OMG, Stage Rat! You are sooo wrong! The camera may not lie, but the photographer may point that box whereever she chooses. Notice there isn't a 5 gallon bucket in the pictures? That because no matter where I point that camera, I have to stop and move another bucket out of the frame! LOL. Oh, and most of my seedlings were annuals which grow 5x faster than perennials -- that probably accounts for the disparity in the sizes of seedlings. However, you are also sooo right! Nothing would do last year but that I had to have Larkspur. I got some mixed colors in my very first trade, so instead of being happy, I realized I really needed electric blue Larkspur! LOL. (and I got it, later on, too!) AND you are also right about the over two feet thing, too. My beds look out of alignment because I don't have enough of the shorties. And I don't have enough of the shorties because I was so SICK of them! That's all you see at the garden centers, when you think about it. So, I went too far the other way. In fact, I think I was in a wishlist swap where I told people I didn't want anything shorter than 15" LOL! Luckily I had some petunias from swaps & trades and 100 miniature (bedding) Snapdragon seeds that ALL germinated from Nettasaura and Drippy. NEXT year I might get it right, but the reseeding sounds pretty good, too. I have little yellow birds perched on my Bachelor Buttons, isn't that funny? They perch on the stems and just eat-eat-eat -- all day long. Every once in a while you see the whole stems start to lean and that one flies off only to come back again and test its weight on the fallen stem. Now they have added the Liatrus, but I can't figure out why because they just started blooming and surely haven't had time to go to seed yet, even the first flowers. The chipmunks ate all the poppy seed, the squirrels won't let any of the sunflowers germinate and the Japanese Beetles have ruined every dahlia and coneflower. It's a veritable feast around here....guess I should have sown double what I did. ROTFLMAO because I would be dead if I had to plant even one more jug! I'm sorry to be missing your shindig this weekend but I will probably be going up to Chicago for a birthday party in Sept and could make a short stop for a cold one on the way up or back. I'll email you when I know the dates. Lime

I would second the advice of lasagna gardening, depending on where you are in Oklahoma. My parents lived there for a while when my dad was in ROTC, and my mom talks a lot about the red clay soil there and how hard it was to get things to establish. I've also read that parts of the state have periods of excessive drought (although if you got the rain TX got this year, perhaps that's broken for now). If you have the clay, amending the soil with organic matter (and maybe even some sand) would help with drainage issues around the plants. Lasagna gardens end up being slightly raised, so that helps with the drainage too. Nonetheless, I would recommend looking into xeriscaping plants and prairie varieties that do well with intermittent or little water. Things with long taproots once established will also likely do better than some other species. I would also recommend spacing your plants closely so that they shade the soil between each other and using mulch as well. Both of those things will help limit water losses. With your blank slate, I would also consider burying soaker hoses in the beds to enable more efficient watering and less evaporation (and less mildew). Lastly, if you want to keep a lawn, my friends in Texas and Colorado grow buffalo grass lawns instead of Kentucky blue grass lawns because it doesn't require hardly any water or fertilizer to stay looking nice. Supposedly the most economical way to get that going is by planting plugs of the stuff and letting it spread. I think there's an Oklahoma and/or Texas forum, but if you're looking for ideas, here are some suggestions of a few things that might do well for you (do your own research to confirm): echinaceas (lots of different colors, long taproots) liatris rudbeckias ornamental grasses gaillardia lavender (in very well-draining soil) agastaches salvias bougainvilleas (depending on your zone) crepe myrtles (depending on your zone) Texas bluebonnets morning glories Russian sage wisteria penstemons (in good drainage) rosemary Mexican hat asclepias (different colors) sedums roses ( if you're not bothered by grasshoppers or other pests that will defoliate them) yucca

Thanks! He's had some trouble deciding what he wants to do, and the job situation in our area is really bad. He was without work for a year. It's so hard on the young people's self esteme when they want to work and can't. He's soooo excited! And he hated school before! Tami

Congratulations on a job well done, Dr. Janie. (Even resulting from using some of the local characters as guinea pigs). With them saying these days that with our diet and lifestyle being such as it has become, with so many juveniles tending currently to obesity and diabetes, and likely to suffer from them later, and that possibly the long average lifespan that we've achieved may reverse, with a substantial number dying younger in a few years, it sounds as though your specialty may be needed in those years. I hope that, along with our continuing emphasis on curing people's ills, we may become more concerned with building a lifestyle that will forestall many of those illnesses in the first place. I hope that you find a position where you can be of good service to the community and find much satisfaction while doing so. Good wishes to you and Eric as you step into the next phase of your life. ole joyful