I just have to say--most my life I've had to get a lot of my plants by mail-order--lived in rural areas, couldn't find much in local stores most places, wanted something different I couldn't find locally even when there were pretty good local sources. Even if you're not thinking about *buying*, going to nursery websites can be a great source of information. Many have good information about growing, and more have pictures. You can learn a lot about plants you may not even know about but are just what you have to have (boy, is that a description of me!) If you have a particular kind of plant family in mind, there are different sites that feature different kinds of plants. Violet Barn is excellent and has more different kinds of plants, and pictures, and good prices and service- Kartuz Nursery has lots of different kinds of plants, and pictures--I understand the service has improved considerably. So many more--you could go to the Garden Watchdog and get lots and lots of names, plus reviews by customers about prices, customer services, etc.

I do Facebook for a variety of reasons: Family - my kids are on FB and numerous grandkids, nieces and nephews and cousins; many of whom I would not even know if not for the FB connection Old GW and another email group connections The many friends I made, artists, writers and poets from many countries, continents of the world - I like to write and have been both inspired and learned much from many Politics - finding links to articles, opinion pieces and points of view, interesting and more varied and more POV than HT on the GW

You might want to check out Cameron's blog. She has links to many other blogs, some forums, media sites, gardening information. I think she said she did this so we wouldn't have to look for information, just check her blog. The only other sites you might need to check would be the TAMU sites, favorites of mine along with the Texas Master Gardener sites. Here is a link that might be useful: Defining Your Home Garden - Cameron

Glenda, lots of work, but I too love older homes. This one is really special to us and yes it did call out to us. We can't take credit for much of the renovation as the PO did much of the interior work. However, we picked up where he left off when he moved to another old house (in much better repair). When we purchased it there was not one perennial flower in the yard! Tammy, we have 4 "squeaking" wood screen doors! :-) One on each of the porches on the house. I am lucky in that both DH and I are lovers of old homes. natal, doubt there is anything in store for the pink "blob". Maybe, sometime down the road, we may try to remove it but it will be a very tedious job. We did think of painting just the brick on that side of the house as it is not visible from the road, but decided we did not want to do that. Guess we just consider it part of the character of the old house. My only concern with the new color scheme is that it won't blend as nicely with the garden room colors of pink,blue,red and whites. The new colors are an olive green, yellowish gold and rust, historical colors. With the green being the primary color. oceanna, thank you. miracle? nope, just hard work, if we can do it so can others. I am playing around with the idea of blogging, but not sure if I want to commit to the time involved with doing that, or if anyone would want to read it. I have seen many of your "eye candy" posts and have thoroughly enjoyed them. You are a very caring person to spend the amount of time it must take to share all those beautiful pictures! gramma jan, yes, so far it does look like it is unanimous. That surprises me as I thought for sure some would say it was done, and it was time for me to move on. If I would remove it, it would not be until next year. I will finish the 2009 page for this year. Others with opinions? Any "nay" sayers?