Thanks to everyone for all the replies! Eduarda: I'll just wear my Barbour coat (gotten from an English tea shop for my rose gardening- same kind the Queen wears), some sensible shoes, and a head scarf, when I walk our Corgi! I'll do the royal wave at people, HA! Thanks for the link about the Queen and her corgis. Pattioh: I'm sure having a dog tagging alongside me while gardening shall be a most interesting experience. If you get a shelter dog at some point please post a picture of it in your gardens. I'd love to see it! Jennypat: sounds like you have quite a place-- our kids would love it!! Do post a pic of your new to you yellow lab in that whisky barrel sometime! Eileen grow: Yup, that's what I've been doing researching and seeing this breed. I had quite a long phone call with the local corgi rescue lady out here. Have talked with two corgi breeders and many corgi owners. Definitely worth doing our homework before ours joins the family. Thanks for the post. Frogviewcottage: GREAT to hear that I got ya to post about a favorite subject of yours! Three wow... are they red/white, tris, what... Hey, got pics? You can even send me an email off list if you want with picture attachments. We're really looking forward to having a Corgi become part of our lives! Pfmastin: Would love after the children are a few years older to even get maybe a redheaded tri puppy as a second corgi. We'll see! My hands will indeed be very full with just this first one. A number for people do have more than just one it seems. That's what I've heard said about them, too-- Girlgroupgirl: Thanks for the vote! We have an outdoor cat that we hardly ever see, expect in the morning to get fed. I think it lives more at the neighbor's house these days. We used to get about neighborhood five cats that would traipse (sp?) through our yard on a regular basis, in part to use the pea gravel area before we got the slate put in for the patio done as a big litter box- yuck. We've been told that once those cats find out there is a dog in the yard, they won't be back... Klimkim: one couple I met at the local show that have had a number of corgis over the years said these dogs shed 24/7. At least I know that upfront! careytearose

Prairiemoon2 - I've not seen the High Line, but my husband was suggesting a hotel with a view of it if we go (not likely this summer) to NYC. Yes, Christopher Lloyd and Piet Oudolf are inspirations to me. I used to try to keep my garden sectioned by color scheme, strictly prohibiting yellow and white in the largest section based on pink and purple. After several years of drought, I decided to "go wild" with anything that would self-sow and survive in my full sun deer resistant garden! This is the first year with all those rudbeckia and daisies! I'm happier with the results. Ianna - a stocking, of course! I thought about organza bags since I have a few that held jewelry. I have salvia 'Caradonna' and it self-sows. Right now, it is just foliage as it bloomed the first time in April here and was cut back. My favorite achilleas are 'Pomegranate' and 'Terracotta'. 'Pomegranate was just cut back this morning and 'Terracotta' is slow to bloom this year as I had to divide and move it from an area that had finally gotten some shade. It should be back big time next year. Oudolf's blue sages in the Chicago gardens (I've only seen photos) look like a river. My nemorosa sages (I have several varieties other than 'Caradonna') bloom early here in April and don't rebloom again with such drama in the heat of our summer. I love hedges as backdrops! We do have a mixed evergreen hedge on the east side, but is set back from my gardens with enough width to allow me to drive the truck around the outside of the garden. Each end of the meadow garden has "bookends" of shrubs/trees to separate and define it from the other gardens. We also are growing a holly hedge in the gravel garden that we created last year. In another 2 years, it should be a solid wall of green. There is also a hedge of buddliea and a low hedge of rosemary in the gravel garden. There is a hedge of oakleaf hollies, osmanthus fragrans, gold mops and cryptomeria that separates and backdrops the waterfall patio garden to provide privacy. Cameron

Thank you for the comments everyone!! :) I will have to take better pics next year but we do have "bones" and several bushes and trees throughout. The top of the front hill has Dogwoods outlining the top and a Magnolia (which is why I picked whites/shades of pink to compliment it which I hope it will next year) we do have a Rose of Sharon "hedge" in the back and we have several crape myrtles(3 or 4 we bought this past year), magnolias and such. I would never have evergreen trees or hedges tho, I strongly dislike them. The people who own my grandmothers farm put up a row of them to block out any views from the road and first thing I'd do if I bought it, would knock those suckers down and plant some nice Peonies or Lilacs and put in a nice garden. (thats a rant of mine lol) As for the hills, I would love slopes for drainage and such but these are a pain to weed. and I'm not going to lie,l I am using them sorta as a test of combining colors and shades of the same color...I am still learning every day!! The flat part in the back, if it was up to me, it be a path of gardens throughout leading to different areas like the vegetable raised beds or the tree/table where we sit and spend time outdoors. I am very OCD and I get anxiety from also not being organized or really planning something but Cottage Gardening really feels more free. Of course, I plan and replan but I always want it to remain an expression of me. It is my relaxation from the world, from work, from stress. It has saved me last year when I was so depressed and lost. I mean, I was just out of FIGHT. One day, I just decided to weed my old herb garden (my grandma had been badgering me since Spring last year) and suddenly I was out there everyday instead of worrying about my paranoia or worrying where to go in life. At the approval of my parents to start weeding out the hills and gardens my mom had and take over, it was like I was rediscovering myself with each weed pulled and every new plant dreamed up in my head. (lol thats just me)These gardens are great and I will keep at it but I can't wait to have my own small farm/house and completely have control over every aspect of it!! I will miss so many of these plants tho and will be smuggling seeds to start new ones when that time comes! LOL ~Michael

LL - I'm sure you've already researched yellow jackets, but I did some checking for my own interest. The link below is to one good source that I think is probably local to your area (?) It doesn't emphasize as much as some of the others the need to have a professional do the spraying if you choose to spray. After reading some of the articles, I certainly wouldn't want to tackle spraying a nest myself! It was interesting to read that the colonies die out each winter and the nest disintegrates. New nests are formed each year (I didn't find an explanation of where the new queen comes from though! Migrates maybe...?) It was interesting to read about control possibilites by trapping the queens in spring to reduce or eliminate populations later in the summer. That might be worth doing. Since we don't have much sun in the backyard, all our veggies are grown either in the flower beds in the front garden or in pots on the driveway. We don't have a large veggie garden but enough to be fun and useful. Garlic is quite ornamental in the garden when it produces the curly scapes (which are tasty as a stir-fried side-dish!) DH tucks in garlic all over the place wherever he finds a bit of bare ground in the fall. Chives are very ornamental when they flower so they fit nicely in my 'pretty in pink' driveway border. Lettuce we grow in pots because it's unattractive once it bolts. It's easier to cut it down in the pots. We don't grow cooking onions but the little green onions grow very nicely in pots. So do baby carrots. I've grown leeks in pots too - it's easy to start them in just a bit of soil at the bottom and then keep adding soil to the pot as they grow - much easier to do all that in the pot than it is to keep hilling them up in a trench in the ground in the garden! Peas do beautifully in big pots. I plant at least 5 different varieties each spring in April. I choose the varieties based on days-to-maturity, selecting ones that range form 50-70+ days to maturity so I get a long season of production. 6' bamboo poles in a teepee arrangement makes good support for the peas. I use 8' bamboo poles for the pole beans, which also do great in pots, but would be ornamental in the garden as well. Since the peas finish earlier than beans and look ugly and need to have the foliage ripped out by late June-early July, beans would be the choice to grow in the ground as a productive ornamental, leaving the peas to be grown in pots. The pots I use are the big gray plastic storage pots with holes drilled in the bottom for drainage - they're cheap, can hold a lot of soil, and look not-too-bad :-) Deep window-box type pots make good containers for things like baby carrots, green onions and leeks. I've never had any luck getting tomatoes to do well in pots. I always put those in the herb bed on the side of the driveway. I move the location for the tomatoes around to prevent disease build-up from year to year. I've tried growing cucumbers and watermelons in pots but they weren't happy for me. Zuchinni did well (I think it would do well anywhere!) Green peppers did so-so. The big disadvantage of pots is watering the cursed things! I keep resolving to have fewer pots but it never happens... Now that DH is retired, he has taken over the 'veggie garden' and doesn't seem to mind the watering - he keeps adding more pots... Putting the veggies with the ornamentals should be useful and fun for your mother. Definitely go for it! You should be able to do a lot of it without a lot of digging up of new areas; just tuck things in wherever there's a bit of space, unless your mother wants a huge veggie garden. Some pictures: peas and garlic in very early spring (garlic in pots is planted in the fall and stored in the unheated garage for the winter): A month later (mid-May): The veggie garden on the other side of the driveway late-May: Young carrots, green onions and lettuce: Peas ready for harvest: Part of the harvest: Bean towers are so ornamental as well as productive. I love them! Here is a link that might be useful: Yellow Jackets