruined my trip.
Last year while on a trip to Sequoia national park, something else bit us like some sort of fly. Suddenly my sweetie and I suddenly had these huge welts on our face and neck. Top of Glen’s head. Started oozing puss. They were as big as eyeballs. Never seen anything like it
Gave an aspirin foliar to all the plants except the sunflowers and anything on the trellis. Watered it in on those instead as they really don’t like the leaves sprayed. Let’s see how they do. Supposed to build disease and pest resistance and overall plant health.
Today I saw a dude with the biggest American flag I’ve ever seen on a pickup. Basically the same thing. 
@MomOnTheRun I compared my 2 lemon balm plants today. 1 in full sun and 1 in afternoon shade… Afternoon shade plant is bigger and greener. So, part shade wins my vote.
Have you tried silicon in your system? Now it’s already in some products. It build stronger cell walls and promotes resistance to stresses and pests. Sunshine #4 mix has it included. I use it as an amendment in my liquid feedings. I don’t use sunshine mix anymore. I think it helps.
So, I’ve harvested 3 artichokeys so far… there’s about 10 new ones @GMan… looks like 1 plant yields a lot
I have not gotten into that yet. If I’m not mistaken, my soil amendment had it in there though. How do you use it and what brand do you use?
I use sunshine mix for germing
I pulled out all of the tall zinnias. Sad to see them go. Also had to cut down quite a bit of the italian white sunflowers due to pm as well. Next year I know how these plants will grow and perform, the sunflowers. I think I can safely plant just 2 next year and allow them more air movement instead of planting a whole row. The stuff I had to cut back was the back side near the trellis. Just too much foliage with the wall that close, only midday and afternoon sun with them that big. If they had more space it would be full sun right there, but the trellis also shades even though they are all planted south facing. This years annual veggie patch grow has been a wonderful learning experience for me. Next year I will be much more dialed in when planting and choosing my annuals. btw… the italian sunflowers were only supposed to be 3 to 5 feet tall according to the package. At 7 feet, they lied to me lol. The Ms. Mars sunflowers behind them are suffering because they were supposed to be taller than the italians. go figure. So at least 2 of the plants fell over and died behind the italians and the rest of the flowers are just getting shaded out. Next year, I want those displayed much more prominently cuz they are bitchen looking.
