I was hoping that you all would tell me to rip them out, but to make hubby happy I was entertaining the idea of salvaging some of them. We are in zone 6, Cincinnati. I appreciate the compliments...it is a cute house. It's actually a tri-level sears roebuck-you don't see too many of this style. The proportion of the windows etc keep throwing me off but I just don't have the money to throw at structure right now. I would love to add a small pergola (like this https://www.houzz.com/photos/over-window-pergolajpg-phvw-vp~743169-Window-Pergola-jpg---) over the window to try to balance everything out. I'm a hydrangea, hosta smoke bush kind of girl. I love a relaxed cottage style garden and I feel like it will compliment the house well. Any specific holly suggestions?...I noticed so many beautiful hollies over the winter. I'm so looking forward to getting my hands dirty with this project....I'm still petrified of the bald house look though!

Well... :-)! To pot or not to pot!!! Anyway, maybe I will wait another month, firstly because I don't have the time right now and secondly, I don't have the "right" mix right now. Over here where I am, I don't have any pre-mix orchid potting medium, no fir bark, perlite or the like. People around me use what they call "tree fern", very dry and porous, mixed with decomposed goat manure + little bit of lime to pot their cymbidiums. I have been using the same thing minus lime... for my other cymbidiums. So, I think I'm going to use the same mix for these bulbs, maybe I will try to tear the tree-fern into smaller bits. I also have some sphagnum moss and some pine bark that I can use too. What is your advice here? Many thanks. Xuan (from Vietnam)

michaelg-- I grow Parole aka Buxom Beauty. This is it's first year but so far so good! It has a wonderful fragrance. The blooms are huge and they hold the fragrance and you can literally bury your face in the bloom to sniff it. I don't think that the fragrance wafts in the breeze much since it is contained by the huge blossoms. As far as disease--no disease in my Seattle garden this year. But although we Seattlites like to complain about disease, we don't have nearly the disease pressure of those that live in humid climates and this summer was very dry. As far as balling--I don't think that will be a problem. The petals have substance and the petal count isn't too high. In hot climates people may find that the blooms open quicker and may not get as large.

Oh, missed a question! My KD uses a CAD (Computer Aided Design) software package. In her case, it has cabinet styles by maker as well as all of the options available from that cabinet maker. My KD drew up our kitchen w/actual dimensions of walls, doors/doorways, windows, ceiling, appliances, etc. and then designed the kitchen w/cabinetry in that "space". While she is doing this, she uses the elevation view (the view where you see the actual cabinets as if you are standing in front of them) to see how it "looks". I'm sure our KD already has a pretty good idea how things will look even without the elevation view, but she used it anyway. E.g., our KD drew up our kitchen and selected the Omega/Dynasty cabinet maker with the door we had originally selected (Danville). She then presented it to us. It was VERY helpful for me b/c I realized I had all slab drawers and didn't like (OK hated) the look. So, all she had to do was get into the program, change the door style (Artesia and later Anson) and the elevation was automatically redrawn with the new cabinets. When the design was finalized, the program produces the list of items along w/their costs. Granted, it's not quite as easy and quick as it sounds (if you've ever worked w/computer software it always takes tweaking, etc.) BUT, it's much faster and usually more accurate than hand-drawn designs. There is nothing wrong w/hand drawn, it's just a matter of what you're used to and how good you are at it. As with anything, however, the accuracy of both hand drawn and CAD drawings is dependent on the person entering the data/drawing up the design!