I'm not sure what you read that made you so pesimistic. I will tell you that I certainly felt that way to start with. I live in the NC piedmont which stands for a deep vein of red heavy clay soil. White clay is even worse as it indicates that air can't get into the small particles and rust the iron to red. However it is plenty hard and slimy clay like when wet. We have the largest hand thrown pottery community here. Thirty miles south, the soil turns to sand and the interface is the brick capital of the country! I doesn't appear that anything except grass will grow in this soil. However, if ammended heavily with bulk, it does wonderfully as it holds water and nutrients extremely well. We are in the country. I found a cattleman who has cow manure/bedding piled up and mixed after being mucked out of the barns. I bought a dump truck load (I actually bought two and moved it multiple places later) and had a third to a half of it dumped in my ~25' x 35' garden and tilled it in. That could have been between 6 to 10 cu yds of black composted manure. That changed the texture of the soil and it is still there after 6+ years. Gas was much cheaper then and it cost me $60 for delivery and $50 for the manure. Would be much more now for delivery.

Oh definitely gold fever is catching. My understanding of sun exposure is more advensuresome than it was when I first brought hosta to my garden. I do not know it all, but I sure know a bit more now than I did then. I winced with ever burnt leaf in the beginning, whereas now I can accept it and keep them in the sun. It seems to be a matter of acclimation. The first leaves burn, then the second flush comes on beneath them and they are hardier, more durable. Not only fragrants have a second flush, but just about everything does. I have not determined if a big second flush slows down emerging flower scapes or not. However, with this thread I hoped folks could show how they learned to deal with a special or favorite hosta which needed tweaking to get happy, or how the gardener learned what the hosta wanted through trial and error. I expect that would be the case with Great Expectations--which I'm not about to grow here in my zone. I cannot grow Dream Queen, gave up on it for the time being. Like Lucy in Peanuts, don't give me ups and downs, "all I want is UPS and UPS."

Oh Mel...are sure you want to get me started????? It's going to be LONG LONG LONG. It would distract you from your woes .... this house is a doozy and you'll think you're rolling in clover in comparison. (A lot of this story may sound pretty sad but it really isn't - we've gotten past most of the sad bits and we're determined to get the job done and live happily ever after) A little background on how the house got in such a state of disrepair. My parents bought the house in '63, in Carmel by the Sea, a pseudo rancher at the cutting edge of contemporary design. Not my forte but lots of folks would find it pretty cool. Just after I went off to college my parents moved to the middle east where my dad was Chief of Surgery in a hospital in the middle of the Saudi Arabian desert for over 5 years - I spent an unbelievable 4 months out there but that's another story. While there they rented out the house which turned out to be a huge mistake. Upon their return the house was pretty trashed but my mom had just been diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer's and my dad spent every minute taking care of her rather than making repairs. My parents were in there 40's when they had my brother and me, so mother was in her early 60's when diagnosed but she had suffered a serious head injury in her 30's, so the Alzheimer's was not familial but due to the head injury - not uncommon. Mom took 11 years to die, and after that my dad wouldn't let any of us touch anything because it was the way my mother had had things. Really, it was very sweet on his part but it sure didn't help the house any. When ever one of us tried to do anything he quipped "it can wait until I'm dead". Well, you can guess the next part. Actually, daddy died at the ripe old age of 85 and the way he wanted. It was just after my husband and I had spent a week with him that he decided it was time to go - so he went, by sheer will power on his part as far as we can determine, in his favorite chair with a good book in hand. After my mom's slow and horrible demise I have to credit my dad for passing as he did. He had been a trauma surgeon for over 35 years and would have loathed having tubes in every orifice and/or being on life support. Still doesn't make it any easier but I understand. So then the house went into probate - dad still had my mom's name on the latest greatest will and the attorney's wouldn't let us touch a thing until recently. It will be two years in June since daddy died. Not only has that contributed to the problems but my brother, who is chronically ill with inoperable brain tumors (not malignant but needs regular chemo and radiation to keep them small) and now has Parkinson's (I KNOW - it sounds worse than any soap opera I know of but he still manages to work as an assistant golf pro) lived in the house keeping an eye on dad and continues to do so with a 160 lb Great Dane named Titus. Cleaning is NOT by brother's forte, so the house is not only falling apart - it's filthy. Okay, now comes the commute, destruction, and process of reviving a house that should sell for close to a million. Have you heard of anything so OBSCENE??? The one good thing is after paying of the mortgages (dad quit work to take care of mom) and splitting the profits, my brother plans to move east and buy a house - cash upfront - and will put the rest in a trust. If we see this thing through to the end he'll have enough to be able to live comfortably and without much worry. So how bad is the house?? I've been restoring beat up abused disgustingly dirty old houses since college and this one takes the cake. What's been a bright spot in all the despair is the tradespeople. Not only have they come to our rescue but charged us less because they knew my husband and I are doing most of the work ourselves. One corner of the foundation had collapsed and sunk almost a foot and the repair estimates initially came in at 75K to 36K. That kind of money would have been a huge chunk of our budget (I'm still paying dad's mortgages) and we would have had to sell the house pretty much as is. We then found Dave Potter, bless the man's soul, who not only raised and rebuilt the foundation but put in french drains all around the house to prevent any further damage, all for under 9K - 3K less than his lowest estimate. Same for our termite/structural contractor - he's letting us do as much as we can and will sign off on our work if it's done to code. Guess I must have done something right in a previous life. And boy is there work! HUGE 4X6" floor joists that are swiss cheese, holes in vinyl (yuck!) flooring and the 1 1/4" subfloors, the cork flooring throughout has completely disintegrated despite being covered with carpet for 40+ years, a tub and half a bathroom that is that close to falling into the crawl space due to water damage, 1970's paint that needs to be primed and redone inside and out, termite damage to outer sheathing and ceiling beams, kitchen and both baths that need to be gutted and rebuilt from the ground up, and a once beautiful garden that is nothing but weeds, except for a few diehard troopers, and now needs to be completely regraded and replanted. To make things even more difficult ...there's just so much of it. How's that for frightening? Feeling better? It's not ALL bad for we are now making progress. I quickly taught myself how to install hardwood flooring, showed my husband, and the two of us working together are making good progress. We've been painting what seems like forever - big rooms and lots of them with 16' vaulted ceilings. The plumber is redoing all the piping and he too has been WONDERFUL. They will be hooking and unhooking things in phases without charging extra, and working around my brother's living in the house. We've one bathroom gutted and I may be able to start tiling as soon as this weekend. We completely destroyed the kitchen last weekend - unbelievably therapeutic despite the 20 mummified rats under the cabinets. I hate to admit it but I ran when I saw the first one and refused to participate until they were removed. But my husband's running commentary on rat removal would beat any Jay Leno monologue hands down! We try to laugh as much as possible,luckily I'm married to the funniest person I've ever met and he keeps me smiling - even through the tears. After a little more drywall removal we can start on the kitchen. Lowe's told me that since I'm acting as General Contractor they'll give us a break on all the cabinets and appliances, tile, etc. so that will help as well. We've been pulling weeds and trimming trees so even the yard, can't call it a garden yet, is looking better than it has in years. Even my brother, as ill as he is, is trying harder and things are a little cleaner. All in all it will be worth it in the end. I get to use some of my creative skills outside the usual constrictions of restoration which is really exciting, and both my brother and I will be more financially secure. I'm sure daddy's smiling about that one, he really thought he was leaving us nothing. Barbara

We usually have crappy weather, we get lots of rain, but this year it is beyond ridiculous. We are getting 4 or 5 days in a row with no let up in the rain and big storms, than a crappy day and then more stormy days. It feels like the house is going to lift off its foundations and that I am going to be off to kansas to see the wizard. I forget what the sun looks like! It has been above average temperatures (17c yesterday) one day then freezing the next. We will get 4-5 inches of snow that turns to rain and then gets washed away. I forget what the sun looks like! The dogs and I are getting fat as we have not been doing anything and it has been tuff to even get out for a decent walk. My poor better half is working in the middle east this week and the weather has totally delayed her travel plans forcing her to have to overnight in a hotel at London's Heathrow airport at a cost of 185 british pounds which is close to $400 for a stinking night. The rain took a pause today and I figured I would go out and check out the garden. First thing I notice was that the neighbour's fence had blown down. The moose was though the hill garden recently: Here is the square foot garden beside the cabin today: I think I was talking with EG about swiss chard a while back and here it is after several frosts. I cut this chard to the ground in the fenced square foot garden a couple weeks back and you notice even in this weather it has grown a bit. Amazing stuff and so good with garlic and a little chicken broth. The creek is eroding away beside the creek square foot garden. I hope it stops there, Next year I am going to have to put rocks on the side of the bank here. Here is the strawberry patch where the creek overflowed. The two new areas that I planted square foot style have a bit of sand and silt but I hope will be ok. The creek has really suffered some erosion this last month. ...