Will give the thread a bump, but it is timely. I'm no expert, but a clematis might do ok, would ask before I'd buy one. Don't know about sweet potato vine. In general, from personal observation, vines don't like hot brick. Euyonomous grew up the entire chimney of the house across the street, facing west, before they finally took it out. My sweet peas weren't real happy in front of a brick stoop last year. I have an invasive one I've fought for years, and it does not grow, or very little, where there is full sun. It's the worst on the east and covered the whole north side of my garage before I had a girl tear it off. Morning glories are more tolerant, I think, but I had some get wilty in the worst heat last summer, watered them, and they bounced right back.

Hi all! I was gonna wait until next year to post pics, but since we are all gardeners, I know you can use your imagination a bit to see what I am doing here in my yard. In 2004 I took a pic of the N. side of our house. I am blessed with a large lot, and figured I was wasting space growing grass LOL. So, I worked up a plan to change the entire yard, and had 17 tons of soil hauled in to bring the grade up a bit, because it sat so low. I let it sit over winter. Then, I decided with all that room, I needed a mini-bed! In 2005, I went to a quarry near by and picked through their "refuse" pile looking for limestone pieces of roughly the same thickness to biuld a half-circle wall. As you can see from the pic, we also pick up riverstone out of fields to border paths with. I got tired of moving dirt all summer and finally got a skidster in here to help move it where I wanted it to be, for the most part. In 2005 I also started planting out the area next to the house, and this last summer, started planting the new mini-bed I had created. The pic was taken in probably August. Since then, I put 3 redwood trellises joined together at the back of the mini bed (for shade) and planted clematis vines in front of them. There's probably 15 mini's in the bed now, with more coming this year. The North side of the house, since 2004 has had 6 trees planted, and over 200 Hostas put in. I wish I would have taken more pics, but there's always this year, and it will be a work in progress for a year or two yet. Rox

I pruned in the snow today! What a joy for a guy from Texas! Although the snow stopped, it started again every time the saw rocked the trees. OK, I know these bells... They are either in Nijo Castle or in a courtyard near the museum at Byodoin Temple. The structures that held them deteriorated and they were not reinstalled after the structures were rebuilt, but put on display inside the courtyard. I must get the slides and verify where they were (when I return to SA). Meanwhile, I will just settle for some more homemade eggNOG and read your comments! You probably all know that sand, certainly often used in gardens', has longer been used to commemorate a sacred area. Inspired by Wasabi's comment: If a man is in the forest, and there is not a woman there to hear him, is he still wrong? sorry... dp

Thanks for the tour mctavish, your pics and posts are some of my favourites. I can definitely relate to this: > I never have enough room and tend to always plant too close together knowing I’ll have to ‘fix’ it someday. Not so much to the daily watering + automatic watering though! Maybe in another property/life. My family used to have a cottage on the Shuswap, lots of fond memories from around there. I also recall how hot and dry it can be!