This is the first year I put my thyme's in the ground. I grew just two...lemon and English. They are both still doing well, despite temp's dropping into the teens with wind chills way below that. Surprisingly, even my cilantro, which I kept from bolting all season by constantly cutting it back, is still green in patches. It had some yellow leaves here and there, and some that have suffered from frost, but for the most part, it's fine. Surprised me. This year, I decided to leave my rosemary outside. The man who's backyard faces ours has a rosemary plant in the ground and it did well, despite some snow we had last year. Sure, some leaves did turn brown on it, but for the most part, the entire plant still was good enough to harvest from and bounced back the next season. I'm happy to say the 5 rosemary bushes I have are doing well so far also. One is a bush I took from my father's house I gifted to him, but I'm sorry to have to say he passed away this past November. He did love it so much because he knew how much I loved rosemary and I cooked with it so much. I visited him every Thursday and my partner and I did every other Sunday for the day and dinner. Since the house has been vacant (we lost my mother in 2005 to her third cancer), the plant needed care it wasn't getting, so I brought it back home and am nursing it back to health. It's a little scragglier than my others, but I think it will be fine. Needless to say, it's very special to me. Because one of the folklores of rosemary is symbol of remembrance, I buried him with three sprigs of it in his hand, one for each of us children.

Sounds like you've already decided to skip the weed blocker fabric & use layers of wet cardboard instead to smother the thyme. Cardboard is free and decomposes, so if at some point you want to dig down a bit more than the SFG book recommends you can without ripping through the fabric. Clip it short 1st w/ scissors, shears, or even a mower so you can see which to remove or be able to plant between if you're going to plant directly in the ground. If you're going to build wooden boxes you could pot some of the herbs up for friends & family. Thyme won't damage other edible plants, but will make a living mulch to keep your soil moist & prevent weeds if you were to leave it & plant between or just over the top. Both the thyme & oregano have upright growth as well as spreading later in the season, so if you don't want them to spread just snip more often or keep in pots & water them more often. Someone in your area can help you with what to plant now for a fall harvest.

Hi KSWL, Something about the design of Adirondacks, to me they are the only chair that is comfy w/o a cushion, and we won't want to have cushions oceanside/fireside. We have some we have had 15 years. But the weathered gray is not everyone's taste. I know what you mean about the steamer chairs. If the angle is not just right, your feet dangle. And if the quality is not there, they feel about to collapse on you! Zeitgast - Thanks for the tip! Jterrilynn, Ahh, having been to Bali, where we saw several places with signs "Antiques made to order" I can bet big money those are fake. But still so charming! I will have to see if I can find a distributor to take a look. Not for poolside, but maybe by the firepit. DH reminded me that one thing I do not like about teak is how heavy the dining chairs are. We have a lot of outdoor furniture here at our primary house because we have so much patio and terrace space. One of our dining sets is a teak set with armchairs, and the chairs are very hard to lift and move. I came across this which is unusual but I really like. We have had this type of synthetic wicker from Brown Jordan and if the quality is comparable (the price is) then it will be fine. I like the flexibility of the arrangement, and the fact that when its just the five of us, no one blocks the view. These chairs don't have arms, and this is shown sans bench

A year or two ago, I noticed one of my three Bernstein-Rose plants was smaller than the other two and not blooming as much. Then I saw that a mat of thyme had crept up on one side of the rose and a mat of dianthus had invaded from the other side. There wasn't much ground showing under the rose. I not only pulled the invaders back, but tore out any roots of those plants that were too close to the rose's space. Later in the season, I saw that my rose had caught up to the other two roses and looked much better. So I guess the moral is not to let other more agressive plants cover your rose"s "turf". I keep a more watchful eye out now. Diane