I am so happy to see your pictures again! I was here back then, but mostly lurking, which I still do a lot because I am not very good about id-ing my plants since the dogs destroyed my labels and I gave up There are a few I know the names of, but not too many. You were one of my secret mentors when I started my hosta planting! I am sorry your 'When I Dream' was a disappointment, but there is so much to love about your gardens! Thank you for that!!!

Dear buyorsell888 . . . I have a lot of space? Cool! Yeah, it is a 100x100 lot, so I guess that is a lot. I am thankful. I've been sort of making the pond hole with a 300 gallon Rubbermaid stock tank (livestock watering container) in mind. It is about 2.5 feet deep and 6 feet across. Here are some pictures of what a 300 gallon Rubbermaid stock tank looks like: http://www.bookofjoe.com/images/huiuku.jpg http://www.pondkoi.com/images/300_gal_tank.gif http://www.hossmachine.info/fun_stuff.html :) ----Katy

Thanks for the nice comments all. carolynp, if it would help you, I can include how much of what I planted. Next year, I'm going to keep track of yields a little better. I didn't start tracking until after I came back from my trip. I have a really old scale that seems to weigh accurately enough (I checked it against my digital postal scale, and it was pretty close). I keep the scale in my kitchen window, and keep a calendar in the "bowl" so I can track it as I pick it. sinfonian, you were one of my inspirations for the potato bin. Next year, the potatoes won't be against the retaining wall. I don't know where they'll be yet, but away from the sprinkler for certain. Water does seem to go through the curtain ok, so I don't know how much that would help. I need to get some more fence boards, I want to build another one. My garden is on the south side of my house. It gets great sun over there, and the dogs can't get to it. It does get a little shaded during the summer, but mostly where the raspberries will be. I do hope to garden longer next year by starting some indoors and using plastic over the hoops. We do get a lot of sunshine here (they say 300 days a year), so I should be able to get a jump start in the spring. Because we're at 7000 feet, we do have cold nights, and quite a bit of wind. I'm hoping I do a better planning job, so it will be easier to cover next time. I had to let it go this year because I needed to add more to the beds b/c they were about 8" down. You may be right, I could be the poster child for a cheap garden. All the lumber out there is used and was free. The beds are filled with free manure, leaves, hay, straw, UCG, etc. I have scrounged gobs of leaves this fall. Even the kiddie pool and all that chicken wire keeping the leaves from blowing away, were free. I bought the fence and the posts used, and re-painted. That one was kind of a pain, but I'm not working right now, and I couldn't justify spending $100 for 12 feet of new fence. I did it for about $50 total I think. Even the trash cans out there were from freecycle. The plastic I'll use again come spring I bought from someone on Craigslist for about 1/2 price. A good portion of it was used to wrap items and cover the load of stuff I brought back on my trip this summer, and was still good enough to use again. I did buy the yellow garden cart out there, new. I love that thing, I use it a ton. I'm quite proud of how little I spent building my garden. Come to think of it, I think that's what I started posting in this forum about...

I sure wouldn't mind finding one of those Back Friday "deals" in my sock on Christmas morning :-) And I like a good fruitcake as well!