Thank you everyone for the compliments. The kids are definately in disguise Jeanne! They are all good kids but I wouldn't compare them to angels (unless they are sleeping) LOL. I won't tell Chris all the nice things you have all said about him (I wouldn't want his head to blow up) :) I have always thought he was pretty good looking too. Even before we got together...Marlene, most of the stepping stones that actually made it to my garden were made by my daughter. The designs are mine but all of the ones I made myself were sold or given as gifts. I kept the ones that the kids made because they mean more to me. Luna Lena, yes the floor is all stained glass. The girls and I did that right after we moved in here almost 3 years ago. (I designed it and the girls helped doing some of the cutting and grinding of the glass. Rosemarie, No I didn't make the glow in the dark gazing ball. I bought that at Meijer.

Hi Harry! I wish that you live closer, I would invite you for lunch today.:) This is the first time that I am growing the Okinawa sweet potato, I really have a small garden so I planted them around the blackberries and sugarcane. I kept cutting the vines so they wouldn't run over other places. You can keep the vines as small as the bush ones cutting them. Next warm season I am going to plant them in the raised beds. I will double the amount, let's say if I am growing 6 slips of the bush porto rico, I will grow 12 of the Okinawa. The color keeps a deep purple even after cooking, I suppose after some curing they will taste better. They are excellent now! You must be busy shelling all those BJBB,lol. I am very busy too making papaya chips in the dehydrator, they taste good with salt like french fries but better for you... Thank you Wildatheart - You should try to do a lot of gardening now since you like the cold, me on the other hand likes the heat, after living in Arizona for 10 years I put gloves for anything. This morning when I went to walk my dog on the trail, I was thinking that is time to take out the leather gloves to walk and I had scarf too.lol. Silvia

Hey Calamity, I'm Canadian too! Slow, I think I would have to go check out a place called Electric Cowboy. You have far more get up and go than I do. You are so lucky to have found a handyman who will work in "bits and pieces" they are almost impossible to find here - doing good work at a fair price, in small "bits and pieces". We have HUGE bits and pieces coming, I found a great guy to do our whole renovation. We tried to have a yard sale this weekend. We had GREAT STUFF, but nobody came. The weather was "cold" at 55 degrees!! All that work to set everything up, then I had to pack it all into the van (I was determined to get it in there at one load) and we took it to the thrift store. Hubby spent the weekend dismantling an entire metal kitchen set from the 40's in which every element had been painted on several times. The patience that man displayed. I'd have been bored out of my TREE! But every plastic, chrome or bakelite piece had to be removed for stripping and powder coating or re-chroming. They did not tell us this until we got it all the way out to the coaters!! So back home again to take it all apart. I think I would have rather gone country dancing, lol :) GGG

Phyllis that is what I want to do in the atrium about 2 or3 of the big plastic bins using the method from the last link I provided. For this Texas heat in the summer it would be a much better way to keep the plants hydrated than pouring on surface water which evaporates as fast as you add it. I have the bins but need my husband on board to finish the project so it might not happen this year lol. Two acres you could still add a piece of pvc pipe with holes drilled in it in, and placed few places as a way to pour water deeper into the beds even that would help get some deep root water to them, just stick them in standing straight up and the soil will hold them upright. Would save on water and time watering. Right now on my current beds I have soaker hoses laid out snaking around, they are on a controller valve with a timer which turns them on when I want to and for how long it is all set up automatically so I never need to go water which is a big deal for me. We bought the controller valve thing at Lowes we got one that has 4 zones each can be set up separately. I love it and so do the plants. I hear you about the snakes! Of course the determined ones can get any where.