well...I went out to the pond today as most of the ice has melted. Unfortunately, every critter that was unaccounted for is dead except 2 frogs I havent found yet. I'm sure they are dead somewhere. I am def investing in a net this year. So much crap found its way into the pond..turns out the white stuff was a piece of newspaper, a piece of burger wrapper, and what looked like a wet napkin. I'm pretty ticked..none of it was from me..was all stuff from litterbugs. There is also a plastic bag stuck way up in a tree where I cant reach it. The house next door has been vacant, and I suppose some of the crap came from over there. So much litter is in that yard, plus their garbage cans blew over awhile back into the backyard..guess they didnt take that last haul out b4 they moved. I hope there arent any bags in my pond!!! God, people really p!ss me off. Someone threw an empty vodka bottle in my driveway the other day..what is wrong with people??? I need to move out into the middle of nowhere so I dont have to deal with this anymore. Sorry about the rambling..guess I needed to vent. BUT white stuff mystery solved. No fish living. I have decided to empty & clean the whole thing come warmer weather, and start all over again. Maybe I will take some algae mixed with wet leaves from the pond, make balls out of it and whip it at people as they litter by my house..right at their heads..that could be fun. I could wear camo and hide in the bushes, lmao. Sorry to hear about the fires..kinda odd it happened twice. But I'm not gonna get involved in all that lol.

It's wonderful to hear from someone who has acquired a new garden and isn't planning to sod over it - that's a fear we all share when we think about the eventuality of selling our homes. So, welcome to Garden Web - this is a great resource for gardeners; please come visit the New England forum as well. I agree with the recommendation above, the DiSabato-Aust book is a good one, really comprehensive although sometimes a little overwhelming. You should remember that you don't really need to do everything perfectly in order to have a nice garden; I tend to forget that when I read that sort of book. Leaving your perennials standing over winter is mostly a matter of taste; the exceptions are that subshrubs (like your perovskia, lavender, and most herbs) *need* to be left and should not be cut back below the place where new foliage emerges in spring and, at the opposite extreme, plants like peony and phlox, which tend to have problems with fungus, mold, or viruses, should be cut back as soon as the leaves turn brown in fall. Missing a few that should be cut back is not a big deal, next summer you'll get to know these more and the worst that can happen is you'll have some imperfect foliage. Cutting back your subshrubs too early or too severely might mean that you have to replace some plants. Aside from reading up on perennials this winter, consider starting a map of your garden. You can begin by taking measurements and plotting up the beds on graph paper (4 square per inch is best). As you learn the plants that are growing, and as you become more addicted to gardening, you'll be able to use these maps to plan additions and replacements. Congratulations on your new garden - hope you keep us posted as you learn more about what's growing there.

Best to get dead stuff off the asparagus in the fall so the asparagus beetle has no place to overwinter. This post was edited by laceyvail on Tue, Jan 27, 15 at 5:54

The tree is down, finally. The first guy I called, who has done work for us before, kept cancelling. So we called another guy that pulled through for us. There is no way we could have done it ourselves. He had to make cuts, look the tree over and cut again. Also, there was no way it was going to come down by pulling it. The tree guy tried after a few of his cuts and it wouldn't budge. So I'm very glad we didn't attempt either. He charged $50 which is a deal, we gave him $70 because he also cut some of it up for us and was a great guy. I think he deserved more but I don't wear the pants. I thank Marie for the "hijacking" of the thread because I looooove what Mike created. So beautiful! I'm going to steal some of his ideas for my stump and remaining wood. Thank you again everyone!