CatKim: thank you for your response. I agree we need to have a professional come out and look at the property. The last thing we want to do is regret something. Karinl: a very well designed yard that has reached and perhaps exceeded maturity, you hit the nail on the head. The house is over 30 years old. I know that the PO put a lot of love & care into her yard. She actually stopped by yesterday afternoon to see how we were doing and kept telling us how good we have it looking. We have done a large amount of pruning and trimming. When we bought the house only the top of the Jap. Mag. In photo #3 could be seen for the azaleas. They were also taller than the fence and crazy out of control in photos #7 & #9. The yard was a main selling point for us when buying so I guess embarrassment was the wrong word, overwhelmed is more like it. I think the number of projects just seem to outnumber me at times, however I keep looking at the big picture and knowing it's going to be so worth it! I have been keeping a photo log of the yard over the past year, as we wanted to wait a full year to see what may bloom. I'm glad we did as I've been able to identify a large number of things that we've since decided to keep. Missingtheobvious: I do have an overall plan sketched out. I'll try to scan & upload it soon. In regards to the rock wall, in its previous life it was a large cement koi pond. The very large oak tree( it was removed a few months ago) that was behind it ended up cracking the concrete so the PO filled it in and planted misc. plants on top. We are still investigating to see exactly what shape it's in. It does have water ran to it. Our first initial thought was to dig it out, fix it up and restore it to its former koi pond glory but then this brought to light a few negatives for us. 1. We'd get more joy out of a pond in the rear of the house, where we already have a smaller pond planned to be installed. 2. Keeping a pond in that location would be a pain to keep clean. We had a small pond at our last residence and know the maintenance & upkeep involved. None of the ledges are big enough for seating. We defiantly want to incorporate a focal point, we were thinking of a pondless waterfall feature. I'm liking your third idea and would be curious to hear more. Thank you for the links love looking at others projects in progress and thanks everyone for the input! I've lurked on this website for years so sorry if my first post sounded whiney. We do love our new home & yard I could just do without the yellowjackets, :P

I woke up about half an hour ago dreaming about the miserable groundhogs going all over the yards and I was running all around trying to see what they were eating. Not by coincidence I watched them running all over the place foraging yesterday afternoon. Gardening...nightmares about evil creatures eating plants/blooms instead some hunky star. What's life come to? LOL Once I was awake I went down the driveway to get the newspaper only to see the one and ONLY Tulip the woman across the street got to bloom in front of her mailbox in 2 years is conspicuously GONE...I told her to spray every day with RopelsAll. Crossing the street is a deer thoroughfare and that's why I only put a few Daffs & grape hyacinth for bulbs there cause it can't be protected. The rest of plants in that bed are relatively deer/rabbit resistant with lots of destructive experience last year to work from. The rabbits snipped off the only 2 leaves to emerge from a Corydalis Blackberry Wine I thought I had lost last year. The joy of seeing it had survived quickly tempered by missing leaves and tiny little bare stems. I won't identify the "integrated pest management" I'd like to have...another year of going out every morning to see what the evil creatures have eaten in spite of fencing, sprays and pellets. I've got diomataceous earth for slugs but can't put it down in the Butterfly Garden because Monarch cats stray from the Milkweed looking for place to "hang it up" until they emerge. I think I'll play my laptop recording of Louis Armstrong's "What a Wonderful World" to calm down...LOL.

oldbat, I don't have any particular place to get the wire mesh sheets for the cabinet doors yet. I know I'm doing it but I have other decisions to make before I get to that! I may end up just doing a dark colored chicken wire, but will decide later what I end up doing. I have googled numerous times "wire mesh/grille for cabinet doors" & have come up w/ many places that sell it. I want to say you might even be able to order some from one of the big box stores - Home Depot, Lowes, etc. If you have a builders supply store in your area, I bet they either carry it or can order it for you. I've run across one on the internet that is in the UK that has some beautiful ones. Add "UK" to your search & my guess is it'll come up. I'm sure whatever you do will turn out great because the cabinet is such a pretty one!

Oh I was so excited to see this post as I had a very similar experience a number of years ago. Ours was a moth....I was hoping it was a luna moth but it wasn't, and sorry I don't remember the name of what type it was. We had such a great time finding out about them. I have a photo album of the moths emerging from their cocoons etc. if you want to take a look. It really was quite magnificant to watch and to learn so much about them. Here is a link that might be useful: My encounter with moths