Yep! Cathi and her family brought a van and made off like bandits with many boxes! I don't think I will do it again next year, as I've found other ways to handle extra plants. Washday, here's a tip for yah- You should check for plants on craigslist or freecycle for your area, altho it's a bit late in the season- maybe next April- start to check. You can see my gardens in my updated album, at the link below. It might give you some ideas on plant choices. Toodles- Here is a link that might be useful: My garden pics for the last week of May

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Great subject. In this day and age, where everyone has to have the "latest and greatest" plants, the "tried and true" basic annuals and perennials are sometimes overlooked Echinacea purpurea (purple coneflower): easy to grow and blooms from approx mid August to October. Maltese cross: sure, the red color is not for everyone, but this is a very hardy fuss free plant. Lambs ear: I love the greyish soft foliage. Some websites recommend removing the blooms, that they take away from the plant, but I disagree. Lamium: between my back deck and the rocks of my small pond, I had a one foot by six foot strip of soil. Lamium filled in the area completely and looks striking as it starts to grow a bit over the rocks of the pond. I alternated ÂWhite Nancy lamium with ÂAurea (gold leafed) lamium. My Mom had hostas surrounded by ÂWhite Nancy Lamium. Speaking of hostas, there is another perennial you probably canÂt go wrong with. Once established it looks very striking. Regarding annuals, geraniums and impatiens still do it for me. Especially the bold colors available now. Regards, Glen

I was in the Winchester Mahoney's today, and it was miserable. I went there to get ladybugs to get rid of some aphids. I'd called in advance, and was told by the surly woman on the phone that they do have them, at a price of $12 per 100 ladybugs. This sounded unlikely, since ladybugs usually come in amounts of more like 1000. As it turns out, the packages they sell contain 1500, not 100. If I'd believed them about the amounts, I would have considered the price entirely too steep. I was also told that the place to go to pick them up was the "Garden Center." I pointed out that their whole store was, in fact, a "Garden Center," and the surly woman said...oh, I don't remember, but something surly. I figured I would figure it out when I got there, and that I could always ask someone. That was a huge mistake. When I first arrived, I saw a couple of employees who quite deftly avoided my gaze. I meandered my way to the area marked "vegetables and herbs," since I wanted to see what might be left, and I thought I'd pick up some bamboo stakes while I was at it. What I found were a whole bunch of dead or dying plants, which weren't so much as marked down. Some hanging baskets of miniature tomatoes looked like they might have still had some hope, if only anyone had bothered to water them. Most of the herbs were very sad, and looked like they'd been neglected for some time. What I didn't find were any employees. As it turns out, I'm 8+ months pregnant, and the walk from the entrance to that section wore me out...so I sat down, and waited for an employee to come by. And I waited. And waited. And waited. A lost-looking little old lady approached me, and asked if I knew if anyone actually worked at the store, because she'd been trying to find an employee for quite some time. I told her I didn't know. She tried to ask me her questions, but I didn't have any answers for her. So I waited some more, getting hotter and hotter, and watching more lost-looking customers congregate in the area, asking each other their questions. The little old lady wandered through again, looking like she still hadn't found anyone to help her. Eventually I pulled out my mobile phone, dialed 411, and got them to connect me to the store. Again, a surly woman (perhaps the same one from yesterday?) answered the phone, and I explained that I was in the "herbs and vegetables" section, along with many other customers in need of assistance, and that we'd been trying to find someone to help us for a very long time. She wanted to know if I was in the "South Greenhouse," or something like that, but I couldn't find any signs that said anything of the sort. I repeated that I was in the "herbs and vegetables" section, according to both the signs and the things on the shelves. She hung up on me. Eventually an employee came down to help. He seemed to take pity on my extremely-pregnant self, and was kind enough to go get the ladybugs for me, and also a cold cup of water. I asked him about soft plant ties (the sort that look like cut-up nylons, only green), but they had none. I don't know if he ever caught up with the little old lady. I eventually made my way back to the cash registers, paid for my acquisitions, and left. I was extremely disappointed. I used to think of Mahoney's as one of the best places to go for high-quality plants and supplies, but today's experience has completely disabused me of that notion. Then I got home, and when I went out to release the ladybugs in the evening, I could no longer find the massive colonies of aphids which were present (along with their ant farmers/guardians) just a few days ago. I wondered if my whole trip had been wasted...but at least that part isn't actually Mahoney's fault.