My spading fork - best thing for digging big plants with soil intact, and large clumps of any kind of plant or flower you want to thin. It spades, it cultivates (by turning it in the soil) and it turns compost. I can use it for forking manure hay and tilling in around the flowers and veggies, and without chopping up the worms and frogs when I do. I really digs out Bermuda grass and runners. Great for prying up rocks and bricks when I want to move them. Birds use it for a perch when I am not using it. (tee hee). If I was just starting out, that would be the tool I would get first. With a good sharp, sturdy shovel and my Dutch Hoe, they are the backbone of my most used tools. Then my hand tools - An old garden hoe (80+ yrs old that has long since lost it's handle that I found buried when getting pinestraw at an old house). They don't make hoes like that anymore. Awesome old hoe. The other hand tool that I don't know what to call it- it has a narrow hoe on one side and a three-tined fork on the other. ~Annie

With this being only my second year to grow from seed with any kind of seriousness (not counting any year's before that as much more than dabbling), it's too soon to have many favorites, but here goes: Gazanias - took a while to start blooming but are the only annual, other than the African Daisies that are still alive and blooming. Petunias - Loved the 'Prism Sunshine' this year, a real blooming machine. Added 'Alladin Orange' to next year's list. Portulaca - Doesn't need watering or deadheading, and comes in a wide variety of colors. Profusion Zinnias - I've had horrible mildew issues with most varieties, but not a speck on my 'Profusion Apricot' this year. Took a long time to start blooming, but then what a show! Marigolds - I almost forgot about them, but they are also blooming machines, and come in all of my favorite flower colors - red, yellow, and orange, and a must have around the vegetable garden. Don't know if they really repel any pests or not, but who cares. Tomatoes - Out of the nine varieties that I actually got tomatoes from, I'm probably not repeating a single one!!! Yes, I loved the taste of Cherokee Purple, but I have seeds for at least 40 different varieties, so I feel obligated to try new ones next year. There will be more dual purpose tomatoes next year, ones that are good slicers, but also good for sauce making, and less cherries (4 of the nine were cherries, when one or two would have been plenty - I've given away bucketfuls!) Carrots - The first year I did it all wrong, and waited to the end of the season and harvested them all. They quickly became rubbery and limp in the fridge. This year, I planted them earlier, and have been picking them as I need them all summer. Sure they are cheap at the store, but there's no waste. I'm not buying a whole bag when I need one or two. Plus mine are thicker, longer, fresher, and more colorful! Peppers - I will grow more of them next year, several new to me varieties, but the one that will be a repeat is Revolution. It outperformed King of the North by a mile - thicker walls, earlier and more productive. There will also be some type of paprika, homemade paprika powder is way better than storebought! Peas - first year to grow them, and they will definitely be back Sweet Basil - I liked it best out of all of the varieties I grew this year, and is there really such a thing as too much basil? Bonnie

My last name is ''Large'', just like the size. I try sometimes to pronounce it ''Large-a'' long A sound, but it isn't french, it is just stupid. I tried to make my hubby take my last name, but he wasn't having it. My ob/gyn is a nice woman named dr. cave, my foot doctor is a nice man named dr. handcock, and I had a former employee who married a man with the last name of ''head'', his first name was Richard, so you know his nickname. No joke. One friend of mine had the last name of ''Bugg'', and another co-worker of mine is ''Small''.

@shelayne he's darn lucky he's so cute because otherwise he might not have made it this far! ;) @raee the cabinet was rather tricky for my builder and took a bit of finagling, so I feel fortunate that it worked out as well as it did. It's not something I would have felt comfortable trying to do myself! But then again, I'm a chicken too :)