Hello, and thanks for the info, it's good to know the copper won't disappear half-way through training. Janet; I discovered a type of scented geranium that is absolutely a dream to train. I believe it was 'lemon crispum' but you'll know it when you see it. It grows straight up with small ruffled leaves that look a bit like curly parsley attached almost directly onto the central stem. I recently found a lovely variegated type that is stunning mixed with the original green, especially. I just root them at the base of the form and tie them with raffia until they're wrapped about the form sufficiently to stay on their own. Regular geraniums are a real effort to train because they have to be pinched back to be bushy. The best way I've found around this difficulty is to take a wire ring or chicken wire form made for holding spagnum moss (found mine in the crafts section). Then I rooted bunches of the cuttings in the form and pinched them back mercilously. This method works best for simple shapes. If neither of the above methods will work for you, you could simply train your geranium into a standard, lollipop shape. Just pinch off the lower leaves as it grows until it's as tall as you like, then pinch until you get a nice round ball (or two or three!) on top. Some geraniums will need to be staked. Good luck, and thanks again, Veronica

LOL!!! Those stones were the easy part! I hope your broken ribs heal quickly. Fortunately this is the slow, just-keep-them-alive time of the year. I don't lift and carry those stones. (anymore) I lift a bit with a sharp shooter to get my fingers under them, then lift the rest of the way to stand on edge and kinda roll them in place. Hubby had to help with a few to get the cardboard tucked under them. I was so hot and tuckered out by that point. I plan to move 2 of them a few more inches over to make walking easier. I had placed them there a few years ago--so that much of the labor had already been done. :) We got the Mel's mix all done and in the beds this morning. It was pretty easy and went fast. We used a big tub and a special blending attachment to our drill. :) I just got it all soupy wet, it is draining now. I'll go back later when its shaded there and re wet some areas that need it and we'll see in the morning if we need to add more mix or not. This evening we'll go through the seed stash and plan what seeds go directly in the beds and which ones to start in trays for our fall vegetable garden. I'll start seeds over the next week or so. We're so excited. This is the fastest I've ever gone from weedy mess to able to plant! And its the best looking planting area I've ever done too. Bonus was getting all those pots off the porch! It makes our patio seem bigger, airier, and cleaner too. Unless you garden, you have no idea the labor involved. Just getting the bags of stuff from the car to where you want them is enough to make most people decide they don't want to do it. I have another longer bed on the other side of the house that is also very over grown and wild. It is full of grass and weeds too. Towards the end of Aug beginning of Sept I plan to round up most of it, protecting the plants I plan to move and get ready to do the same thing in that bed. More raised beds and tons of mulch. It will be ready for fall-winter/early spring food crops. I want to make those raised beds much deeper for bigger rooted plants and more root crops. The ones by the back porch I plan to grow mostly greens, and this year some fall tomatoes that I suspect (and hope) won't get as huge as the ones we grow from spring up to last frost. We eat greens everyday so having those beds there will make it much easier to harvest and use. Here's another view.

Thanks, I love the colors too, especially since where I live people mostly wear a lot of darker clothing (below freezing about half the year), so I look to accessories for some color.

Thank you Mona and Boop for your kind words. I am glad to be remembered LOL Just wanted to share and maybe encourage someone to try something unexpected as well. Otherwise I am OK. Things are moving much slower pace, so my projects currently are few and far between.