Hi Everyonewow , am I behind or what ? I was going to cook enchiladas tonight, but its too hot out to consider turning on the oven so its shrimp cocktail (I love, love, love shrimp) and fresh farmers market veggies for me tonight. So, since Im not cooking an opportunity to try to catch up here-such a lot going on with the Idylls ! Ive loved reading of everyones plants purchases this weekend- Ive bought a ridiculous amount of plants in the last month. Glad to see Im not alone Sue, interesting that you cant find a Salvia leucantha; that plant is ubiquitous here . Arent salvias great ? I only have about 6 or 7 different varieties, some of my favorites get so huge, I just dont have room. This week I bought 4 Salvia sinolensis , which is a small (1 ft ) very tender salvia with bronze foliage and bright blue flowers. Im also trying to decide what to do about my S. Argentinean Skies , which is proving to be somewhat invasive. I guess I could dig it up and put it in a pot, which is what I had to do with the damn Cape Fuchsia.. Cant wait to see the pics of your Caribbean shed Deanne, no partying till the wee hours for me either ! That happened when I became a serious gardener- I like to get up early. My climbing Hydrangea has fallen on hard times..not quite the same issue as D had ; mine is water related, because of where it lives its very dependent on my hose-dragging , and I forget about it. This week it got up to 100 degrees plus , and the poor thing got scorched. Its hardly grown 6 inches since I got it last year. Chelone, you are one industrious lady- what a lot you have going on at the compound .I enjoyed your garage pics ! It was interesting to see the foundation and how different it looks from one here- our building codes are very earthquake oriented and there is lots of rebar involved in foundation work. Re: lawn mowing ..I have a miniscule bit of lawn left-I retired the trusty Snapper power mower and bought a Great States reel mower. I love the sound it makes ! It takes me less time to mow than it did to gas up and empty the bag on my Snapper. There is a movement away from lawns out here since we get no rain in summer and they guzzle lots of water. Cynthia, good job-you prevailed over the window box brackets ! I hear you on the 50 is closer to retirement thing ! Im thinking 60 , and then a totally mindless retirement job to pay for the health care premiums. Hope all your canine kids are doing well Nice of you to stop by Phyl.. Saucy, Brenda, Michelle, bug, eden, Wendy, Mary,Martie etc ..hi to all..and T, V, Honey, Babs??? Time to whip up that shrimp cocktail Kathy in Napa

We are pushing the limits of good sense here in north Texas planting out our tomato transplants last Sunday. (Surely these plants will be 'blessed' because we put them in on Sunday????) They certainly enjoyed the multi-inch rain on Tuesday and the mild temps since. One of our first projects was to re-do the small water feature near the back porch. The old one developed a leak and had to be replaced. The new container is in and the fountain is splashing merrily. It needs the rocks fussed with and fresh mulch, but it sounds and looks good. We've scraped up the old mulch path in the white garden....ummmmmmm good mulch. And replaced with fresh pine bark nuggets. The swing in that garden got stripped and repainted as well. Today I put in a few white petunias and the area looks so good. We sprayed our home-made bunny-be-gone on some potential munchies....now the new growth on the daylilies will last longer than a day. Every time I go outside I want to take photos of the red tulips in the front yard. I've already taken photos, but the flowers are so bright and fresh, I want to take more. LOL See the tulips on my blog, linked below. Happy spring everyone! Here is a link that might be useful: Creative Soul

I agree with you, Seil. Love the Mrs John Laing. What a beautiful color. I always go for the big blooms. Wish I still had Double Delight. It was one of my first purchases about 35 years ago. Sadly, it wore itself out. Happy to see yours is doing well.

What a TREAT! Thank you, Caroline. And thanks to Jemdandy for the hatching info. Amazing that the birds *know* which is the very best gourd! And that they put up defenses as needed (mud dams). I hope those paint chips are not from lead-based paint. Do you have a good population of bugs to keep these guys fed? We are on our second batch of Cardinal matings here 30 miles north of Chicago. DH says he heard an owl two nights ago. I hope the owl sticks around -- something is making 2" diameter holes in my lawn, and it must be nocturnal because I only see chipmunks during the day.