Whatever our term for the look of our late-season gardens, the epithet we chose probably reveals more about our personal garden styles and/or choices more than anything else. One person's "ratty" or "overgrown" is another gardener's "lush" or "explosively beautiful" - one visitor actually used that latter term one early October, and I've never forgotten it ! "Wild and wooly" certainly works for me, although I'm definitely partial to relatively arcane words like "blowsy". . .but don't you sometimes wonder if some of this late season "exhuberance" isn't partially self-willed - you know, minor gaffes earlier in the season when we failed to use the necessary stake or grow support, or tie something back that we KNEW would pitch over - our deliberate negligence the result of deeply repressed knowledge that our shameful failures will bring a certain, well, blowsiness, to the garden. . .and we LIKE it ! My favorite example of this "lack of discipline in the garden" is a very old, rangey chrysanthemum (blooms in Oct/Nov here), which tends to send out long stems in its bed and then the flower heads pop in various sunny spots. For several years now, it has grown over to, and under, a slatted bench on the lawn edge of a bed, and then pops up all around and THROUGH the bench, creating a "seat of flowers" - what's not to love about that? :) Carl

Congrats, Paul! It sounds like you're getting underway with a nice start there! I had Monarchs here last year, but no Red Admirals. Of course, it would help if I planted some nettle, but I've already gone wild this year with the plants. That one will have to wait for maybe next year. Have fun with all those cats, and I'm sure there will be more in your future. :) Cathy

swallowtailgirl....what part of GA are you in? I am in the upper NW corner, and like you, I don't normally see any Monarchs until August. I am amazed that I am seeing them here in the yard now, and extra amazed that they are laying eggs all over my little bitty milkweed plants. My Butterfly Weed is just starting to come up now. I do have potted Tropical MW on the porch. Gosh, I hope they don't lay eggs on those little tiny seedlings, but I bet they will.~~Angie

Hi, I read somewhere that the key to the right amount of detergent is that the water should feel slippery. That's supposedly the point where there's enough detergent and water is softened enough to do the job without having to do multiple rinses and/or having detergent buildup in your clothes. Now that was for powdered detergents; liquids, you could probably pour about a full cup in and the water not feel slippery. I think it has something to do with the fact that liquids clean by a different process, it all goes back to chemistry and supponifucation, etc.... Laundry obsessed? Yes I am and proud of it :-)