As a landscape designer, I'd say that designing a perennial border for maximum color over the longest period of time is one of the harder tasks to achieve. Typically, it is a bit of a trial and error process over a period of a few years. Perennials, especially those planted in decent soil, often exceed growth expectations or tag info plus many will need to be divided on a fairly regular basis and some are just very aggressive in their growth habits and will want to hog the real estate. Spacing, particularly for maximum impact and fullness, is always a challenge and will need continual tweaking. The interspersing or blending together effect is generally achieved over time or by incorporating self-seeding perennials or those often referred to as 'binders' or weavers - sprawling type plants that tend to take advantage of their neighbors for support and that will weave through and tie various sections of the border together. A number of hardy geraniums fit this bill, also herbaceous clematis. In addition to combining for flowering time, you need to pay attention to foliage effect. Some perennials offer great foliar attributes both before and after bloom period - others look terrible after blooming and will need to be cut back for aesthetics. And a border consisting solely of perennials is generally going to be bare ground a good portion of the year and is best addressed by including appropriately sized shrubs or dwarf conifers, etc. to provide some structure and provide winter interest. And don't forget to include evergreen groundcovers or perennials that retain their foliage all year - there's quite a few. It may be worth looking at The Well-Designed Mixed Border by Tracy DiSabato Aust at the library or local bookstore. This will provide you with all sorts of pictorial inspiration as well as tips on how to combine perennials for maximum impact and year long color.

I can't figure out what you did wrong! I looked at the source code and it looks right, unless you just pasted the URL for the picture wrong? Yep, looks like that's the problem. This is the URL you used: photos.gardenweb.com/garden/galleries/2007/08/clematis_ruutel.jpeg This is the URL cnetter used: http://photos.ivillage.com/images/photos/resize/gardenweb_Garden%20Galleries_1186006541455_225223D.jpg I don't think you did anything wrong; there's just something wacky about the gardenweb upload feature. I use imageshack for all my uploads. It's free and you don't have to register if you don't want to, and I've never had any problems with it.

I have one of the smaller 6k machines. For me how many clothes in a load depends on what color they are, what they are made of, and if I am washing items that fade and bleed. I did a few loads today. Two of them consisted of: White cotton under wear and socks: 13 T shirts 10 briefs 10 pairs of socks. 7 Handkerchiefs Temperature 140F Detergent amount 1 tablespoon + 2 teaspoons. cycle length 1 hour 37 minutes Dark blue Cottons: 7 pairs of athletic socks 2 sets of flannel PJ's 6 athletic T shirts 1 hooded sweat shirt 1 under wear brief Temperature 105F Detergent amount 2 teaspoons Cycle length 49 minutes. The other loads were a queen comforter and blankets. I have additional loads sorted to do some time this week They are: bright green cottons, dark green cottons, brown cottons, black cotton polo type shirts, tan cottons, grey cottons, medium blue Polartec fleece, black Lycra. None of these loads will completely fill the machine but I sort by fabric type and within type by color which means that I don't wash cotton and poly or spandex together because they don't dry at the same rate and cannot withstand the same water temperatures. I also keep dark blues separated from dark greens and reds and browns. So I basically keep all colors separated. The one exception is that I will wash bright yellow and green together. If I have polo shirts they will go into loads by themselves separated by color, which prevents a lot of wrinkling and no - I don't iron anything. Towels are washed together by color with no other type of garment. Polyester and synthetic materials go together and are not mixed with cottons. I didn't use to be this finicky about sorting until I had my washer fixed to drain into the laundry sink. Once I saw the amount of color transfer taking place in the wash water being pumped out I became very strict about color separation. These are the same type of loads I did when I had my TL so the amount of loads per week didn't increase or decrease when I switched to a FL. I also think the amount of clothes in a load will depend on how heavy and bulky the items are. I know instructions say to wash a mixed load. I don't think I have ever done this. I wash small items with large but try not to mix fabric types and extreme weight variations. I really don't have anything tangled.

My mom had hers at the bottom of the steps to the second floor and at the entrance to her kitchen in a hallway. It made a great place to set down your keys when entering the house. Hers had a top to it and she put collectibles in there. In the years since it was moved into a corner of her living room where she could open it up to use it for letter writing. My sister now has it proudly displayed in her living room. A wonderful, usual piece of furniture. In the drawers were the phone books, catalogs etc. Mary