Well, let's see - - the day that you were writing . . . I set up the market booth, hauled two pickup loads of produce down. Disbudded then sprayed Miracle Gro on about 1500 square feet of cutflowers, ran the weedeater around the perimeters of the 2 small gardens, sprayed fish emulsion on the leeks, rototilled the paths in the small veggie garden, took down the market booth, and NEVER got my afternoon nap! Went to bed early and got up LATE today . . . it was nearly 6AM! I've got garden chores to do but there is a nice, late start and then there's Sunday dinner! It's nearly 10 AM, gotta go . . . DigitS'

I am in Portland and have spent a few years on vegetable gardening but only this year began an interest in ornamentals. I have had a ton of good luck making entire new beds hitting up the Portland craigslist free section. Most people here hate to throw anything away when redoing, and like to PIF. I have gone on many "adventures" with my five year old daughter to dig up people's plants! Its a little quiet now bc of summer but guessing some more good freebies come fall. There are also some great local plant sales at schools and community centers, but those tend to happen in spring. I'd love more info about any plant swaps you find. I'm in SE PDX and don't tend to venture that far north.....I don't have much to share at this point either except berries.

I get very excited at this time of year, when the seasons are about to change...the warm weather is fading and the cold weather is about to arrive. And its not because I like cold weather. I actually dislike it very much. But our scheduled "purge" is coming up. Since we have minimal closet space, all our cold weather clothes are kept in big plastic storage bins in the attic. When the cooler temps arrive, the bins come down from the attic & its time to get that stuff hung in the closets...and get the warm weather clothes packed up for winter. And THAT'S when we purge. As I'm taking stuff out of my closet I think about every last item (even shoes). If the item is getting faded, or losin' its shape or I simply haven't worn it all season, its GONE. Off to goodwill. We cycle thru the winter clothes next year when spring hits. And therefore, we've kept our clothing storage down to two bins a piece (including shoes). That helps. We're also finishing up on the outdoor projects for the year (we own a fixer upper). As soon as that's done, the garage (which doubles as our workshop) will get a clean out, as well. And I gotta say, I LURVE stores like IKEA. Example: they make these rough wood shelving systems w/ protected plastic feet. Bought a slew of those for relatively cheap & have them along one wall in the garage for storage. Organization is key, as I've found. Worst time of year for us is Christmas. My mom & mother-in-law are HUGE fans of "trinkets." We get so many little unneeded trinkets at Xmas that its not funny. No matter how we try to tell them not to waste their money on that stuff 'cause we don't have ROOM for all these little decorative items. So, the day after Xmas we sort through everything under our tree. We keep what we need/want, everything else gets returned or donated. In fact, hubbie started a rule soon after moving into our home. For every bag of stuff we bring into the house, something needs to go. Its the only way to survive & NOT be surrounded by piles of stuff in our little home.

"I was just coming back to look at PPF's ideas again and they're gone.. how did that happen" Looks like he deleted them for whatever reason.