Thanks Mary. This cool damp spring has been good for the garden here. Another example of thinking about/using shaping the negative space to add impact is, I've found, to use the shape of one bed to determine the shape of another one, by making the intervening grass or mulch path or lawn a constant width so the two beds 'fit' together like pieces of a jigsaw. That's what we did when we made what we call 'the moat bed' - because it runs along the top of the ditch by the road in front of the house. The outer edge of the bed is a straight line running parallel to the road at the top of the ditch. The inner edge was created by measuring an approx. 3' distance from the main front bed. The resulting 'moat bed' is very narrow due to the space limitations but its tight link to the larger bed, the smooth line of the grass path, and the merging with the driveway border at the south end turned several discrete beds into one linked whole that has a lot of impact even in the fall/winter bare seasons. Of course, its maximum impact is when there is a big floral show going on :-) This show has just finished for the year but you can see that the bed and path layout/connections add value and impact to the picture: The same sort of shaping the negative space helped my neighbour to the north link an smooth-edged kidney-shaped island bed to a wavy-edged perimeter bed in the back yard. I suggested she measure a constant distance (in her case it's about 8' or so) from the island bed to the perimeter one. The original 'wavy' edge of the perimeter bed was then adjusted to be a smooth curve so now the lawn sweeps smoothly around between the island bed and the perimeter bed . The island is now both a separate feature but also closely linked to the rest of the garden space, and the whole feels much more relaxed. This post was edited by woodyoak on Wed, Jun 12, 13 at 11:05

Oh boy! Now you all opened a can of worms..lol Just beautiful Howard, Nik and Paul! I never saw orchids like that before and I am always reading up on them every day...I have about 40. Many in budding and flowering stage..They are such a welcome to the dead of winter. Thank you for sharing.. Mike This post was edited by meyermike_1micha on Wed, Feb 19, 14 at 21:48

Tom tell your wife the windows/panel she made are beautiful. You sure have a unique and probably 'one of a kind' bumper. The trim is very pretty, also. Thank you for sharing your wife's great talent. Jane

At 2.5 years old with only the cleaner, the floors are exactly where they should be: a little beaten up, a little dry but other wise fully functional. At this point, you will need to do your repairs (hands and knees with sand paper and coloured finish) and add the maintenance oil to everything. And oiled floor can require the recoat (maintenance oil) as often as every year or as infrequently as every 5 years. It all depends on the first application and the abuse since then and the climate. It sounds like the floors are well used and well loved. Excellent. They are exactly where they should be (visually). The recoat with maintenance oil is in order for the whole thing. Colour patches to be done as needed. I will let the boots-on-the-ground type of guys answer the "how to" side of things. Ultimate Hardwood is the best one for this job. Post photos if you can so he can see what is going on with your floors.