Ooooh, lucky you, Gardenweed! That 'Hot Papaya' looks beautiful, and is on my wishlist too. Thank you for the seed offer, I will send you an email to get your mailing address for the SASE. The only cool colors in my garden are in the herb bed, because it seems that most herbs have lavender, white, or pale pink flowers, and I absolutely love having fresh herbs all summer, and drying my own to use all winter! I just finished harvesting thyme, and there's oregano in the dehydrator right now. My perennial beds are pretty much entirely red, orange, and yellow. A couple of peachy pinks have snuck in, and a few things that were supposed to be red, but turned out dark pink (like my Dianthus, LOL), and some really dark purple/burgundy/black things. I'm just drawn to bright, cheerful colors though, and haven't intentionally planted any pink, purple, or blue. When we first moved into this house, and it had nothing but a dirt yard, I carefully selected and purchased plants that were red, yellow or orange, but the red Bee Balm bloomed lavender, the Hibiscus syriacus 'Freedom' that was supposed to be red, turned out to be purple, the Sedum 'Autumn Joy' was actually 'Neon', which is bright pink, LOL. I gradually gave those things away and replaced them with things more suited to the color palette I have selected, but some things, like the Verbascum 'Southern Charm' blended well enough that I let them stay : ) You could say I follow a "gardening for dummies' plan. If I keep the color palette small and simple, than I don't have to worry as much about where it gets planted, because it should work just about anywhere in the garden.

Thanks:) 'Pink Lipstick' huh? That sounds like that might be it!! If this is the one with dark pink flowers it must be. I'll google it after a bit. Maybe your strawberries would be happier growing with a ground cover like mine are doing? They (and my Iris)seem to love it so I'm letting them! It's also the only place I haven't been ripping out that awful Sedum. Sure it's a nice Sedum with pretty flowers and all, but it just shouldn't be planted in a mixed border/garden :O Thanks Karen, I love my Lavender plants and the ease of caring for them. All they need from me is a pruning a couple times a year; every other year or so a pretty hard one in spring to keep from getting woody centers. Next spring will have to whack the 'Vera' back because they are WAY large again and it was only the year before last they got it really good. They (the 4 plants) are 2 plants planted side by side (abt. 2' on center) and over the years they have basically grown into 2 shrubs. In flower (I just went and measured :)) they are 5.5' wide!

Hi Laura, I was wondering if you have done any more work with your flagstone. I stopped today at a stone yard to drool over all their pretty rocks and get some prices. I fell in love with a stone they call Pinola and another one called Crab Orchard. They were both 21 cents per lb, but the Pinola goes further because it is not as thick. I think it averages 1.5 to 2.5 inches. I would think that would be fine for a pathway, especially if I first laid a base layer of screening. If I get the okay from dh I think I'm going to order some. Any pics of your recent progress? Here is a link to the yard I went to. Pretty nice website with lots of great pictures, calculators, projects, etc. ~Betsy Here is a link that might be useful: Clicky

You've got a lot of space up there, the plates with kids' handprints would look cute and homey (but not country cluttered like before), the apothecary jars sound great too. But I'm not one for putting stuff up where I can't get to easily to dust, but can still see the dust (and glass jars would show it). If you want to do crown on the cabinets, you can order it from the cabinet manufacturer, or you could put real oak up there. That's what I'm doing - forget how much it was at HD, but it's pretty easy to match the color, it looks like a Natural (pretty colorless) stain, maybe a touch of Cherrywood gel if you need it redder, on red oak would match your cabinets. They look the same color as mine, here's what I did (molding not all stained and up yet - have been working on other things in the house). Island cabinets - added oak b/t upper and lower cabinets and in front of recessed cabinet (bathroom vanity) Before After (Natural on red oak, 1 coat brushed on semigloss waterbased poly, 2nd coat brushed on and then wiped off excess) Added oak shoe to hide gap at wall - again, just Natural stain and water-based (wiped on a thick coat) poly - sorry this is the best photo I had showing the shoe and cabinets together, I think I got the color and gloss (semigloss) pretty close Added a piece above and below fridge cabinet to fill gaps (cabinet had been placed with 6" gap under it, we lowered 3" and filled the gaps, will be adding crown). This is only red oak with Natural stain, no poly yet (will poly when do the crown). The idea (not to go all the way to ceiling, except for over fridge and corner cabinet that are higher). Mockup not stained. Since you already have crown on wall, you want to keep your cabinet crown lower too. HTH