I think it looks SO much better in it's new pot.

Wonderful, warm photos abound. Beautiful. I've been having a hard time falling asleep lately as I've been dreaming of the garden. I'm excited about adding many new things this year with the creation of some new beds. I'm learning more about my gardening style as the years go on. I'd like to focus more on perennial plants that have a lot of uses and such- I've been talking a lot about herbs specifically. I could also use more perennial ground covers around. We moved into our home here now 4 seasons ago and I've barely gotten anything done to the blank canvas/mess our property was in. I hope to continue fixing that this year. So much space needs to be covered! Last year was hard for me because I was pretty focused on learning about chicken keeping. I know a lot more now and this coming year will be better. Thank you for all the photos, very inspiring! Here is a link that might be useful: Ground cover ideas with perennial phlox

Living in western PA my whole life, the worst weather that I had to deal with was a bad thunderstorm or a lot of snow. When I moved out here to Philadelphia 4 years ago I never thought in a million years I would be sitting smack dab in the middle of a hurricane. When I left work on Friday Oct 26th we had an email to all employees that due to the coming storm we might have to close on Monday Oct 29th. Well sure enough on Sunday night they updated the email and advised that the stock market will be closed. So Monday I sat at home all day watching what would be the worst storm I have ever seen in my life. I am only 27 years old, so I have not seen a lot of what life can offer yet, but I will tell you this storm is something I never want to have to live through again. It was horrifying to listen to 80+ mile an hour winds smack against the house. Everything outside was blowing around like we were in the chamber of a vacuum cleaner. BF and I live in a heavily suburban area elven miles north of the city proper. It is a lovely place with old architecture and lots of trees. But those trees ended up being our downfall. Our bedroom is on the third floor so I was almost in the canopy watching the tops bend almost in half to then stand straight back up and be blown the other direction. It truly is amazing how strong trees are and how much they can take before they give out. But sure enough we did have one give out. A piece of the neighbor's spruce tree snapped in half and fell flat in our front yard taking with it the power and cable lines. By the grace of God it missed the house. Amazingly we had enough slack (according to BF) so that the power wasn't knocked out. But now we had a downed tree with live wires under it to contend with when we went outside the next day. Scary stuff :( Now we are almost a week past the storm and the streets around here are still a mess. A lot of roads are blocked off due to either power lines being down or just whole trees lying in the middle of the street. Some people are just now getting their electricity back after almost a full week. We were fortunate enough not to loose power but I was without internet for almost the whole week. Thank you everyone for your thoughts and prayers. We are safe and slowly coming “back to life”. This truly was one for the history books and something I sure as hell never want to have to deal with again. Here are some of the pics I took for home owner's insurance. Not as pretty as a hosta but testament that mother nature is not to be trifled with. Thank you again everyone, your thoughts and prayers made the difference. Ludi Elegans did sustain some “smashing” damage but she was on her way to sleep for the winter so I'm pretty sure she didn't mind :p

The first Severe Thunderstorm Watch of the evening has been issued for some counties in western, central and southern Oklahoma. It is in effect until 1 a.m. You can click on the link below to see the Watch area counties and can click on any of those counties for a link to the text of the watch. Dawn Here is a link that might be useful: Severe Thunderstorm Watch