Yes, thx river and spring areas arevsafest for water quality. But Gunnera are not that fussy. I've seen many Gunnera doing quite well around ponds in our wet (= rain flushing) PNW area. I've also grown G. tinctoria in the ground in average soil with no bog. But even here in our moist environment during the summer the huge leaves on my 8-9' teenage plant would lower each afternoon towards the ground. A the plant looked water stressed each summer afternoon in a partial shade location. A larger 11 to 12' plant would thus edge burn before I got home from work to water! When we kayak Lake Washington the Gunnera growing there (mostly G. manicata), in yards boardering the water, keep their leaf turgor and have no leaf edge burn. Landlocked and wanting that effect more secure I decided that the next one I grew it would have a kiddy pool or other significant backup water source buried under it. Our is Gunnera bog pit ground water is not connected to the slow rain flushing fish pond. Our bog pit more rapidly drains surface and near subsurface water that a pond. The top 1' (20%) flushes because is only lined below. I did the perc test to make sure. Also a second 2' x 2' deep soil connected water outlet is to Canna / Hedychium side to help ensure that the surface ground water drains over time. The point of the test is to determine best hydrology balance and give simple low effort hydrology control if needed to balance it. If the bog pit proves too wet over the summer I will dig on down hill side to lower the burried liner there. If it needs different adjustment in wet versus dry seasons a gate divider can be slid into place there (eg 2' x 1' board). The attached Japanese Iris bog is similarily being tested and adjusted this year The Iris are about 12" tall now. Gunnera growth is in action now. It started with green Gunnera "leaf hands" reaching for the sun rays. When a volcano like mound of leaf mulch lifted upwards a couple feet I removed the leaves and saw them. Gotta love this monster species for drama alone! Below is the newly planted Japanese Iris Bog just before ground freeze late last fall. It connects to the Gunnera hydrology plan. The moist Iris zone is ~2.5' deep and average 3'+ wide. The tench shaped bog was again lined in bottom 1.5' with a pool like plastic liner. The bog has 50% compost. the Hydrangea paniculata 'Fire & Ice' root pit above to the left of the Iris is not lined. Some of the Siberian and Japanese Iris planted here are shown below (bed order is taller Siberian Iris nearer the Canna). The colors contrast with our warm color Cannas, which are up to 8' tall. These are some of the varieties both in that bog area and seen behind them in beds running along the sides and back of the 15' long fish pond. Our most stunning canna is perhaps Tropicanna = Durban = Phason. The tallest a German? hybrid variegated leaf Canna 'Stuttgart'. Canna 'Cleopatra' a Chimera plant living together in leaves and flowers with it's miracle mutant partner is shorter than the Arian giant, is also pretty hard to ignore. Hosting some valuable plant collection favorires, there's understandably some careful hydrology design to this test area. The Iris Bog liner does not connect pooled bottom water directly to the Canna / Hedychium area. The subsurface water drops into the deeper Gunnera Pit. If the average moisture balance is too dry in any area I can dig the edges down 12" and add an edge liner runner. The overall test starts as best guess, but is easily adjustible. If is stays too wet and goes too stagnant a hole(s) can be punched into the bottom (slowly adding them) as needed. If the Canna / Hedychium area stays too wet, I can seperate it from the Gunnera as much ad needed by digging in a slotted liner or adding in a season adjustable gate. As the moist Canna / Hedychium test zone hydrology is adjusted then proves out, I can accordingly lower the plant density and use excess plants to populate new 2nd generation moisture beds. That's the plan anyway. (My professional background is science research with microbes, plants and environmentally related tops. I love doing fun home tests like this! When a test "fails" one quickly gain solution ideas. And it can often be adjusted to soon prove out. If not adjust the plants varieties or specices tested.) Our front yard is white different. The photo below show it currently during Spring warm up phase. The Red Crown Imperial Fritillaria near the turn in the walkway are not open yet. But their skunky scent contrasts the ~115 Hyacinths, 1/3 of which are open here already. The right central photo drift of Daffodils are Mt Hood currently doing their amazing magic trick of morphing from a smaller yellow/white flower (foreground) into to large full creamy white (background). These were planted at different times last fall and will synchronize by next year. It shifts visually in late Spring-Summer-Fall to a hydrangea floral backdrop with perennial Liatris and Japanese Wildflower upper bed meadow like runners. They are in light pink and white tones to add a moongarden night element. And they actively sway with breezes adding motion to the sound of two timber bamboo behind them added for movement and sound effects (we get a lot of breeze activity through here). And yellow dwarf fragrant Daylily and red Crocosmia flairs along the driveway to drive our visitors, family and hummingbirds wild. Our main design theme is actually NO LAWN GRASS cutting and be glad for it visually. Was easy to tak my wife into it. I do all the msin design and garden work. She cuts the grass.

Fairegold, sorry I haven't been here for a few days: our DD took my girlfriend and I to Toronto for a Mother's Day weekend (my friend's two daughters live there), and we had a lovely time! I truly needed that! About your dear Mother: my Mom said the same things to me many times, and I know how it just catches in our tummys and makes us feel so helpless. When she asked me why she isn't dead, yet, I said that it was for God to know that, and she should speak to Him in her prayers; that if it wasn't her time, yet, there was good reason for it: maybe we just still needed her with us. Fortunately (and I think you know what I mean, here), her dementia has progressed to the point where she can no longer form those thoughts let alone vocalize them. I believe that's a blessing in a very convoluted way... I, too, suffer from high blood pressure, and just before Mom went into the NH, was put on another, a third medication to control it. I evidently wasn't handling things as well as I thought I was: my body was silently protesting the pressure I was in. Thank goodness I can tolerate those meds: in your situation it's much more imperative that you do something to control your BP if meds aren't the answer. It's easy for us to say "take care of yourself" but after being a care-giver for so long, we can only answer: How? You simply must find ways to bring your "fight or flight" BP down, and that may mean meditation using meditation tapes, listening to theraputic music (there are many out there), taking a yoga class, learning how to really breathe! There's nothing selfish about keeping yourself well...you'll be of no use to your Mother if your own health is deteriorating. Please look into some venues for yourself, okay? As for your youngest brother, pull away from that issue! It's his problem....he'll be the one who will feel the guilt of not doing more for her after she's passed (or he won't! But it's not your concern.) You can't take on the world's problems with your Mother...you CAN be there for her...make sure things that you want in place are put into place no matter what she thinks. She's 95...my Mother is 91...they're tired. They may indicate one day that all they want it to die, yet the next day it'll be different. Don't swing emotionally from one extreme to another. Approach it more methodically....it's not callous..it's life-saving for you! Smile and nod, then do what you feel is appropriate. As for falls, PeeBee is right. As usual ;-) My Mom fell in the first week she was in the NH, because she was using her walker, and my first reaction was guilt. Thank goodness for my friends here and at home, I was made to see that unless I stood by her side 24/7, there were no guarantees she wouldn't have fallen at home. She may fall. She may break something and end up in the hospital. She may pass away from it. Some do. But, Sweetie....if that's the way it may happen, then who are we to feel the need to control it all? We can't keep them with us forever. Something definitely WILL happen. The day, the manner of their passing is not for us to know. Just do the best you can without being SuperDaughter, and you will always know in your heart that you did the best you could. As for anyone else's failures, they're not your concern. My brother and his family always felt that sending flowers on Mother's Day and her birthday, phoning her, etc was enough. And it was enough for Mom. Maybe I would have wished that even ONCE in 12 years they would have said...Linda..you and your hubby need a break: we're coming up to care for Mom for a week (or even a weekend!), so you two can get away. In a perfect world, that would have been wonderful. But nothing and no one (even us!;-) is perfect, so we have to play the hand we're dealt and not worry about anyone else's cards. Fairegold: relax. Please take tangible, positive steps to take a meditation class, or purchase CDs, or do whatever you need to do to recharge your batteries and take care of that BP problem. Close the door and do what YOU need to do for YOU. You still have a full life ahead of you....be well. Blessings Linda

Thanks for the input! I drove a 2010 Forester (liked it--the base model, no bells and whistles: even heated seats don't rock my world!) and an Impreza (really liked that). Decided that I really don't need the heft of the Forester if I can get all-wheel-drive in the Impreza. (D.C.-area snow, if you factor OUT this past winter, is not horrendous! Did you venture to these parts this winter, Stinky?) Still crunching numbers. The 2011 Imprezas are in (or just in) to showrooms, so no real bargaining power there yet. Because my insurance costs will double pretty much with any car I get (my car is old!), I might try to push my current one a bit longer. In the meantime, I get to test-drive other cars and compare them to the Subaru. And I didn't even have the Impreza in mind when I went to Subaru--I just went to see the Forester! So I had done no research on it. But Consumers rates it higher than other similar models.

Yes, the few are in pots in the bottom ? 30/36 inches deep so the tops die back in winter here but the roots in the pots live & come back every year. I am in zone 7 high desert at 5280 ft./mile high so it does freeze at night in winter but I keep a bubbler going & a hole kept open in the ice that forms. Right now the pond is full of lilies in bloom on top of the surface of lily pads covering the whole pond surface! Odd, the pond comes alive with the long strings of black 'dots' after the mating uproar! & then the hatched 'teeny black things with a tail' : polywogs... but then all of a sudden they disappear & don't see any young small toads; not sure where the developed toadlets go & get transformed so quickly? The big fat mature toads are everywhere & I find their droppings all over the sidewalks & driveway. They have no fear of our 5 dogs & I can handle them with no problem ... they just lay there & don't attempt to jump away & the dogs oddly pay no attention to them at all?! I guess the plants/shade are responsible for little algae too but son also this year installed a UV light on the water before it enters the filter which may account for some of the clear water (UNDER the lilies!). Think it is illegal to get rid of excess lilies in the rivers/lakes so have to find a local group that wants them in their ponds! I now want to buy some other colors: pink, yellow, etc.! Oh, I have lots photos of the mating toads ... IN and OUT of the water! (thanks frankielynsie!)