Hmmm, let's see so you all are telling me that I need to work on...edges! LOL! The funny thing is that I trench edged all of the beds this spring (before I could plant anything - similar to when Donna suggested). Obviously I either need to do a better job in the spring or plan on doing it again near the middle of summer. For those of you who trench edge, how often do you do it? One thing I realized immediately after I posted and went scanning through the entire thread is that I don't have a very good "detail" eye. I see these beds every day, love tending to the plants, but am not very good at standing back and evaluating them overall. (Probably why I never think to add edging.) For example, I realized on the side yard shot that I have an ugly plastic pot sitting at the base of the dogwood. I moved it there this spring when I was splitting some perennials and put some mums and coreopsis in it "temporarily". And there it still sits - and it's ugly! Thanks for your comments and politely pointint out the need for edging. Just the fact that all of you pointed that out makes it a priority for me this fall! Thanks. And if any of you have any specific edging techniques/styles that you've either had great succes with or think would fit well with this garden, feel free to suggest. I may go search for past threads on that as I'm pretty sure that I remember seeing some. Terrene, your question about the bee balm - it's Jacob Cline and by this time every year (espeially with the last two weeks of 100 degree temps we've had), it is just fried and totally overtaken by powdery mildew - but I still love it. And also your comment about the red rose bush is a valid concern. It is several inches above the window already. However, that window is actually into the garage, so I'm OK with it. Thank you all again for the comments and critiques, Lauren

My suggestion for putting the prep sink on the island facing the view and putting the clean-up sink/DW on the other island was made just to get the clean-up zone off of the island with the view. You can't leave the DW where it is anyway because it blocks up the path between the eating area and kitchen and you don't have enough room to open the DW door and stand beside/infront of it and to empty it. I'm not sure that you have enough width to have a middle island. You note that you have 36" aisles on either side of the island. Is that 36" cabinet to cabinet or counter to counter? Counter overhang can be anywhere from 3/4" to 1 1/4" so in EACH aisle you could lose 1 1/2" to 2 1/2" of aisleway. A 2' wide island isn't wide enough for a DW and clean-up sink to be placed comfortably. At one spot you also have wall-ovens placed and noted 36" aisle space but did you take into account the space that the oven handles will take. And the amount of space required for you to open the door and stand in front of it to take out your cookie sheet/roasting pan, etc. will be uncomfortably shallow with those measurements. What I see is a problem with aisleways widths making the middle island not feasible. The left hand wall - does that window look out onto anything important and does the size have to stay? What about putting the DW and clean-up sink there instead. Your kitchen is 12' wide so you need 50" for counter space (24" + 1' overhang x 2) plus 42' per aisle (which is comfortable for most people) for a total of 84" for a grand total of 134" of necessary width. You have 120" available - mmmmmm. An island will only work if you get rid of either the top counter run with the stove or the bottom counter run with the range and then you have to find someplace to put that stuff. I'd get rid of the middle island. But JMHO.

Angie, I just mean that I wouldn't need symmetry on the range wall and that I could have a smaller base cabinet to the right of the range so that I could have a vent that clears the window (it could be easily removed, which is why I didn't draw it in and it's got odd dimensions). And, yes, we *could* vent out onto the deck. Chances are, if my husband was out grilling (his Big Green Eggs are there) I wouldn't be using the range. And that's probably the path of least resistance since in the 1990's they removed the brick veneer back there and replaced it with corrugated tin panels ::scratches head:: Marcolo, the area to the left of the Subzero is 48" wide. I think it works better as cabinets/storage - or maybe as the microwave zone. I can live without an EIK. And a peninsula...might end up being a "barrier peninsula".

so i called lowes and mentioned the scratch and they offered me 15% off or a new machine. i took the 15% off...i don't know if they could have even ordered another one for me but i def wasn't going through another delivery process just bec of a scratch on the machine. i'm very happy with the 15% off. then i called the 3rd party delivery co's guy i had been dealing with all along...(way back i asked abt compensation for the hassle from lowes they said its the delivery company's responsibility so at the time i asked this guy i was dealing with and he said he def would be giving me something.) so i called and asked for compensation he said he'll get back to me...that he has to speak to lowes etc so i mentioned that i got the 15% from lowes for the scratch bec i never mentioned the scratch to him so i didnt' want him to be confused. and told him that when i asked lowes abt compensation for the hassle they said the delivery co is responsible. anyway he called back and offered $75 in lowes gift cards. I tried saying its so little, i'm getting that much back for a scratch and this was a huge hassle and totally avoidable had the delivery guys not dumped the machine and ran...if they would've just read the instructions they could have done it properly, and then on top of it they lost the feet etc that it was not a mistake, it was laziness and negligence etc...but he still said all he can do was $75 so i said fine... lol so assuming the above comes through it will cost me $356! still would not want the hassle of the feet, not worth the aggravation but the scratch is prob worth it ;) on a side note, when i called the delivery guy i've been dealing with extensivley, i introduced myself saying "hi, i'm the lady with the rubber feet" haha