It nice to know that there are others who took the same initial approach that I did. Early this spring I decided that I was going to avoid the bargain shopping trips, and also not buy anything unless I knew exactly what I needed for a specific location, and then I researched my options thoroughly. Except for a few perennial purchases, which I knew I would want anyway, I stuck to my new rule. Here is how I fixed my mess. I looked at every major area and decided what I did or didn't like about it, then tried to figure out how to correct problems that needed correcting. Once I did that, I made lists of everything I had, determined which little micro-climate each plant would grow best in, then proceeded to place them based on size, color, shape, etc. One thing that helped me "see" where to put the shrubs and trees was to use 4' tall stakes where I was thinking about putting something. This gave me a solid point to look at instead of depending on my minds eye. It served to be an invaluable exercise. I also used a person holding a long stake to simulate a tree so I knew exactly where it should go. Another thing that helped was that I made a measuring stick out of an 8-foot long, 1 x 1 piece of wood by placing marks on it for every foot. This helped me place each shrub neither too close or too far from anything. Im not always accurate at eyeballing the spacing of anything over 3Â, anything over 5Â IÂm hopeless. After moving nearly everything, I only needed to purchase 4 major shrubs and one tree. Their spaces were planned and there were stakes in the ground marking where they needed to go. Planting happened almost immediately after the plants were brought home. The first layer is nearly completed, and perennials are filling a lot of the small gaps for now. Next year I will tweak the second layer, but itÂs so much easier to see what needs improving because 90% of the first layer was thoughtfully planted. I made a few mistakes, but that was near the end of all the plant moves, my body was screaming at me to stop, and it was just beginning to get hot, so I rushed. I ended up making over 130 plant moves this year. I tossed out or gave away plants that didn't fit, and I got rid of a couple of things that were more trouble than they were worth. It was a waste of money, but a lesson learned. What really surprised me when I finished for the season, was that by establishing the first tier and placing trees where they needed to be, the garden seemed to come into itÂs own, or that it could come into itÂs own despite there being a lot of area that need to be filled. I donÂt know if that makes sense, but what I do know is that I am cured of bargain plant shopping, and rescuing sad little plants from big box stores and other places who have no business selling plants (ignore those little clematis from the big box store, they donÂt count). I found it much more satisfying to carefully select plants before going shopping, and I had a lot more time in the garden than I would have if I had kept up my usual garden center hopping habit. Most of those garden centers carry the same plants, have you noticed that? As soon as you establish the bones of your garden, and you can do it if you stay home instead of going out hunting, you will be in a position that will allow you carefully choose what plants you really want. You will be able to keep up with planting and it will be much more enjoyable.

My feelings about the oven are kinda mixed; like the oven performance. There are really good things about the oven and some of the other. The good things: (1) Seriously, the door design is really good. The doors is flat and doesn't have gaskets - the gaskets are on the oven body. It's pretty thin but also feels heavy and stays where ever you put it. The door has vents near the top, but not on the top. Those vents align with some on the oven body. I guess you could manage to drop something into the vents, but it would take some work. (2) Although it will not fit a full sheet pan on a rack, it will fit a half sheet plus a quarter sheet per rack. Or a chicken roaster and two sides on one rack. It comes with 3 racks, but 4 or 5 could fit depending on how many were glide racks and what you were making. (3) Once its made up its mind about temperature, it's bang on and will not move at all unless I leave the door open for a while (but see 3 below). (4) The porcelain color of the oven is just a few shades off from burned. That means that stray people who look in the oven aren't going to be able to tell I haven't cleaned it. I do wipe it down every couple of uses but haven't done a big cleaning yet. Most stuff wipes out. I'm considering steam cleaning the sides. (5) The broiler works fine and has a lot of coverage - like a half sheet pan, centered. And, the instructions say never to clean it. If it looks dirty, just run it for 10 minutes to burn the stuff off. That's kitchen gear I can support. (6) Hugeosity! Many loaves at the same time, many dishes at the same time like 3 pans of lasagne plus 3 other casseroles. (7) Gliding rack. If they didn't want a small fortune for extras, I'd have three. This is one of those things that you didn't know you wanted until you have one. (8) It's thermally cool. There isn't a lot of waste heat pouring at the front or through the top or sides. The heat is channeled to the rear vent and it goes right out the hood. (9) The convection fan is protected by a grease filter that goes into the dishwasher. It should keep the fan working well for a longer time. The filter is easy to take off and put back. The bad things: (1) Parts of the oven floor and upper oven back have sharp edges. (2) Only one light - kinda cheezy when the oven is that big and its color that dark. (3) I bought an oven thermometer and learned to use it. The oven has something of a mind of its own when it comes to temperature. First, results improve a lot if you give the oven 45 minutes to preheat and ALWAYS use the fan while preheating. Even then, occasionally it will decide to use some other temperature - and that temperature will be as much as 75 degrees off in either direction. To "fix" that, I open the oven door for a while then close it and it will most likely be at the knob temperature when it recovers and then will stay there. Strangely, turning the oven off briefly and then on again will not reset whatever is causing that. If you don't use the convection fan, try prayer because anything could happen. In my tests, only one in ten oven starts are the correct temperature. Whatever they use as an oven temperature controller, it doesn't seem to be able to figure out what's going on in the entire oven. I wonder if the controller used just can't run an oven that large. Or maybe I gotta busted thermostat or something. Someday, when the weather is better, maybe I'll complain. I have two years and 10 months left on the warranty. As many people know, if you have a sporadic problem, it ain't getting fixed until they can reproduce it. (4) The gliding rack is difficult to remove. It's easy to put back in. Overall, I still like it, even with the goofy oven temp thing. At least I know how to get by until I want to get it fixed. And I know the old nxr ran pretty hot and the stinkin' GE profile ran pretty low - from my trusty oven thermometer. Best thing so far was lemon-blueberry cake, slightly dense with sweetened, beaten cream cheese between each of 4 thin layers. Made me wish I had a tea table.

I agree, the heather is lovely in it`s muted colors. But the Susan is special with it`s sparkly water drops. Nice capture! ;))

You can balance the visual weight of the pieces with one large and two smaller ones but they need matching frames and maybe color schemes to work well together. When we hang an annual art show the civic arts center requires all plain black frames. That ties together art in a variety of styles. Matching pieces will make a bolder decorative statement but get things you love and express you.