Just thought I'd say I enjoyed Wisconsin's beautiful terrain Friday thru today. I was in Madison yesterday, and stayed north of Madison 30 miles at an old friend's place that she converted nearly forty acres of a corn field, back into the natural prairie & added three lakes. It was so truly amazing, I walked away with a new felt appreciation to what she had accomplished. I actually liked it more than any garden I've ever been at because, there was non-stop action: cranes and ducks and herons and birds, god there were BIRDS everywhere! It was one of the better experiences of my life. .................... Stay warm up "dar" where the cows and Wisconsin Lutherans co-exist! :-) Dax

Zach - if that's a typical spring I'd move! sleevendog - oh, thought I remembered you're near NYC but didn't realize you had garden/farm in another location - yeah Catskills must be colder than here. Now I understand the snake concern too. edweather - it's been fairly nice (warm and overcast) for planting out, just not sunny enough to really harden off since I know those hot bright days are coming, and I'd like to control how much sun the plants get at first. Then along comes a downpour, or a night in the low 40's to wreck all the planting out plans! I'm starting Sunday. Plants have been out at night (on the nights it hasn't fallen below 45) and are inching out into the back yard (east) for more sun every day (with a few getting burnt - don't know what's up with Mark Twain, they were among the first to go out but are getting bleached and not growing as well). Yeah, it's 2 weeks past the average LFD here, should be putting out peppers by now! Next year definitely planting out early, under cover - I got my sample of cross-connectors on Tuesday, have to order them but should have them by the end of June. Was going to wait until Sept to put the plastic on. But we'll have it for next spring! Still working on building my raised beds (this photo a couple days old) and DH says he'll take a pickax to loosen the soil where the beds are going tomorrow - compacted from bulldozer. I'm going to start putting out the sprawling indeterminates and cherry toms that are hardened off along the fence where I had beans last year, and once we get some manure moved here the others are going in the middle of the tunnel with T posts, the beds (west side shown here) are getting peppers and determinate tomatoes. Today and tomorrow I'm planting beans until the Tstorms hit this afternoon. Hope everybody gets a break in the weather - Zach sounds like he sure could use it!

Yikes--Hope looks positively gaunt! My parents (in Florida) and I (in PA) were quite addicted to DOOL back in the 80's. In fact, just last night I came across a note my daughter Suzanne wrote me from camp asking how the family was, and the pets, "and what's happening on DOOL?" LOL The actress who plays Hope--I remember that she got married and moved to the Bahamas or some such island. Then what happened? Did she get divorced and come back? I don't think she's ever done any other acting work. I suppose none of them have. Anyway, what's her story? Does she have any kids? "Victor's" real-life daughter certainly has done well for herself. :-)

The thing is......there really aren't any "rules" :-) You will not find any landscape design text that will state "do not plant too close to a structure" or "avoid placing taller shrubs in front of a window". Most of these are just common sense practices or at best, a rule of thumb. And like anything else with gardening, it will be very situational. Sometimes taller and airy shrubs are intentionally planted in front of a window to act as screening! Personally, I'd rather look out into something leafy and green than need to pull shades or close curtains :-) One of the reasons I do not post much in the Landscape Design forum (even though I am a practicing landscape designer and garden consultant with a pretty successful 30 year business) is that I dislike the emphatic insistence by nearly everyone that too tall or too close shrubs must be removed and that a tree cannot be placed so that it obscures a direct view of the entry. Poppycock!! These are not landscape design principles but rather just personal opinions!! In all my years of garden consulting and design, I have seen these so-called garden design no-no's in all manner of permutations. Sometimes they obviously do not work but many times they do. As noted above, if the placement does not damage the structure or the plant itself and it is something you, the client or homeowner values and likes, then it is perfectly acceptable to leave it in place and work/design around it. And that also includes trees planted close to a foundation. It is not automatically a bad thing but again very situational........depending on the tree species and the structural integrity of the foundation, it may very well be a non-issue. So by all means, go ahead and break the 'rules'....because they really do not exist outside of using some common sense :-) If it works for you and you like it, then go for it!!