Flora, That looks great! I have behind my barn, 6000+ bricks. I was thinking of laying a border of them side by side (vs. end to end) for the lawn mower. However, one of the things that has prevented me from edging anything with anything but Round-Up, is that I have 3 acres of beds. As it is, right now the only chemical I use at all is Round-Up. I fight poison ivy, so I always have it. I simply sprayed the edges of my beds so I could mow on the dead edge. The mulch is mounded up abruptly, so there is a defined edge of the garden. The Round-Up creates kind of a no-man's land. Unfortunately, although it does a good job of keeping the weeds and grass from growing into the beds, it's not the prettiest at all. I love the idea of the edging + the bricks/stones. I might become a little OCD about this and try one of my smaller beds. That'll only be maybe 150' x 15 to 30' wide! Oh - and for anyone who is looking for bricks? Don't forget Freecycle. People have all this stuff stacked up behind their houses.... Christine

Hi all, I've seen a lot of tomato and pepper swaps, and "edibles" swaps here on GW, but I think it will be fun for me to host one focusing on Greens & Salads for St Pats!! I've done a salad swap on GW before, a few years back. Rules: Newbies welcome, but if your email address is blocked, you won't be able to participate in this. Your seeds must arrive by St. Patricks Day (March 17). I won't hold up the swap for late seeds. They must be in a bubble mailer big enough to hold all your seeds, with a little extra room to spare. Please enclose a return address label and also enough return postage to get your seeds back to you... Whatever it costs to send it in, please include that much in the way of stamps so I can send it back. If your package winds up more than .15 short on postage I won't be able to send it back to ya, cause I live on a tight budget! No more than 3 packs of the same kind of seeds, please. Minimum 5 packs, maximum 20 seed packs per person. Seeds should be no older than 2007 unless kept in a refrigerated seed bank. Heirlooms and hybrids are both OK. If hybrid, they need to be commercial, not saved seed because otherwise they may not grow. The seeds should be for things you might use in a salad or its dressing, such as lettuces (NOT Iceberg though please). Purple cabbage, mesclun or "baby greens" mix, arugula, watercress, radishes, salad-dressing herbs like oregano, sage, parsley and marjoram, green onions, garlic and chives also are all good. Also welcome are cooking greens, including Asian greens like tat soi and choi sum, spinach, broccoli raab, kale, turnip greens and mustards, goosefoot, asparagus, etc. In this swap, MILD salad peppers (no hots!) are welcome too, as are cherry tomatoes (no big tomatoes, we want salad-specific bite sized ones.) Edible annual flowers that can be used in a salad like borage, salad burnet, fennel, violet, pansy, calendula, etc are welcome too. (No perennials such as roses!) Please include a list of what you are sending, so I can hopefully avoid sending you too many seeds that are identical to what you sent in. Include a wishlist of the 3 things you'd most like to get. Send packets with at least 10 seeds per pack, more is better but 10 is ok. Seeds must be clearly labeled (variety name, year packaged, and your GW ID so I don't send you your own seeds.) Growing info such as sun/shade is good too, but not required. If we don't get at least 12 participants signed up here by March 7, this swap will not "make". But I think we can get 12! :) Let's all March into some Green fun together with this swap! Post here if you'd like to join and make sure your email is not blocked. :) Thanks, grovespirit

We lived in the UK between 1975 and 1988. We have returned for visits at least once every two years. We have been all over the place in that time, from the north of Scotland to London. But we spent a good 5 years in London. London is a great city, but you certainly would not want to drive into Central London. First of all, there is no need to - it is so well served by public transport - you can buy a day pass which will get you on the Underground and on the buses for the whole day. Second, where are you going to park? Even seasoned drivers like my SIL, who has lived in London for 36 years, and who knows every nook and craney in London has difficulty finding parking spots. Even when she does find one, it's still a distance from where we want to get to. Third, London drivers are a sight to behold - not an activity for the fainthearted to indulge in. (And pedestrians - watch out!!) Fourth, those of us in North America used to the orderly vertical and horizontal grits of streets can potentially be totally lost in the streets of London, with it's the curves, turns, oneways, divided carriage ways, elevated carriage ways, multiple bridges and what nots. Your best bet would be to stay somewhere in the suburb, in a Bed and Breakfast, within walking distance of an Underground Station, and forget about the car for activities in London. However, a car will definitely be useful for excursions outside of London and it's suburbs - anywhere out of reach of the main city transportation grit. June is the best month for garden travellers. That's usually when the perennial beds are just coming into it's own, and at the same time, the once blooming roses are at their peak. There are some nice gardens, set within huge public parks, within the City London itself. My favourite is Regent's Park, which has nice gardens, including a well planted rose garden. If you are going to be able to spend more time, don't forget to go to one of the flower show. The Hampton Court Palace Flower Show is usually held in the second week of July (5-10 July for 2005). It is one of the biggest such show in the world, if not already the biggest. It would be an "out of this world" experience for any avid gardener. And you can visit the gardens at Hampton Court to boot. The gardens that are "must see" for me anytime I am in London are the RHS Garden Wisley, and Kew Garden. Kew has a large rose garden with extensive arbours clothed by a huge selection of climbing roses and ramblers. My favourite is the garden of the history of roses, with plantings of species and old roses through the ages. It has a very large collection of bamboos. The palm house contains some of the oldest containerised plants in the world, including the oldest. Both Wisley and Kew has large rose beds. The one at Wisley has just been recently replanted, and may not have mature rose bushes yet, but like Kew it has a good collection of climbers. The trial garden in Wisley is usually very interesting. Beyond those two staple itineries, I spend the rest of the time visiting other gardens further afield. Sissinghurst is a "must see", at least once in your life. Leeds Castle has a beautiful garden. Others worth mentioning are Great Dixter, Hever Castle, Hatfield House and Hidcote Manor. Jon_in_Wessex has fired my interest in Monttisfond Abbey, which houses the National Collection of Old Garden Roses. There are lots more to see, if you would like to venture further away from London. We visited the Eden Project in Cornwall in 2003, and, IMO, it was fantastic. "Gardens in England A-Z" provides a list of some of the major garden attractions in England.

I'm still undecided. I still love the platform bed and the nightstands that go with it. Ofcourse, when I took the pics of the furniture, I didn't notice that the sleigh bed pieces looked like our old set. (Just the fluted edges remind me of our old set.) I really liked it in the store. It was after I looked at the pics that I noticed it.(The wood is totally different) Guess I'm just going to have to drive down and look at both again. I'll just have to make up my mind and order.