That's a pretty broad question ... here in Western NY, outside Buffalo, we never had the huge increases in values ... it's always just been a slow steady increase. Now some of the more rural areas are becoming more popular as people want to move out of the McMansion burbs, into less populated areas. More popular = increase in price.

Leisa, as for the raised beds, have you checked into lasagne beds? I read about it here, tried it and it works so good. It's so easy one would be inclined to think it wouldn't work. Heres a breif descrption but you can do a search for it for more details. Lay down cardboard or several layers of newspaper right on top of the grass where you want your bed to be. Layer soil and some sort of compost (leaves, bark, grass clippings)then more soil. Your bed is ready for planting. The cardboard/newspaper layer blocks/kills the grass underneath, and eventually breaks down,while the layers of compost matter helps keep the soil rich. I have done this for all my new beds (8 total) it works well. Hope this helps.

I still feel like I'm behind, though. Probably mostly because I SERIOUSLY cut back on my container count this year. I might have 40-50 perennials out there, and another 24 maybe in other stuff. My usual count is somewhere between 200-400+ I want to do a sale, but iffy on whether or not to do it; people are finicky...I did "ok" last year, but ignorant people snubbed their noses at the small (but full) containers of seedlings (3.50 per jug with up to hundreds of seedlings in it). Ok, so what should I do then? Have my sale in July when everyone's nursery plants are starting to fail miserably? Should I charge 10x as much in July as I would have in May/June in the seedling stage and charge them 3.50 for ONE rud or ONE petunia? (rolleyes). I really don't WANT to babysit containers until July...it's bad enough that I might not get all of my OWN planted out by then, but to have to make SURE that containers don't die...well, mid-July I'm off on other ventures...and when they're MINE..."I'll get to it, or I won't" and either way works. My veggie patch is still under construction (I build borderless raised beds); my onions will be here any day now... I feel like having ordered my toms so late that even a week in April is a lot of wasted germination time. I have mosaic projects not started or finished that I've committed myself to (another forum)...I just feel like I'm not getting anything done and time's a wastin' Maybe I'm just usually "early" and have everything out by now and this "lateness" that I'm feeling really isn't at all.

Blue and gold (yellow) is always such a nice combination. Everything looks really nice--I'm sure he enjoyed the fact that you decorated it in his school colors. You "sound" so calm about all this wedding planning--maybe you've been giving this some thought for awhile and can now just pull it all together, huh? Hope everything comes together just right, so you can relax and enjoy your special day. Luvs