My plants are bought from all over. The big box stores are fine because I usually know what I am looking for and what will do well in my garden. I have my favorite mail order places for unusual stuff and for old garden roses that I can't find around here. I tend to plant things fairly close together only because I am a plantaholic who has NO willpower. I figure I can always fit in one more plant. I just have to be creative about it sometimes. I try to leave a bit more room for my roses. I have an automatic sprinkler system that I would love to convert to drip. Right now I can't afford it. Maybe next year. My watering schedule seems to do fine. Sometimes I have to go out and hand water a few plants and that is just fine with me. My soil was pretty darn good to begin with. The areas where I dug up the lawn were pretty compacted but on the whole I can't complain. It is deep, dark, easy to slide a shovel into and teeming with worms. I add stuff to it continually. I do have my problem areas that I am amending via lasanga method. My MIL has horses so I get all the manure I want. I have a small compost bin and I amend the soil with coffee grounds as well. I also started adding alfalfa tea to my roses this year. WOW! That stuff is great! I have been pretty good at pruning and keeping things clean. A little here and a little there. Some prima donna plants get more care than others. I live in the same town as Nancy and the wind here pretty much sucks. It is not a gentle breeze but a strong wind that makes it miserable to be outside at times. Our summers are cool. Maybe too cool sometimes. However, on the whole I think that my climate is great for gardening. I can pick lemons off a tree at one end of the yard and raspberries and blueberries at the other. I can gather an arm load of roses and cosmos for the table centerpiece and stop to inspect the bougainvillea on my way inside. How great is that! As for the bugs. I have the good guys and the bad guys. Usually, as soon as I see the aphids I start seeing the ladybugs. There seems to be a pretty good balance. I also have birds GALORE in my garden due to six mature Toyon bushes that are planted in the common area right behind my backyard fence. It sounds like an aviary in my back yard. The birds nest in the bushes, eat the berries in the winter, and the bees work the flowers heavily in the summer. The birds come down from the bushes and feast on all the bugs in the my garden and I get to watch from the window. Of couse they also feast on my raspberries but that is another story. ~Melissa

It's a shopping jungle out there (even here in the middle of nowhere), especially when you add in a lot of travel time and have a number of stops. I don't know how anyone can use shopping for "therapy" or "sport", and I've never been bored enough to think shopping will cure it. I go to Wal-Mart 7 a.m. Sunday morning (or earlier) a couple times a month - and avoid it any other time of the day, or day of the week, to avoid crowds. Groceries - Wednesday - 8 a.m. - best meat bargains and the clearance shelves are loaded. General shopping - Every other month - and when it's "shopping month", I only go out the first week and the last week of that month - and often only go out once because I'm a great list maker. I agree with Annie - with home food storage you can "shop" at home. These are some things I order in bulk and have delivered to my front step: -Charlie's Soap (laundry - 1,250 loads per bucket - lasts 2.5 - 3 years) -Grandma's Country Cream Non-fat Dry Milk Powder - 25# pail - lasts 1-year + -Morning Moo's Whey-Based Milk Substitute - 37# pail (I order it from Sam's Club to save on shipping) - 1-yr. + -Honeyville Grain ($4.49 shipping for entire order and I order about twice a year during a 20% sale) - freeze-dried fruit/vegetables/meats, almond and coconut flour (although I'm making more of both at home with almonds and unsweetened coconut purchased in bulk), hi-maize resistant starch.... -I order many of our staple food items on-line: coconut palm sugar, coconut oil, etc. -Grainlady

Continue with Morph's regimen. That has nothing to do with poa. He is giving you recommendations to improve the soil. He is not addressing nitrogen but you have included some applications in your schedule. I assume you have tttf?Or is it KBG? Either way, most nitrogen should be done in the fall. You have three apps scheduled that have nitrogen (Milo in April, starter Memorial Day, high N Labor Day). Tttf needs 2-3 lb./K of nitrogen; KBG 3-5 lb/K yearly. If you have tttf, I would suggest a slower release nitrogen fertilizer for the Labor Day app (Milo would be fine if you want to use that again) and a quick release, high nitrogen fertilizer (like urea) in late fall after the grass has stopped growing but before the ground freezes. That's 4 apps. If you have KBG, do another nitrogen app in early October in addition to the Labor Day and late fall apps. Next year skip early spring apps and do a light app of nitrogen (Milo would be fine) in late spring. Most fertilizer for this area for cool season grass should go in the fall. Are you sure it's poa? Any grass can have seedheads.

oursteelers, JC is the hosta that launched my obsession MANY moons ago. I saw it at Dogwood Farms (not closed) when I walked around a corner. It was HUUUUUUUUUUGE and absolutely stunning. I nearly screamed. LOL I still have the plant I purchased there although I almost lost it one year and it's fighting its way back. Give it room, give it compost and get out of the way. It's awesome. I prefer to grow in the ground - I'm awful w/ containers and there are too many chances for death due to my lack of diligence w/ watering pots.