u/Sassy_Plant_Mom

I currently own a moyen size poodle who is a healthy weight at 25lbs.

I love going on adventures but with my size and being a woman I do not feel particularly safe going solo. I do know if i had a larger dog I would feel more comfortable.

I have pondered many breeds that do truly have scary dog privilege but time and time again there is a quality of them that discourages me from the breed. I also do genuinely hate dog fur and would rather pay for the grooming than deal with shedding dog fur. But I also genuinely love poodles.

II just keep coming back to the poodle. I just wonder if a standard poodle would discourage strangers or if they would stick up for me should I be approached by someone I don't want to engage with.

I am just in the education phase and really digging into the pros and cons of owning a other dog. My poodle does love other dogs and yes there is no guarantee that they would be buddies, it would be nice to have a regular buddy for him to play with. But if the large reason for me to want another dog and in particular a larger dog is to deter other people from me and help me feel safer I want to know if that is something that would be accomplished with a standard poodle.

I do genuinely love poodles and I just am in awe of standards. But I am also aware of additional work and costs with have another dog let alone a larger dog with more expensive vet and grooming bills. So just thinking long and hard about it and trying to do my due diligence.

Zone 6a, last average frost date is May 16th.

I am not new to gardening in general but new to dahlias.

I bought a bunch of dahlias from a local dahlias society. I never took them out of the plastic bags and most have sprouted stems at least a couple of inches. There is no soil in any of the bags. Can I just plant them in the ground or do I need to harden them off?

I think they are going to get planted on the west side of my house that receives morning shade but full sun by mid day through sunset.

When I acquired my property there was a defined lawn area and field area. I really dont need to use the field as a blank field and have been expanding other areas over it. Like my goose pen, garden, etc.

Well the old section of the field that is now in my goose pen is mostly weeds and only some grass. So while I have expanded their area that section is mostly stuff they dont want.

How to I get rid of the bulk of the weeds and get it to be grass. I dont expect all of it to be grass but even a 50/50 would be an improvement. I would like for 80% of it to be actual grass.

Edit: zone 6

Original post: I went to a Dahlia show and was just in awe of all of the flowers even put in the tuber sale they were going to have the following year into my calendar. Well seeing all the posts in this group on my feed and it just feels like it is a lot of work for the storage and waking up process.

I am already feeling overwhelmed by what I have going on with a traditional garden and the season hasnt officially began. Now to be fair I have been installing an in ground irrigation system for my vegetable garden which has been time consuming. I also have a lot of projects around the farm that I have been chipping away at. I just feel my time in the early spring has just been soo ridiculously busy that I even wonder if I have the capacity to take on dahlias. Now I dont worry about the end of season digging up. That is a very quiet time of year for me. Its the dealing with storage and waking them back up.

Idk maybe its just this season for the year and season of my life that feels particularly crazy and overwhelming.

I even thought about not buying any at the tuber sale and passing but then I know I will see the dahlias at the show and fall in love with them again. But I also know if I am overwhelmed my joy for things will nuked. Which is low key where I am right now with my vegetable garden. But I know that will pass and this irrigation system will save hours upon hours of time and will long term preserve my joy for gardening. Just right now I hate my garden as it is just a massive to do list.