I had a good chuckle reading this thread. :-) Winter I can definitely wait for...Christmas!!?? No...please, it's bad enough when they are playing Christmas carols in the stores at Halloween, let along gardeners on the GW forums wishing it were here in September! lol Fall has always been my favorite time of year. Now, it's a toss up between spring and fall. I really enjoy the change in season. We tried moving to the South once and stayed for 9 months. We moved back home. We really missed the seasons, more than we thought we would. Like dtd, I also don't want a greenhouse,or to be gardening all year. I enjoy the break when nothing has to be tended to outside and I can think about something else besides being totally immersed in gardening. [g] This year, I am particularly ready to be finished with the yard. It has been so dry and the yard just doesn't look as good as it usually would at this time of year. We still have a lot to do before we are finished for the year though. I will be glad to cover up some of the mess out there and start fresh next year. Don't you think it has a bit of a melancholy feel though, this time of year? There's just something about the different light in the fall. The way it is dark earlier maybe? So different than the excitement of spring returning. pm2

Paul I agree with everything you said about taking good photos of your garden...overcast days are best for beautiful colors in your garden, if you want to get a closeup of a hosta / plant and it's bright and sunny you can use a large umbrella to give you some instant shade which will help alot...just try not to get any of the natural sunlight in the photo as it will be a bright white spot in your photo...and will be very distracting...The Hillbilly still needs to show me how to post photos here now...or I'd post a few...Hostabevie

Wow! Where to begin? ;) I'll try to at least scratch the surface for you, ok? All of the starts have small true leaves, should I transfer them to bigger individual containers or plant them directly in the ground? Let's start with this question. In southern Indiana you are close to planting out time, northern Indiana you still have some time. So depending on that, you either need to already have your in-ground garden bed prepared and ready to go OR you will have to have it ready VERY soon. And that is a problem as getting the garden ready takes time - usually done the fall before. In this situation you can a) hire someone to till up the place in the yard, add an equal amount of compost, and till it in, and then hope that the weather cooperates and that the soil temp is adequate to plant. Not the ideal. b) build a raised bed by framing in an area in the yard with lumber at least 6" deep, lay down some cardboard to block the grass in the bottom, and fill the area with 1/2 and 1/2 mix of quality topsoil and compost. Then plant. Better but still takes time. c) grow in containers this year - big ones at least 15 gallons, filled with a quality soil-less container growing mix. Best solution given the short amount of time available. Tell us what you did last year in containers that didn't work well and we can fix that. Meanwhile, use this summer and fall to build yourself a proper garden bed for next year. Now, if the plants have never been transplanted since they sprouted, yes, transplant them to just below the bottom set of leaves in individual larger cups with a quality soil-less mix in it and either use a mix that already has some fertilizer in it or feed them with a 1/4 strength liquid mix. Doing this will gain you about 2 weeks more time to get your bed or containers ready. so I'm thinking about putting down top-soil or compost before I plant the tomatoes. Which would be better choice? You need both but you have to be careful about what is sold as topsoil. it can range from good quality landscapers mix down to scraped scrub. So if you go this route choose it with care. Compost - you need at least 10-15% of the total mix to be good compost. More is fine and it will settle and continue to decompose. But honestly, I think it's going to be hard to get an in-ground bed good and ready - not impossible - but it will take time and some hard work so I'd sure give some thought to containers instead for this year. Containers can be quite successful when done right. What varieties are you growing? Determinates or indeterminates? How do you plan to cage or stake them? How much sun will they get where you plan to put the garden vs. where you put the containers. What sort of fertilizers do you plan to use? How many plants are we talking about? See, and you thought you had lots of questions. ;) Dave

Is it "normal" to get a sinking feeling every time you think about building a home? Of course not. It's normal to feel nervous about the project's enormity, the expense, the logistics. But a sinking feeling means this is not what you want. You might like parts of the house, but that is probably not enough. The fact is, you will have to put a huge amount of effort, money, commitment into a project that will end up with you living where you don't want to live, in a house and "yard" too much for you to deal with. And at an age when your health and energy are not likely to be trending upward. You will continue to resent his not following up on his commitments. He's getting his dream and you're gonna pick up the loose ends. No WONDER you have a sinking feeling. Just for a moment, and just to yourself, think about whether or not you can back out now. And how you would do it. I think you may already be too deep into this to back out now--for whatever reasons you've agreed to it. What would happen to your relationship with DH if you called a halt to it right now? (I'm not suggesting you answer any of this here; just to yourself.) If you can't see a way out of this, then what would it take to make it go better for you? I think you could assert your right to not have to work to age 70. If he's willing to handle it by himself, it's his dream--let him work for it. Or, let that be a real good reason to scale down the house. Just say you're not willing to work past 62 or whatever. He can run the numbers to see how to scale back the house accordingly. That will get you 2 big things you want: a smaller, more easily managed house and an earlier retirement. While you're having that discussion also tell him that the project has to be scaled back because you're not willing to be annoyed all the time, and scared by living in the midst of undergrowth, and you will need a bigger monthly budget to hire things done. (What was his plan for while he's away for 3 months?) I don't think he's been realistic about that and you haven't confronted him about it. Does he know how much you resent picking up the pieces for him and waiting for him to get around to things? Or, focus on how he's too busy working to consistently get the maintenance done and should plan on letting YOU hire it done; so in his free time he can play country squire or whatever he dreams of. Did you just agree to all this because you can live in a really nice house? Because other than that I don't hear you wanting any part of this. Until you come clean with him about ALL of your reservations, he will have no motivation to start planning realistically so that YOU will also be happy living his dream. (Or as happy as you are capable of, given that you basically don't want this.) This isn't just a house; it's your entire life. Especially since you work at home. That sinking feeling you have is a warning signal. I really hope you'll tell him now, while he has some motivation to make concessions and provisions and to scale things back. If you don't tell him now, he will have zero motivation later. And all you will have is the sad consolation of being right about the fact that he would disappoint you--again.