This is a good year for cactus blooms. They got kicked around by spider mites last year, but, I think I got them under control and onto annihilating the little bastards. The reason I work at this... Prometheus

WONDERFUL!!! You all just make my day so light hearted and joyous. Down right funny and Rick that is a fantastic poem. Poor Ellie, please, be sure to stay away from my Chaste Tree (Vitex). I bet it had thousands of bumble bees on it yesterday. I tried to get a photo, but the bees move so darn fast that my poor camera just couldn't do it justice. You could actually hear the BUZZZZZZZ before I got within ten feet of the tree. Well, maybe I will post a photo of the tree. It's been so pretty. Blessings, Mona

Molly, speaking of paving stones, I have some areas in my yard 'paved' with mulch. It's on the sides of the house, in back of the store room, under the trees along the fence line, plus in all the flower beds and as a topping for plants in pots so they can be watered with the hose without the soil splashing out. In all these places it eventually disintegrates into compost and then I add some more on top. I've been lucky enough to catch the tree trimmers and ask them to dump their ground up limbs nearby in a vacant area where I can get it in a wheel barrow, but you could have some hauled in. I apply it pretty thick and no weeds have ever grown through it. It looks fine to me, like a forest floor, and doesn't need watering. I know you have to keep the grass in certain places, but in other places on your large property where you don't want grass or flower beds you could just mulch it. An interesting thing about the mulch where it was dumped in a long pile about a foot or two deep is that it's still moist from the rains we had weeks and weeks ago. So it really does preserve moisture if applied thick enough. I apply it about 5 or 6 inches deep and then settles down a bit. It burns up a lot of calories hauling that much stuff in a wheel barrow :-)

Sinningia! Whuddathot. I've sworn off gesneriads so that's kind of a relief. I'll just ogle yours from here on, Kara. Here are some of mine (fall and spring growers) finally out of the basement. Aloinopsis schooneesii; I'm showing you guys the ugly side because this is the spot I've had to remove pieces from to stop a spreading rot. That gave me two smaller clumps and it did stop the rot. No guts no glory, I guess. Here is one clump, now two years old and still buried. I think I may have given the other one away, or it fell into a corner somewhere, never to be found. And from left, Othonna euphorbiodes, Othonna clavifolia and Tylecodon ventricos (this one needs a butt-load of sun in winter). And, below---really not fat yet, but it will be someday! I really like starting small. This one used to be taller but a Catzilla incident cut down the main trunk. Fortunately, it's crazy easy to root. Tylecodon buchholzianus My summer growers are still indoors.