I learned a very valuable lesson with my vinca project - we ended up killing (or so I thought) everything on the slope with Roundup, waited a couple of weeks to make sure nothing green came back, then planted the vinca and mulched lightly. The vinca has done very well, but unfortunately crabgrass has engulfed the entire slope. The vinca is doing just fine underneath, but pulling out the crabgrass is an enormous hassle. I have reclaimed about 3/4 of the slope bit by bit but I have now given up and am just waiting for a frost to kill off the rest of the crabgrass. I will have to put down Preen in the spring for sure. I absolutely should have put down a layer of newspaper/cardboard in addition to the mulch. Furthermore, the Roundup application didn't kill deeply rooted things like docks and dandelions, so I have been pulling those out by hand, along with a few other pesky things like clover. I have a feeling this slope is going to be a huge weeding nightmare for at least another year, but the vinca is filling in much faster than I expected, so we shall see.

Gorgeous pictures, everyone! I appreciate Diane and Lavender Lass helping everyone build a mental picture of the contrast between the Great Plains and the arid west. We ARE indeed Great Plains here in Nebraska, and traditionally we're thought of as a relatively dry climate, with the humidity very high if it reaches 40 or 45% in the summer. Just east of us across the Mississippi in Iowa or other Great Lakes states, they'd laugh at the idea of that being high humidity (I remember Seil listing hers at about 80%). There's a reason why the Great Plains are traditionally grasslands I guess - enough rain for grass but not enough for many native trees (except cottonwood) until you get out to the Rockies. Even though we're on the dry side as far as humidity (and blackspot - yay) goes, our yearly average precipitation is something between 30-35 inches a year, more in this year. Of course some of that is snow, as is coming down all day today, but it takes a depressing amount of snow to make one inch of precipitation. Looking at everyone else's report, I count us fortunate to get as much rain as we do. Well, except this summer - in one memorable 36 hour period we had 13.5 inches of rain and all kinds of flooding and sewers backing up. Nothing like Buford's 100 inches, but it was a soggy spring and early summer. It does highlight the fact that the "common wisdom" of how much rain a garden needs is highly situation specific. I'd always heard the rule of thumb that gardens need an inch of rain a week but that would average out to 52 inches a year, and almost no one logging in here except the southeast and selected folks on the US east coast seem to get that. I don't even bother to expect that in the growing season here, and only water an inch or so if we've been without rain for 2-3 weeks or it's just beastly hot. Even the relatively soggy Pacific Northwest or central England sites don't get that much rain for an inch a week, but plants grow well and there is the appearance of a lot of moisture. Maybe it's just the natural "misting" effect of the light rains that keep things so green there. Just goes to show that roses (and other plants) can't read what they're "supposed" to do, and instead we give them the care that they "tell" us they need when we pay attention. Cynthia

I read your posts and admire your fortitude for toughing it out on your old homestead for as long as you did! You really could write a book! I am reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver and it's inspiring me to want to try my hand at small-scale homesteading again. But I'm wondering if I need to move to a different state. I'm joking/not joking. I'm in the DFW area and I can barely get a vegetable garden to grow between pests and heat. My parents and siblings live in the Central Valley of CA and it seems like they stick plants in the ground, water, and they grow. Are you having better success with gardening in Gonzales?

One of my pet peeves is allowing mentally ill people to "choose" to live on the streets. Or drug addicted people. Both of those groups are defended as having a right to make that "choice" for themselves (to live on the streets, refuse treatment and/or shelter). While I know it's complicated because treatment doesn't work until one is ready to make that life changing choice to not use, I think allowing/facilitating harmful, life threatening choices by impaired people is a failure of our society. People who are impaired by mental illness or addiction and refuse shelter/treatment, are making IMPAIRED "choices". We don't allow impaired people in other aspects of our society to make certain choices. We don't allow Alzheimer's patients to roam the streets because they "want" to or are frustrated, angry, whatever about being forced to live in a facility. We provide secure, safe places for them. I cannot see a difference between that and those impaired by mental illness or addiction being provided with safe and secure living situations. We don't hold impaired people accountable for certain and many actions, yet we allow them to make "decisions" that threaten their health, welfare and lives. I know it's complicated and controversial, I understand it's a slippery slope, but I think what we are (not) doing now is inhumane. If forced shelter, medication, treatment is considered inhumane, as well, I'd rather we fell on that side rather than what we are doing (not doing) now.