Some of my native plant friends (not I) have had their gardens written up in the local newspapers, but not in a magazine. Congratulations to you! I subscribe, so I will be pleased to see your wonderful plants. It is a way of sharing what you love.

Don't forget to plant a border of lettuce. Some of them are gorgeous. I used Lollo Rossa (a very dark red) and Buttercrunch and Red Sails last year and I loved the way it looked plus I put them right outside the back door in a near flower bed. Green onions could be interspersed for a taller spikey contrast. Spinach would look pretty too. Another is Bull's Blood beets which are good for the tops as well as the roots. I think peppers is a very good choice. They look good right up to frost. A beautiful pole bean is Cherokee Trail of Tears. It has a pink bloom and the pods turn purple. Picked young it makes a very tasty, stringless green bean. I want to congratulate you on wanting to grow some edibles. You will be amazed what you can grow tucked in here and there. Another thing to grow in large pots is carrots. The ferny tops look very pretty in the middle of some vining petunias.

FWIW, I'm holding my yearly maintanace contract in front of me. Here are excerpts from it, 'Contract starts at 03/15/2007 and ends on 12/15/07 and includes: -Spring Clean Up (definition blah-blah-blah will be done on a week of March 15), -Fine Lawns (mowing, trimming and bagging on a weekly basis), -Residue (paper and debris removal from the beds, walkways and driveway on a weekly basis), -Pruning (pruning of all shrubs and small trees will be done two times a year to maintain neat and manicured appearance with the use of mechanical trimmers. If hand pruning is required or requested it will be done at additional cost [I love this job and do it myself with a pleasure]), -Edging (will be done two times per year), -Weed control (all FOUNDATION beds [only] shall be kept free of weeds by use of cultivation), -Cutters (cleaning of all gutters will be done once in a late fall), -Fall Clean Up (definition blah-blah-blah...Leaves removal on a weekly basis. Leaves will be put in the woods. Final fall clean up will be done in December), -Extra costs (This contract does not include any materials unless specified. Any other work not described in this contract will be an additional cost. Labor charges for additional work are $35/hr per man. For fwork of more than 6 hrs, day rates will apply: $350 per day per man), -Cost (Cost per month: $400 plus tax for nine months)' Considering the size of my property and number of beds need to be edged, weeded and otherwise tended, I think I have a fairly good deal. The same crew of 3 man (all workers, no boss) coming to the property every Tuesday and spend between 50 to 55 minutes to perform all contractual tasks. From time to time, for the small cash fee they also do some things which is not in the contract such as moving some shrubs or rolling few rocks from one place to another etc. Of course, mulch itself and spreading it is an extra. All in all my yearly spending on maintanance amounts to about $5300-5500 if I not skeep on mulch.

Actually I had it occur twice from the same bag AFTER we purchased it. Oddly enough it not in the actual bag but in the container we store the dog food in for easier access. The maggots may have been another type of worm since they looked really small. Oddly enough the suspected and mysterious bugs were only in the cup we used to scoop out the dog food. There were no maggots in the actual dog food itself so we thought it was just in the cup. A few days later again they were in just the cup. I was not as alarmed as my girlfriend was because they were really little and in the cup. She wanted to throw the entire bag away while I was still just trying to figure out what was going on. In order to fix this problem without throwing the dog food away, the container we have is now in the freezer. Since only the container would get them and knowing there was no way they could get in inside the actual kibbles and in the freezer, that is what we have done. The girlfriend is happy because there are no more bugs, I am happy that we did not have to waste the bag, but not sure how the puppies feel about the cold dog food. They do still gobble it up right away so the need to even warm it up or leave at room temperature is not needed. Hope this helps....although the case is still out about where the heck they got in there. I will add to the post if they make it into the freezer. ;)