I *am* exhausted! & sunburnt! (went out there on an overcast morning, wearing a scoop-necked top, forgot to notice when the sun came out. duh.) The gardens were *gorgeous*, of course, & the swap/sale was loads of fun! We had a woman who sells plants/bulbs/seeds on ebay, the Master Gardeners had a booth, Waxahachie High School had a booth, there was a "flea market" with proceeds going to the Garden Club,...can't remember everything. The brown bag lunches were very good (& the Club now has arrangements with the to-go barbeque place to take up the slack in case they run out of food in the future!) I moved a lot of plants in pots, so my summer watering schedule is considerably eased (sold a few & traded a few.) This was the first time my friend Vi had been to the Tour & sale, & she had a great time, didn't bring very much but took several things home. Unfortunately, although the Extravaganza continued until 4 PM, Vi had to leave early to help her husband with a garden project, & my sunburn began to really burn & nauseate me, so I left a little later, by probably 2:30. Lots of nice people, helpful hands all round-several of the guys helped with loading & unloading, setting up tables, etc, & one kind person gave me some lotion for my back. It was great! can't wait til next year... (when I'll bring an extra shirt & a hat & some lotion!)

Thank you very much for sharing photographs from your visit. I agree with Rosylady that Sissinghurst is a great example of gardening to define a place/space. The yellow yarrow (Coronation Gold), for example, is highlighted and looks like it belongs in the surroundings. I also really appreciate seeing the California native bush anemone, Carpenteria Californica, used in this setting. Roses swaying in the breeze was cool to see as well. The Nuits de Young moss rose, James Mitchell centifolia rose, and Sissinghurst Castle namesake gallica rose, and President du Feze(?) rose were my favorites in this collection. Justin

Insofar as using the "space to the right" for "more seating or vegetables" ....? It totally depends of you, your family's lifestyle and what is important to you/them. You may be able to fit both of these elements in .... just not in the same space. Or maybe one "need" is fleeting and one is long term. Maybe you have a lot of parties and need overflow seating. Think through the issues as best you can and try to pin down what is important. Too, the conditions the yard offers (light) will matter with growing vegetables. You're there and can see it. I don't think I have a good total view of the environment yet. The last photo you added ("Country House Garden") is a good example of pointlessly cutting off a view by having tall plants at the upper level/back of retaining wall. One cannot well see the lovely lawn space beyond. It would be better if plants this area (if any) were VERY low.)

Good Morning, Y'all. We only dropped to 28 degrees so, surprisingly, many flowering plants survived and look half-decent. When I looked at the garden around 7:45 a.m., I still could see flowers that looked fine on the Cape honeysuckle, begonias, lantanas, marigolds, some of the Texas hummingbird sage plants, mealy cup sage, autumn sage and the globe amaranth plants. The remaining herbs (rosemary, sage, chives, parsley and basil) also looked fine. Even some of the remaining zinnias looked good. Everything else probably is gone though. If the butterflies that were flitting around the garden yesterday survived the cold night, and it is likely they did, then at least they still have some flowers for nectar. Jennifer, I need to give our dogs a bath. Maybe on Monday. I have one grandchild here for the weekend, so just don't want to mess with bathing dogs while she is here. Larry, Mud has us at a standstill here as well. I'd say that I'm hoping we'll dry up in this cold, dry air, but more rain (and snow) are in the Monday forecast so I guess we'll just have more mud. You're quite a bit colder than us this morning, but then you're quite a bit further north. Our Mesonet station went to 26 but at our house the Min-Max only shows 26, and it still was at 30 when I got up at 4:40 a.m., so we really weren't at 28 degrees for more than a very few hours. A mole has tunneled across our driveway, from the neighbor's pasture to our yard. I hope he or she isn't planning on sticking around. When moles show up here, the cats usually take care of them so they normally aren't a problem for us. I kinda felt sorry for the mole having to tunnel through all the mud. Some people that I know dig up their regular potatoes with some sort of attachment they pull behind their tractors. I don't know if it is some sort of mechanical digger or what, but it merely turns over the soil and then they can easily find the potatoes. I wonder if such a thing would work with sweet potatoes? George, I bet y'all were cozy and warm with that fire going. Jen, That's a lot of dogs. Are you dog sitting? Jennifer, If you know what caused the injuries to the dog, I'd just explain it to the vet. I suppose if the vet questions why you didn't bring in the dog you could just explain you used your own holistic methods to heal the wounds? Lots of folks here that have lots of animals do a lot of the routine day-to-day doctoring of their animals (not just cows, horses and such, but farm dogs and cow dogs as well) and don't take their pets in for every injury--not if they can heal it themselves. Wherever the hair is not regrowing there probably is scar tissue. We've had that with snakebitten cats---the hair did not grow back in the snakebite area. Our cat, Shady, is 18 or 19 years old and still has a circular scar that is white flesh with no hair growing there in the same spot where he broke out in a copper-colored rash after a copperhead bit him in the abdominal/groin area when he was only a couple of years old. I just think of it as his copperhead bite scar. In the early years I did think that hair eventually would grow back there, but then it never did. Today is sunny and bright and it looks so nice outdoors, but it still is very chilly. Looks can be deceiving, I guess. The leaves on the red oaks look a brighter red this morning, so at least there's that. Everything that had yellow or golden leaves left on the trees has lost them over the last couple of days. I expect the red oaks will lose the rest of their leaves soon, although some of the red oaks have foliage that still is 95% green. It is odd how some trees are so slow to change color and lose leaves this year. There's not much consistency. The post oaks are still green too, but usually are about the last trees to lose their leaves here and some of them will hang onto their leaves all winter long before dropping them in early Spring so new leaves can emerge. We had a lot of hungry deer waiting for deer corn this morning. They remind me of cows standing near a fence waiting for the rancher to show up with cattle feed. I don't go back there and put out food for them until they've all moved far enough away from the feeding area that I feel safe. Generally, I feel safe if they've jumped the fence into the adjacent pasture and moved at least 30 to 50' away from where I feed them. Deer that are too friendly can turn dangerous in the blink of an eye, especially bucks during the rutting season, so I'm always extremely careful. I hope everyone has a good day. Dawn