Theresa- I thought that was a walkmaker path. I got the brick walkmaker stamps for the areas between my raised beds in my veggie garden. I'll probably get the stone one this year as I really like the look of a bed (esp. a cottage garden) that spills out onto the path. That hardscape element seems to give a sense of order to otherwise wonderfully chaotic cottage gardens. I haven't finished my project yet but I have a couple tips for anyone wanting to do something like this. First, put down weed barrier fabric between the ground surface and the rock substrate. Secondly, don't buy the concrete colorant they sell for it at the big box stores. If you look up concrete suppliers in your phone book, you'll find a few places where you can buy the integral color as well as a release agent in a different color so it gives it more depth and realism. It is also less expensive to buy it in bulk than the colorant from Home Depot and comes in many, many more choices.

Thanks Kimmsr, for that dense and concise post. I wish I could be more concise. [g] Very good advice. Even after gardening organically for 30+ years, I appreciate the reminder of growing plants that attract beneficials. You can never have too many. I'd like to encourage the OP that it is a journey and a very rewarding one to go chemical free. When I started gardening I was fascinated to discover that there was a whole ecology in my backyard. And while I make the effort to identify pests when I see them, often I just accept that there will always be more that I don't know than I know. I try to leave the garden to work out the balance itself because they know what they are doing better than I do. I try not to interfere unless the damage is major and even then, I search for a non toxic solution. On the other hand, I do try to see what my role is and work at that. Long ago, I took to heart the often repeated advice, to improve the soil with organic matter. The more I have worked at that the more I have seen my garden evolve in a positive direction. I also pay attention to growing clean and keeping up with the weeds, mulching, taking care of any disease issues quickly and growing varieties that are resistant to disease. I am focused on adding plant material that attracts beneficial insects and when that works out, it makes me very happy to see that. I'm always looking to add more and more. This year, I have more parsley and dill for the small parasitic wasps that take care of a lot of pests. I add alyssum for those small predators. Lots of long blooming perennials around the vegetable garden for the bees. I keep trying to sequence the bloom so there is always something to feed the beneficial insects. I've seen aphids on plants disappear in a week after ladybugs had a feast on them. I still get leaf miners on my columbine, but I cut all the foliage back to the ground after bloom and they grow a fresh batch of pristine, leaf miner free foliage. The leaf miner leaves go in the trash. I still get small amounts of Oriental Beetles which I knock into soapy water to dispose of them. Same with Red Lily Beetles and used the same technique two seasons in a row when I was overrun with earwigs. So it's learning as you go how to manage your garden in a different way. You won't get that in one season, it takes time. I haven't used any chemicals beyond an occasional home made spray made up of 1 drop of soap, garlic & red pepper. And in 30 years I can count on one hand the number of times I've used that. Later today, I'll take a photo of one of my vegetable beds that is looking pretty good at the moment and post it here. Interestingly, I was forced to purchase organic soil for raised beds when we increased the size of the vegetable garden in the spring. I was curious to see how the beds that had the soil from our old vegetable beds grew in comparison to beds with the new soil. There were two large beds of our soil and three large beds of new soil. Every year in our old beds the peppers were wonderful. Full, bushy plants with a very good amount of peppers. This year I planted peppers in the new soil and the peppers are pathetic. Absolutely pathetic. I don't think there's anything wrong with the soil. It is organic soil that had 10% organic compost added to it and other organic amendments. It does seem to have a higher clay content then mine. The water is puddling on the top of the beds when it rains. But I can stand over the beds with the soil from my old beds and spray the hose full force with the nozzle set to shower and the water just drains right down even standing there for 15 minutes. So I am about to pull those peppers. They are not going to produce much if anything and I don't want to have the same problem next year, so I'm going to add more compost and sow a cover crop, let it grow until the end of the season and turn it in come Fall. It won't be perfect next season either, but I'm on the road to improving it and at some point it will be as good as what I had in my old beds. Am I disappointed that I'm not going to have peppers this year? Sure. Peppers are one of our favorite crops. But I know it's a temporary setback and an investment in next season's garden to work it out this way now. I spent a lot of time reading books. First, the book by Ruth Stout on the no work garden. Later, Eliot Coleman's books on organic gardening. I'm sure there are a ton more books to read, but I spent a lot of time on GW in the Organic Gardening forum, many years ago when there were a lot of very dedicated organic gardeners happy to answer questions. I'm happy that I did, it's worked out very well for me. Good luck!

Here is the post from the user that asked about where the Kitchen Window should be: Posted by firstyeargardener (My Page) on Mon, Mar 23, 09 at 23:52 Hi, I'm in the middle of planning a kitchen remodel. We are thinking of moving the sink to the back of the kitchen where we have a large window overlooking the yard. My question is, how will this look? The window is considerably larger than the sink? Will it look off centre? I'd appreciate any pictures of large windows with sinks beneath them. Thanks As I had already posted picures of the bay window above the sink, I thought the 2 pictures I posted would at least give "A different view of things" and maybe some inspiration as to why they might consider moving that window. We love the view from the Window. I had a dear friend that was renting a small Condo, She said "Someday I want to live where I have a window over the sink and enjoy the view---fortunately We were able to help her as our tenants moved out of one of our townhouses we rent--that had such a view , and I rented it to her for 14 years , until She passed away from Lung Cancer.So I guess to many people a kitchen with a view is important? Anyway One learns a lot from making a post as I did. You learn who "Stops and Smells the roses" and those that¿ Gary Here is a link that might be useful: Post about Kitchen Window

"I just know it's probably from the 1940's & most likely costume jewelry." You may be able to get big bucks for the stuff. Bakelite and Lucite vintage jewelry is quite collectible. Certain styles of the era are popular even it it is not true Bakelite. Google some of the places that sell it online and contact them. I would try to get another estate sale company in to go through things and see if there are any items worth it to be put up for auction. Do not rely on just that one estate sale company to give you advice. Way back when..........when my grandfather died, my mother did a bunch of rummage sales. It barely put a dent in the amount of stuff my grandfather had saved like a packrat. (Depression Era guy.) Then, my mom had someone come in to look at the stuff. This auction woman pawed through the stuff and found some valuable stuff that had gone unrecognized. For instance, my grandfather had a shoebox full of pens he had saved. My mom had put 50 cents on it for the rummage sales. No one bought it. The auction woman found a pen in there called *Big Red* from the late '20s and it sold at auction for a LOT of money. (This was before they reissued the reproductions) A little plastic box turned out to be an Art Deco celluloid cigarette holder. $$$$. A can opener was vintage Harley Davidson issue. It was sent to a store out East on consignment and fetched a pretty penny. I could go on and on. My point being that you could have treasure trove of collectibles. If you do not have the time or the knowledge of collectibles, have someone come in to look over the stuff again. There are places who will list things on eBay for you for a percentage of what it sells for. One persons junk is another man's treasure. My one cousin is always on the lookout at sale for old rusty, vintage tools she uses for decoration. She just cringes when at estate sales she is told "Oh yeah, we had a lot of old tools. They were all rusty and beat up, so we threw them out before the sale." Some things are only valuable to certain individuals. When my uncle died, there was an old, floor model radio in nice wood cabinet. My brother removed the guts from it and was going to use the nice Art Decor cabinet. Another cousin (who is into vintage radios) went ballistic finding this out, as it turns out the vacuum tubes that were tossed out and hauled away in the dumpster, were valuable to collectors who use them to recondition old radios, and worth waaaaay more that that crappy cabinet was. BTW, if there is a lot of stuff Goodwill and similar organizations will come to your house to pick everything up. They will give you a receipt for taxes.