i am not in iowa but i am right next door. i ordered plants from Ion Exchange for the first time last year. i also visited their nursery one day last summer. i ordered some jacobs ladder, some new jersey tea and some button bushes from them... i really have to battle the rabbits for the tea... but so far they keep growing back. have you tried northern sea oats (chasmanthium latifolium)? i have been thinking about adding that to some woodland edge plantings but i havent really seen it, except in pictures, so i have been hesitant to order it. i did plant some bottlebrush grass in my shady raingarden. but my wierdo dogs kept eating the tops off, so they didnt grow very tall. i have been using cayenne pepper to discourage rabbits, and i may need to use it on the bottlebrush grass to keep the dogs off, if i ever want to see any growth on it. i agree that height is often missing in shade beds. it makes sense to me, that plants that get less sunlight are probably less prone to big growth. a nice tall plant that does grow well in shade is culver's root (veronicastrum virginicum). i have used that for height in my shade beds. the bumble bees really love it. the white spires of culver's root contrasts nicely with the dark purple of tall ironweed (vernonia altissima) which also tolerates quite a bit of shade. the two mixed look really neat at night too.

As always, you were absolutely right. I tell ya, I'm tickled to get through an entire season with some production and know kinda what happens with a few varieties of veggies. Watching the growth patterns and gaining insight to spacing needs. And especially knowing how they react to the soil as is. Most of my stuff wasn't amended. They did well! The not knowing is what drives me crazy. And these will come easy in the spring. Yay! and it's really awesome to know me.. where I get lazy, what's ridiculously difficult for me to handle and finding ways to make it easier. I'm winter sowing to see if I can get some things to come up on their own since I have plenty of mulch and good dirt. I really hate starting indoors. I'm certain I will have a bunch next spring, but the more I can reduce the happier I am. It's truly amazing how we're all different. In the beginning I was like "ooh.. she's doing this. I must!" But, in reality, I need to let a bunch of things go to seed that would drive you batty, but only because I'm happy to forage them for the bunnies. Next year I'll have the molokhia, alfalfa, lambsquarters, varieties of amaranth, Austrian peas and some other natives. Funny ... I don't mind weeding but hate starting seedlings. Weird. I was speaking of pepper jelly to my son last night. We started reminiscing over those wonderful Yukon Gold potatoes that came out of the garden. It is so awesome to see the kids get so excited. But those potatoes... were awesome. We agreed to expand the potato bed and put in "bunches and bunches and I'll help you keep them watered, Momma!" hehe

So the phone rings last night and momma gets it upstairs and about a half hour later she comes down and tells me it was the second recipient of a bouquet. Since he was in the rehab center he got to pick and he chose #1. Between the fragrance and the colorful combo, he has become the bell of the ball and he called to tell us how much joy it has brought into the lives of the other patients as well. Isn't that just the reason we love to do what it is we do ????? The phone call made my day for sure :-)

I received a surprise today from Chris (grolikecrazy)! Thank you. :) The plain letter envelope had holes in it- looks like it was damaged in transit. There was no bubble wrap or other padding inside of it to cushion the seeds. Seeds sent to me with no bubbles almost always do get destroyed like this, because the PO runs mail through some hard metal rollers unless it's in a bubble mailer marked FRAGILE in big red letters. :( The Dianthus barbatus seeds were about 75% destroyed and the Red Noodle Yard Long Bean seeds were completely dust. Thank you grolikecrazy, for kindly sending to me. I can still sow the few Dianthus seeds that made it, and hopefully get some plants! Excited about that. :) I'm sorry this happened, Chris. You were so kind to send seeds to me. I'm very glad you were thinking of me, and some of the Dianthus seeds do appear to be usable. It made my day to receive this, even if it is just a few seeds. : ) Thanks, Grovespirit Wondering why the surprises I mailed out haven't shown up here yet. I do hope they didn't get lost in the mail.