Aside from the grounding challenge landscape posed in this thread, I have a couple of other observations - mostly about human nature and personal perspective: 1) Start small vs. have a master plan. When people with new properties start threads titled -- "HELP!!!! Blank Sate! Where do I start with my one acre of land?!?!?!?!" -- they are often told to step back and work on one section at a time. In the Going Lawnless thread, there were plenty of comments about starting small by removing just some turf, and expanding from there over time. Seems to me that is what you are doing, Lauren. You are starting section by section in your yard. Yes, an overall vision for your backyard is important too, but it sort of seems like you may already have one, even though you haven't fully articulated it, put it on paper, or fleshed out the details: You plan on keeping a wooded lot; you need to control water flow and drainage (already addressed); you need play equipment and turf for active children; you enjoy the vistas and family time from your two decks; hubby needs space to relax in the woods; and you have times when you want to sit near your children. You have defined your needs/functions already, and you already have a start at addressing them. 2. Many posters approach questions from their own personal biases. Thus, a person without small children may think you should sit up near your house and face the woodlands, which you probably do already from your house windows and decks. Someone else may think the garden bed is dinky, but it actually looks good sized to me. Yet another person doesn't like looking at plastic (but at the rate kids grow, why spend more $$$$, eh?). And someone else may be reminded of tree rings or detests kidney shaped beds. Personal biases makes a big difference in the way one views a project. Personally, I would not want to sit out there, but the thing is, I may have wanted to do so 10 years ago when my children also had Tyco play structures. My guess is that over time, your landscaping needs (functional needs) will change too. The Adirondack chairs will be used now, but I wouldn't be surprised if in 10 years when your kids are asking for the car keys rather than Leggos, those chairs will cease to be used and you may want to do something else with that space.

Thank you for the compliments. I am very bad about collecting most of what I need to do a project and then 6 years later getting the bug to complete it. I had 2 bouncy horses that I wanted to paint as carousel horses and saw one at an abandoned house this week that I brought home. I now have all 3 in the living room and have started working on them. I think I was afraid of painting them but have had more experience painting in the last 2 years so they are my next project. I learned several techniques with spray paint and that if I mess up it is easy to correct. I had finished a concrete leaf and was putting a last gloss clear coat on it and by accident grabbed a can of white gloss that didn't have the colored top on it and got 1 pass of white spray on my leaf---PANIC!!! Cleaned with acetone to get off the white and then re painted with 4 colors of rustoleum. That taught me that it was fixable so I am now brave enough to start on the horses.

I have a list of daylilies that I would like to get. The kids money won't cover all of these, but hey, I was going to get some anyway, wasn't I? lol! These are in order of preference, but if anyone has grown any of these and has feedback, I would appreciate it. My top six: 1. Early Fragrance 2. Francoi Verhaert 3. Bold Encounter 4. Autumn Wood 5. Siloam Double Classic 6. Trahlyta I am also considering: Stargate Portal Inky Fingers Orchid Corsage Joan Senior Spacecoast Hot Topic Choo-Choo Fantasy Cowboys Don't Cry Long Stocking Color Surge Folk Tales Grandma's Smile Optical Art Thanks for any feedback on these! Vickie

I jokingly told my husband after sifting thru a new White Flower Farm catalog that he could get me the above named wisteria as a 3 yr old in tree standard form for $165 for my mother's day present. To my surprise he said I should by myself a nice card too- so he could sign it! I did take notes on how to do a wisteria in this form from GW and then had my cutting die after transplant this spring- so it lived one yr then died- not sure why. I thought these were tough. It was a cutting off a plant that has succeeded in this area for over 30 yrs. I figure this company would come with a money back guarentee so what the heck. How long do these bloom in zone 5? ---Assuming it can live here. --- catalog says zone 5-8 I'm not into plants that only bloom for short periods. Thx:) Karen