Thanks much, sandplum1. sunnyca, re the drainpipe and pot. I'm the one likely to trip over it as his gate comes open and slams back in the wind, get tired of listening to it, he's sometimes away for long periods. So I go out at night w/flashlight and secure it with a bungee cord. I'll think about how I could bring up about the pipe in a non-combative manner because he had a quiet party the other night w/much coming and going; even a young person could trip over it. I wouldn't have one going over my side walk like that, don't remember how the older neighbors who died had it. I'm the one who's worried about getting sued if I don't get my huge, beloved tree taken down this season, 'nuther story. The crazy thing about that house is that I toyed with buying it when it was all run down and razing it so I could have a double lot to grow more beautiful plants than I can. The old couple who were friends died, and it was $40 thou, most places here top $100 thou and more surrounding, nice neighborhood. The spec buyer (not current neighbor) put up this enormous garage, I hate the thing, big as a small house, helped to hasten the ruination of my huge maple tree by digging so deep for foundation and chopping up important roots not 4' from that tree. Then to add insult to injury, left cow pies of concrete in my yard and ruined my driveway. I didn't notice the driveway was messed with (excavating and grade) until later when I tried to drive up it to put things in garage, don't use garage for car but often parked my car there in the summer. I have a permanent easement across the property for access to my driveway I can no longer use, tore out something on my muffler. So I fume over it, but am not the type to pick fights with people. I got a feeling that the home spec guy's father or fil could play hardball, big in with the city. They never displayed their building permit like I do, called the city to see if they got one, said they did, and that the garage met specs but was max. I do not believe it. Other neighbors wanted a taller garage almost a block away and another one huge trelliswork on their property, and I get papers I have to sign off on as did other neighbors. It just makes me mad, try to be a good neighbor, tolerant, laid back, and maybe they don't know the grief that has caused me; it's not my property. And I was nice enough to let them have access to my yard to build that garage, and they didn't even have the courtesy to ask. So it's life, and I just have to vent about that sometimes, and have enough problems of my own, but you get that with neighbors even in the country. If I start something difficult involving people, my anxiety goes on overdrive so bad I've ended up in hospital; that's why I tend to be passive, don't meet things headon. I have read about old ladies growing pot believe it or not. Hard to tell if that widow was in on it or not. And I not only runon sentences and paras, drift OT, and get too chatty, then go quiet for long periods because I'm busy w/something else. Good luck to all those who want a coatrack like mine! I'll check more at that link when my headache goes away. Should be outside working now, lethargic, and wasting time on computer.

gb - yes, I know the tour coordinator that lives near here was watching the new bed go in - because she stopped in one day when Laurie and I were working on it! We gave her a tour of the garden so she could see the changes sice 2006 when we were on the tour. We talked about the possibility in a year or two of including our garden again, along with the neighbour to the north, the neighbour across the street (who was on the tour in 2005 and was probably the reason we were contacted for the 2006 tour) and another neighbour across the street and down two houses who is in the process of greatly enlarging her garden. Gardening is the neighbourhood competitive sport :-) so there's no shortage of gardens to choose from on this street and the one behind us! She mentioned it again when we ran into her at one of the gardens. They have a policy of not 'repeating' gadens until 5 years have passed so the issue isn't likely to come up until 2011. That thyme lawn was completely weed free! I suspect a garden service of some sort is involved on the property.... I just don't want a lot of yellow in my garden because there is a huge chunk of yellow in it already - the house! If I did have yellow in the garden, what I'd like to do with it is make a yellow garden as a feature for a section of the garden rather than mixed in. I have a lot of relatively monochrome/limited color range areas - that appeals to me a lot. I loved the peony/golden grass combo. In the same bed there was also euonymus with golden centers to the leaves and some gold juniper. I thought what needed to be done was eliminate most of the other stuff in the bed and make it a much more concentrated yellow bed! It would have been stunning I think. There was a lot of strong blue in the house trim and garden furniture and a gold bed would have complimented it wonderfully. Deanne - I agree that one of the fun things on the tour is seeing the personality in the gardens - they were all very individual and it's also interesting to see what it was that caught our eye in each. It makes me wonder what were the things that people focussed on here. Vyvyan Pennell, I know, was it for a lot of people! I've been thinking a lot about why that blooms the way it does. I have concluded that maybe the reason is the soil. I gather clematis likes things on the alkaline side. The soil there must be very alkaline - there's the concrete curb at the edge of the bed; the driveway goes right up to the bed and the base under the asphalt is limestone road base stuff; the porch is supported by concrete in sonotubes; and our soil here tends to be on the alkaline side in general. So, if you're moving the Pennell, maybe move it to somewhere near concrete - or add lime to where it is now? I give it some clematis fertilizer in spring because I know the soil there is VERY poor - clay, dry because it's under the roof overhang, winter salt ends up there from the driveway - and so on... It's amazing it survives at all! Maybe it's doing the 'bloom like mad/reproduce before you die' thing :-) Kathy - Randy has always been great at the close-up garden pictures. It's getting him to take 'big picture' views that are hard - he's naturally a detail kind of person.... Norma - the plant next to Vyvyan Pennell is Rodgersia aesculifolia. It's a fabulous thing - wonderful leaves and great flowers too. Rodgersias are one of gb's favorites too - right gb...? Denise - there is a x durandii growing in the BDC rose - and not doing anything worth talking about! Vyvyan is in such tight quarters, there's no way I could dig it up so there it stays! I'm going to give it some more fertilizer after it finishes blooming and see if I can get it to put out new growth and climb the ropes you can see in the picture.

Courtney, I have grown crossvine on a chain link fence, at our home in Fort Worth in the 1980s/1990s, and I have grown it here in Oklahoma on an arbor since 1999. I have never seen it sprawl on the ground as a ground cover, but it is my understanding that it is often used that way. It will make a pretty dense cover of foliage over time, but I think that if it and the shasta daisies/coneflowers were all planted at the same time (or if the daisies/coneflowers precede it), the crossvine shouldn't overwhelm them and choke them out. Another excellent native type of groundcover is Virginia Creeper. It creeps on the grounds in our woodland areas and doesn't seem to climb up into the trees too much (perhaps because the poison ivy and greenbriar have already climbed all the available trees! lol). On the east side of our house, it is climbing the wall of the 2 story house and has just about reached the roof. It has taken it several years to climb that high though. As a bonus, it attracts some kind of butterfly or moth. I don't remember which one, but I bet Susan knows. I have 'Tangerine Beauty' crossvine on an arbor with 'Flava' trumpet creeper and it is a true hummingbird magnet. I think crossvine would make a beautiful ground cover, and it is semi-evergreen so you'd still have some leaves on it for most of the winter. One of the great things about American Crossvine is that it is one of the primary flowering vines that hummingbirds rely on when migrating. So, in the springtime, when the American Crossvine and the Trumpet Creeper start blooming, the hummers are right behind them. Dawn

Totoro the green rock I found is in front of the bamboo area where I dug it out. So it is just outside of the root barrier along a pathway near a shed we have. We were blessed with 3 outbuildings in our backyard so I can do house entrance like plantings near each. I'll look for a photo or take one today and update this. The rock works into this in front of a Phyllostachys aureosulcata v. 'Spectabilis'. This is a big yellow timber bamboo with green stripe, and it gets reddish highlights on new growth if it has enough sunlight (mine does). There's a Golden Hops prepared to go on the cedar fence behind to the right and other clematis for the left side. I have about 10 clematis to go along that fence on a series of 4' x 8' trellis running the whole length of a long fence wall in our triangular shaped backyard. It has NNW exposure but full sun pn top at 6'. So I have to pick them carefully. I hsve a Montana 'Elixabeth' and some Alpina and Macrophylla to go there too. It's hard to resist good clematis. A Huldine and Bourbon just came in from Bluestone. Extremely vigorous and well grown and packed. Amazing deal for the price. Fred Meyers has tbe small Clearview starts like mentioned above at Walmart for almost free. Picked up Polish Spirit, Gillian Blades, Elsa Spath and Henryi. They are growing quickly in the 3 weeks I've had them. I've tended to option for combos to get more continuous flowering and to create interest. Mixed same height or compact at the feet of a tall vine which otherwise only flowers from midway up are themes I'm trying. Above are the Bamboo installed in the yard except China won't give me a Panda yet. And the Giant Tropical Bamboo won't grow here. Not wanting a Jack and the Beanstalk like experience my Wife is happy about that. A red example of the var Spectabilis is photo upper right. Besides the beauty and white noise they create they are strategically placed to give neighbors with raised decks or 2nd storey windows something interesting to look at (besides us). A few of these reach 40+'. I'm working through the next 200' of Lewis Bamboo barrier to help tame them as I finish installing them. I love the effect of focused stands in front of the fence with Clematis on the trellis system between. With Golden Vivax as example this is the focused tall stand effect I'm after. And soon after I accomplish this I'll need to be dividing it and moving out clumps to give it growing space. Beauty AND an exersize program. Botanical Zen!