I cultivate a garden because i have specific issues with my property that can only be address with proper landscape design. For instance, I have a septic field which needs soft-fibrous rooted plants. I also desire to increase native plant diversity; as well as, landscape for privacy, shade and shelter. I think the method of gardening that you are suggesting when you say "all-volunteer" is "preservation". I'm at the point with my landscape where I'm more in the preservation mode. I'm letting nature do what it wants, but I'm still culling plants that I do not desire. I think my landscape looks more beautiful each year as I let nature incorporate it's influence over my original design. When you stop cultivating, plants from neighboring sites will move in and expand their territory. It then becomes a choice as to what stays and what has to go based on your values. Some people value a weed free lawn while others value a "leave it to nature to take care of itself" and then there are those who are somewhere in the middle. Because you are selecting to remove some species, you fall somewhere close to the "leave it to nature to take care of itself".

Hi deb---09, It is so funny you brought this up! I lost my Momma in August 2008 and have missed her every second of every day she has been gone. I have a distant relative and her mother is in the last stages of cancer. Their relationship has been relatively decent and when on the last two occasions she has been to visit me, she has complained about how hard it is taking care of her mother and the stress it has had her under, etc. They are mean to one another at this time! Having been in her shoes I understand her frustrations but she commented to me the other day that it is driving her crazy and she just wishes she would go. At that very moment, I felt SO cheated! I would give everything I own to have a second of wiping my Momma's brow, stroking her forhead just one more time, getting her something.....anything!!! My advice to her was this......you may not see the joy in it now but try to remind yourself to value every second you may have with her because when she is gone your world will NEVER be the same again. Your days will not be as bright, time will take on a whole new meaning. Time with my Momma is one thing I can never have again.....I cannot buy it back with any amount of money I have or with anyone else's money. Take a good long look at your life and take stock of the people you value most and those are who you invest your time in. She taught me the most important things in life and I only wish I could share with her the latest lessons I learned from her. .....So I try to make her proud in the way I live now. I make sure the people I care about know it and I spend as much time with them as I can. Thanks Momma! Thank you all for allowing me to share with you one of the most amazing people I have ever known! Blessings to all.... Lisa

We've watched Safari Live for years. We have gotten tired of their obsession with cats, kills and close-ups of cats eating their kill. We still glance at it occasionally. We've started putting Pete's Pond up. It is also operated by Wild Earth. It's a live cam on 24 hours manned by "zoomies" from their home computers. In the past 2 weeks we've seen: eland, giraffe, black-backed jackal, elephants, warthogs, impala, zebra, baboons, hyena, waterbuck, monitor lizard, guinea fowl, Egyptian geese, ostrich, hare, steenbok, African wildcat, crocodile, vervet, kori buzzard, civet, tortoise, dwarf mongoose, stork, African bullfrog (huge). We also saw lions.....and a kill. The best sighting was 5 cheetahs....all together...which is highly unusual.

Yes, fresh is suppose to be in the back, but when they have to throw 85 cases in an hour, they don't. I used to reset stores. Go in, move things around in that section and clean the shelves etc. Well.... you will be amazed at how out of date a LOT of items are in a store in the very back of the shelves. If you ever shop at 6am, watch the stockers... they pushed everything back and load up the shelf. Rarely do they have time to move everything off the shelf, load newest cases on and put the older stock in front. I am talking about shelf stable items. Boxed goods and canned goods. Always check the dates if you are grabbing from as far back as you can. Now fresh items, produce and milk and meat, yes, they get rotated, the cases are usually bigger and you can move things over, but think on that 22 inch shelf that is 4 feet wide and holds about 100+cans of something. You can't remove all that and put up the 2 cases you have in the back.