I was too late. I got home late last night so I decided to move them off the bush this morning. But they had already pupated! They were munching away last night when I went to bed but when I checked on them this morning, 3 of the 4 were gone. I always mulch my pots to help retain moisture and when I did some careful poking around, I found two of them in the mulch. I'm guessing the third is there too but I didn't want to disturb them too much. I did move the fourth one into a container but I'm guessing it will pupate soon, based on it's size. I'm thinking that after a few weeks, I can carefully pull the pupae out of the mulch before I plant the bush? Strange that you haven't seen many this year Elisabeth because I'm seeing more than I have ever seen before. I've also seen the snowberry but not as often. I thought you might find this amusing .... the potted nanny berry came from Cox! It was one of the free plants given to the members a few years ago. A friend has been growing it in the pot and decided she didn't have room for it and she knows my affinity for natives so she gave it to me.

Ya'll are doing a fine job teaching me about the options and things I need to keep in mind. The house is approx. 75 ft. across the front and 32 ft. front-to-back. I'm guessing here, but my estimate would be that the house is about 20 ft. high, to the peak of the roof. At any rate it's only one story. lol Our neighbor, who lives two houses down, has a beautiful Tulip Poplar with a h-u-g-e canopy. Like was said earlier, it is sitting out in the open so it has had room to expand. This particular tree is more of a cone shape with a very wide base (bottom branches.) Great spot to put a swing for those warm summer nights. Another of my problems is that the Fall Line Freeway will be coming directly in front of the house, adding at least 2 or 3 more lanes of traffic. *SIGH* This is one reason that I would like to have a row of trees close to the roadfront property line. The front yard is about 200 ft. wide so that is a nice amount of room to add a few trees. On the property, we already have a Black cherry (which the freeway will probably get), 5 remaining Pecan trees, 2 Pink Dogwood, and a 50+ year old Southern Magnolia. Then we have shrubs/bushes such as several 6 ft. high Azaleas and Nandina (it's gotta go!) Mom has many native plants in her flower gardens including Cherokee Roses, Leather-Flower vine (reticulata), Money plant, Wild Ginger/"Little Brown Jugs", and loads of other plants.

Carol, Thanks. It was a very pretty wedding, but a very small one. They decided about 10 days ago to get married before she left for her National Guard basic training. I think she leaves next Monday. So, I think it was on Tuesday that they got the license, and then on Wednesday they made arrangements to get married at a small wedding chapel here in Marietta. That gave us Thursday through Monday a.m. to get ready for the wedding, which was scheduled for Monday afternoon. So, considering that time was short, we did really, really, really well. Best of all, since it was small and simple, it was pretty relaxed and joyful---no one was all stressed out over this or that. And, we are simply delighted by the two new additions to our family and love them dearly and already considered them family members long before the wedding. I ordered some seed from Johnny's for the fall garden, and some from Willhite, and picked up a couple of packets of Target's Burpee seed line which I was surprised to see still on display in the Denton store last week. (I can't walk past a seed rack without stopping to look which explains why I am growing 5 varieties of fall broccoli instead of 1.) It is hard to find seed here too any time other than spring, so I try to stock up then, but sometimes I forget to pick up stuff for fall. Or, even worse, I come home with seed in the spring but don't immediately put it into the seed storage box and then....when I need it in the fall, I can't find it. Of course, it always shows up in a drawer or something in the dead of winter. I use coffee cups to soak seeds, but always make sure to leave one cup for Tim so he can drink his coffee. It is so hot here that it seems insane to be planting a fall garden doesn't it, but eventually the weather does cool down. At least, I'm hoping it cools down soon. I am SO over the summer weather and ready for fall's more moderate temperatures. Our purple martins haven't been around their houses the last couple of days, so all the babies have grown up and flown the coop, so to speak. To me, that's one of the signs that summer is starting to wind down. Dawn

Well, here we go. Thanks again, everyone. Looking east from the house. You can see the "bumps" of weeds growing around the old stumps of the mature Norway Spruces that were removed in spring of 2014. I need to get those stumps removed or ground down. I'll call and get some estimates this week. Looking south. Ignore that dead Japanese Maple on the left. It was another casualty of the water issue. It's coming down when my neighbor comes back from his kayaking trips. As you can see, there's plenty of room for trees. Shade and height are sorely needed since the other trees were removed. Plus, I'm tired of mowing. By the time I'm done, I have no energy left to tend to all the weeding and other things that need to be done. Now, for the small front yard on the south side of the house, looking east again. Where the pokeweed is growing in the foreground, there used to be a huge sugar maple. It was taken down about 5 years ago and the stump was ground down. Lots of electric wires in the way and close to the road. I'd like to shade that area in the summer, but don't know what to put there. I wouldn't mind height, but the width would have to be restrained. Peonies around the foundation will be coming out and planted elsewhere. Nothing here, except for the Japanese maple that was planted in the early 1990s, needs to stay. Yeah, I'll get around to removing those weeds in the foreground too. :-) Another angle, looking west. As you can see, there's no shortage of trees around here, except for my yard, which is pretty much naked now. :-) A few more random pics of that part of the yard for some more scale.