ali, what about putting an arbor in and growing a honeysuckle up it? From the edge and in from the driveway to the tree, I'd edge out the grass from that area and curve slightly to the end of the concrete pad in front of your home, the patio area. All the way to the end. Let's give you some curb appeal ;) Put the middle of the arbor in front of the edge of the concrete pad where the car is sitting, about 3 feet in. From the middle of the arbor to the drive and then going up your house, you could create a path that would curve over to the sidewalk and to the front door. For right now, using newspapers and a 5 gallon bucket filled with water, cover up all grass with layers of newspapers you've plunged into the water. Lay them down, overlapping as you go. I typically use about 10 layers of paper. The more, the better. If you can create your path first, either using stepping stones or gravel, lay down something like visqueen and lay the stepping stones or the gravel over to create the path. Remove the grass where the path will be so that nobody trips over stepping stones or gravel. Take out a V shape where you're going into the lawn from driveway to tree and up and over to the end of your home. Remove the dirt and the grass from the V, so that you've got a drop off of sorts and lay your wet newspaper to curve down into the area where the dirt is. Cover the area up with mulch or mushroom compost if you can get your hands on some, except for the path area. By next year, the newspaper will start to decompose and the grass will be dead, but it adds to the organic matter of newspaper and the dead grass. Worm heaven. From now and thru winter, study up on various perennials and possibly a few shrubs that produce berries for our other feathered friends. Next year, push back the mulch or mushroom compost and dig holes to plant. There should be enough room to the right of the path up to your front door, to add in a shrub. Then the other shrubs could go in front of the poles, under planted and going out to the edge with perennials. I prefer natives. They're adapted to our weather, our soil, they make up our ecosystem. Find a list of native plants for your area, and research those plants as to what hummingbirds like and also which ones make seed that other birds will like to eat on. The native plants won't require dead heading, don't need pruned or cut back so they look better....I just prefer them over all. Now an iris in there isn't going to hurt anything ;)...or a peony....both left by the previous owner that I decided to leave and a friend of mine from TN also gave me a beautiful iris that is sentimental to me. But again, those 2 are easy plants. Hummingbirds will love to sit and rest a spell on shrubs you provide and give you a closer look at their beauty. Too much?? Where do you live? Zone 5, but where? lovefornature, you're doing a wonderful job! It's people like you who join GW that make it an enjoyable site to visit. If you like butterflies and are interested in attracting some of them to come to your yard, you could plant a Aristolochia tomentosa or Aristolochia durior. Another plant I love that I don't know draws anything in, but blooms in late summer, is Clematis virginiana. Another neat native clematis is Clematis glaucophylla. I also answered the e-mail you sent, I hope you got it.

It's no accident that his first 'lifestyle boutique' opened in NYC in the mid-80s, the time of Dallas and Dynasty. Social climbers everywhere rejoiced. A fellow student in my graduate dramaturgy/dramatic criticism class wrote a paper on the performance-art aspect of it. I cringed -- having grown up stuck in a school of kids of serious old money (and shunned, since my mother worked [as a multiple-degreed physician] and my father was an immigrant [physicist], I know what they thought about the nouveau riche and their blatant attempts at conspicuous consumption.

I am so sorry for your loss. Nothing said or done helps,but I do care, that you've had to go through this traumatic experience. My Mom died of ovarian cancer July 3rd 2009. She had the surgery followed by chemo treatments, it was in remission for 4 years. Only to come back again about a year and a half later. More chemo, tons of tests, they switched chemo treatments a few times. We got her into one of the best cancer treatment centers and the end result was, she still died. I seen my mom go through so much with the chemo treatments so I understand your mom's not wanting to go through it =/ I would of insisted Mom do chemo, too simply cause I couldn't bear to lose her. It hurts. It hasn't gotten better so far. In fact sometimes it seems to get worse as I realize, I've never gone without talking to her for so long. I really hope it does get easier for the both of us. Like you my Mom was pretty much all I had. Never been close to my Dad.

Salena, I echo sort of what the others say. It does sound like he is pulling the wool over your eyes. I would suggest that you get ahold of the police report to see what really happened. That might give you more answers to if he is actually pulling the wool over your eyes. As for some of the comments above, lighten up! We are not in her shoes and really don't know what is happening. As for him not being an adult, what in the world do you call a 21 year old? A kid? So he did have alcohol in the vehicle which she did say was unopened. I'm not sure if it was or not but I know of very few 20 year olds that do not drink EVER and if your kids are saying this then I think they are pulling the wool over your eyes. As for bailing him out, I'm not so sure that I would not have done the same thing myself. What I am more concerned about is the fact that he had the prescription drug on him. I'm assuming that he did not have a prescription for this and bought it off the street. This is getting to be a big problem probably even more than meth, at least in this area. So, I guess what I'm trying to say is get the police report, if possible, and make your own judgements about your grandson. If he is addicted, then maybe treatment might be the answer. They have some good programs out there that range from outpatient to inpatient depending on the severity. Maybe a drug education course is all he needs but I'd be doing something and I would NOT turn my back on him. He is only 21! Also, maybe there's an expert out there that can guide you. Hang in there Salena! I'll be thinking about you.