Nice butterfly. My butterfly bushes are all blooming too but I can never get those butterflies to stay still for me :-(( All the daylilies look great, it's really difficult to choose a favorite. Cerise Classic and Big Smile tie for favorite today for me.

Yippppeeee...got home from the office a little while ago and am excited to see such nice compliments from ya'll! Yes, those are my tomato plants in the 6th picture. When I plated them at the beginning of March, they were about 12" tall. They've grown leaps and bounds since then and have lots of tomatos ripening as we speak. Oddly enough, I can't stand the taste of them and only grow them to give away to friends and family. Prettypetals, I am embarrassed to say that I cannot remember the name of that rose. I have been trying to remember it for about 2 weeks and have been looking on the 'net to try and jog my memory. I think it is either Honey something or Gold something. Out of all of my roses, that is the only one that I can't remember. I love the Mexican Bush Sage and so do the butterflies and lizards and the black racer that likes to hide out and scare the s@%t out of me. We had a hard freeze here a few months ago with temps in the low '20's. I thought I lost the bush but as you can see, it does not seem to have been phased. Purple is probably my favorite garden color.

best would be to get rid of the garden soil and use potting mix. you need something lighter for a container, soil compacts and that means less oxygen for the roots which means stunted growth. also, potting mic will hold water better. you can make your own potting mix if you want.

1. How much design do you want? That sounds like the kind of price one pays to an interior designer who will give you a whole look. It's possible that people in your area have been using the designs they get from the better designers and going DIY without paying them for their work, leading them to charge a good portion of the design fee up front. You should be able to get an "interview" with a designer before plunking down the cash. It's best to go into that kind of interview with an idea of what you want to do in mind so you have a starting place. Be open to what the designer says, of course, but have a floorplan with dimensions (and make sure that the designer does his/her own measurements before drawing out the design or fire him/her on the spot!) Also do some preliminary shopping and have an idea of what appliances you want, and more or less where you want them, what kind of look you want and that kind of thing. If you want some design help here post your layout and the folks will talk you through it. And we'll check up on your designer too, if you want, because sometimes designers do things that are good looking but don't function the best way. 2. Most of us who want an automatic faucet get a Tapmaster, which uses a foot controller and an air pressure operated valve, and some have a touch on faucet like the Delta Pilar. I'm not aware of any sensor faucets for kitchen work. I'd worry that I'd accidentally turn it on while peeling carrots. I got the Tapmaster (with two controllers for both sides of the island corner) for my prep sink. I think I'll be adjusting the mixer on the clean-up sink too much to want it, but they're not hard to retrofit. 3. I tend to like the old world styling. There's your answer. It's a styling issue. Some crown is needed to adjust the difference in the level of the ceiling and level of stock cabinets (i.e., ones that are made to measure rather than made to your wall). If you really think that a few more inches of storage near your ceiling will be useful to you, go narrow. (I did, with 9' ceilings, to make my upper level cabinets a useful height for what I want to store up there, but most people don't use the top few inches of the top shelf of single door cabinets.) 4. Some people think 3' is adequate. I don't like working that tight--it feels closed in to me, and when multiple people are cooking, it would lead to a lot of dancing. 3' is generally fine for a "pinch point". That is, where something, like a fridge handle, sticks out and makes the aisle narrower. 39' is fine for some people. I prefer 42"-48". Anything much above 51" seems wide. 60" (5') is the absolute max before things start being just too far apart. (It doesn't have to be a multiple of three inches, it just seems to work out that way.) 5. Do a search on "trailrunner" for some tips on how to use your convection oven and try the cooking forum as well. Don't be scared of it! I'm a little unsure if you're talking about a range (stove/oven combo) or a cooktop and ovens combo, though I think it's the latter. A lot of us have a 48" range. Only a few have a 48" rangetop. (Cooktops only come up to 36" unless you use modules. Rangetops are literally that--the top part of a gas range with the knobs on the front.) Unless you're cooking for masses or want built in griddle and grill you probably don't need 48" of stovetop. When surveyed, people report rarely using more than 3 burners at once. (One of our members with a 48" rangetop has all burners but a very large family.) A 48" range, especially one with a large and a small oven, would be very functional, but since you have a small kitchen, if you're going with separate pieces, do consider a 36" cooktop/rangetop. A lot of people do like built in griddles, less are thrilled with built in grills, and most are happy with burner top griddles and grills. Check the appliance forum for more information about various options. 6. I don't know the answers to this. I think there are issues with both plank and engineered (mostly with plumbing leaks), but I don't know if one is better than the other for kitchens. 7. Paint grade plywood will have less of a laminate look than the smoothness of MDF. Additionally, hand brushed paint will have brush marks and slight irregularities that factory sprayed doesn't have. The factory applied paint is supposed to be stronger, however, though the quality varies. 8. People love putting dishes in drawers. It's a bit low for me. I prefer first upper shelf. Lots of people here put all their dishes and glasses in drawers.