Hi there, I started doing the same buckwheats you mentioned as well as some others and this is the 3rd season for some. The St. Catherine's Lace are already about 4 feet tall and came through winter with all their leaves in tact as well as buds for this season's flowers. I have one variety that I believe is fasciculatum and is about 4 feet tall with pom pom type flowers that last all season and start out light pink and go to white and then rust. Since I started planting the buckwheats I seem to be seeing more of the smaller butterflies like the blues and grays. This winter I also tried covering some of the less hardy plants like the lantanas and they did very well so I have added a bunch more. Actually, the ones I didn't cover survived the winter cold well also. I have worked so hard the past couple of weeks digging and composting and weeding and planting so I also hope it will be a great butterfly summer. Last week I saw my first Gulf Frit which is a record for me as the earliest I have ever seen one in the past was July and some years not until one or two passed through in the fall. Like you I am probably going to grow some food for me too. The money is scarcer and scarcer and I get hungry too. I was blessed to have my now 12 year old german shepherd still with me which is an answer to prayer since he has bad arthritis in his knees and needs meds to be able to walk. But he is a trooper like his old man. (I flatter myself!) My pipe vine has definitely taken off big time and is coming up everywhere. And I have a great supply of passionvines of the caerulea persuasion. Where do you get your porter weed and what uses the cuphea? By the way, Misssherry, the lead you gave me on securing Sonset Lantana paid off very well. I got the plants on Saturday in great condition and already planted them. Now I realize that the flowers that I have been admiring in my lantana beds were the ones I got through you years ago. I couldn't tell because I planted them all together. I also decided to try a couple of others they had too so we'll see how they do. Thanks so much. Murray

Marsha, Can't really tell if those are 30s repro prints, colors are similar, but I don't think I would use 30s prints in my version of SBS. I would use medium pastels not super pale pastels. I love the border! And figured out that it is probably two 3-inch 9-patch blocks, one on top of the other consisting of HST patches, solid white patches, and 1 center square in each block. So simple, but so pretty! I may be getting the book at some point. But I'm not sure if I would make an entire bed quit, maybe a wall hanging. I would give myself lots of leeway as to how often I sew a block. And if I didn't like a certain block, I would feel free to substitute with another block. I'm usually not hung up on reproducing something exactly, but changing it a bit here and there to suit my taste and color placement. And I have a trained puppy to snoop out the Quilt Police. ;o) Teresa

It would seem I'm a bit younger than most here. I'm 30, grew up in a home with one sister, and parents that were relatively frugal. My father was the more frugal one, avoiding debt, not wanting to spend money on anything he didn't need. He didn't have much of a reason, just that debt was a bad thing to have, for several reasons. We never went without, though, taking family trips each year to various places around the country. We always had good food, nice home and vehicles, etc. I started a summer job when I was 14, then an afterschool / full time job through high school and college. I started with my current employer 10 years ago, making less than the rest of my peers. Living on my own, and making more than I ever had before, I thought it would be wise to start furnishing my apartment and buy a brand new car, despite having a perfectly good vehicle already. This new car wasn't designed for Colorado winters, so I kept the other car as well as the new one. Along with that brand new car, I got brand new insurance, which was quite a bit. This all stretched me pretty thin, living paycheck to paycheck. At one point, my company was going through layoffs, and I was concerned that I would be one of those laid off. I was pretty worried about how I was going to pay my bills, and whether or not I was going to lose my vehicle and whatnot. My father payed off my car for me, and even though I didn't get laid off, I continued to pay him what the loan payments would have been. Bonuses and other extra payments went to pay off the car a couple of years earlier than I was scheduled. This opened my eyes to what could happen if I "lived the American way", and bought whatever I wanted, at whatever price I wanted. At some point, I could be in this situation again, and I don't want to have to worry if something should happen to my income. I paid off all of my debt, and then started finding ways to live more frugally. I started shopping around for the best deals, taking things that others didn't want anymore, and didn't buy things I didn't need. When I wanted something, I usually waited at least a week, at which time I rarely wanted whatever it was in the first place. I was able to direct deposit money into two accounts, so I gave myself an allowance each paycheck, with the rest going to a savings account. The allowance was enough to cover all bills, and still have some left over for entertainment. I also started contributing to a 401k, and each pay raise translated to an increase in the percent going to the 401k. After a few years, my winter car died on me, so I found another winter vehicle for around $1000 to get me around. I did this a couple of times over the next 5 years. All the while, I was still finding ways to lower my outgoing expenses. After those 5 years, I had enough to put down 20% on a house. I found one that had a low mortgage, even though I could qualify for much more. I readjusted my allowance, and continued finding ways to lower expenses in my house. My father never did much in the way of home or auto work himself. He always paid someone else to, so I don't have much knowledge in that regard. That hasn't stopped me from using the internet and friends to figure out how to do things myself, which has saved me countless dollars. I finally paid cash for a good all-use pickup, so I won't have to worry about vehicles for quite a while. All through this, I've continued to build my savings and emergency fund. Once the economy went down the crapper, nothing really changed for me. I still lived my life how I had before, quite comfortably. All of my friends, who have continued to make more than me, are struggling to pay their bills. Throughout the years, they gave me crap for being cheap, yet look at us now. I have no stress, as far as money is concerned. I have over 9 months of living expenses in a true emergency account, am funding a 401k and Roth IRA, and managed to save enough for my honeymoon cruise to Antarctica next year. If something were to happen, my fiancee and I would be in a decent position to handle what occurs. We have everything we want, and need, and are able to do basically what we want. If I screw up my timecard, and don't get paid, I don't have to worry about waiting an extra week for my money. If something breaks in my house, I know I can take care of the problem, one way or the other. Once we have children, I know we will be able to meet their needs, at least financially. Once we retire, hopefully we will be comfortable at that point, too. Ultimately, what I am getting out of being frugal is peace of mind, with regards to money. It's also nice to see just how far I can stretch something, how many different incarnations an item can turn into before it is truly unusable.

I did, until RRD took mine out. Imagine 'Mme Isaac Pereire' but more climber-ish, and with healthier (for me, at least) foliage, and that's basically 'Mme de Sevigne'. I had mine in the center row of a mixed bed, and spread the canes wide, with support from some tree branches I stuck into the ground. I've read the phrase "self-supporting climber" used about this rose, and that's pretty accurate, except that when blooming, the canes can be too heavy and would appreciate some support. I think it would do well against a fence. For me, it bloomed in two flushes without pause from late May through about mid-July, after which time I shortened the flowering laterals while dead-heading. By the cool-down in late August, it was blooming again. New canes from the root tended to emerge after the first flush, and sometimes they'd bloom in the Autumn flush, but generally they'd be next year's flowering canes. This rose was given full-sun here, and wouldn't get any blackspot until after the Autumn flush, say late September through early October, by which time everything in the garden was getting ready for the first frost. This was without any fungicides at all -- even before I was using potassium bicarbonate mixes. Of course, the caveat there is that that's how it grew here -- your mileage may vary. Overall, I'd highly recommend it. :-) ~Christopher