Silverkelt, I feel your pain. Calendar spring doesn't mean a thing when you look out at drifts of snow, does it? I may have been greatly over-optimistic with the dates I set for my rose order deliveries this year too, but I've had some years when spring DOES arrive ahead of schedule up here and then I spend weeks fretting and kicking myself for not having the roses to plant out. Better I guess to hold them, or even put them in pots until the snow clears off. This is always the hardest part of the year to get through and usually DH and I take a trip south to ease the cabin fever but not this year with the economy the way it is. The farthest away I got was down to southern Michigan for almost a week babysitting my grand daughter and my son's two dogs and I tell you what - I don't look forward to the mud season one little bit which is what they're going through right now. Yuck. Wish we could skip that bit of early spring...gee, this year I will experience it twice. Lucky me! But although I can't see any bulbs poking their heads up here with all that snow, there is one definite sign of spring: I have wasps appearing in my bedroom. Happens every single year; they wake up from winter hibernation and go the wrong way, coming *in* the house instead of exiting outdoors where they came from last fall. I sure wish I could find where the darn things sneak in. They've got the dog terrorized!

Hi again! Karl, you make some very good points about fertilizing. I am probably not doing enough or not enough of the right things. I have been fairly successful growing them . I have a small rose bed which my sweet husband dug up for me replacing all of our hard clay soil with organic loose soil. I add nutrients each time I plant a new rose. Here in Pa. I give them about 3 years to show me what they've got and if I am not happy with them they are replaced. I know that is severe but I am 53 years young and there are so many beautiful roses to try out there! I do weed and water and mulch and dead-head. I spend a lot of time with my roses. It gives me great pleasure. I am going to take your advice and fertilize one last time with Vigoro All Purpose as Mike suggested or perhaps Miracle Grow. I tried the fish emulsion a couple years ago --YIKES! We live in a very rural area and after I put that on all of my roses something dug them all up overnight!! They must have liked the smell. My husband and I could only figure that it was a raccoon or possuum? I was so upset that I swore off of that stuff for good! Mike again thanks I didn't realize that those products were merely tonics. Ramblin Rose I am glad you like my forum name. I try to live in that rosey state of mind each day BUT some days it sure ain't easy! :) Lastly ,Diane thanks for the encouraging words! You guys are all great to help me out!

Thanks, Ludi; chin is still up :) I'm still excited and optomistic, I'm just a little peeved that this bull**** weather has wreaked havok on my gardens! But what can I really be angry at, nature? It's just the way it is sometimes, and thankfully not too often. I'm just waiting for dawn so I can go out and do some gardening ha ha ha seriously I don't work for a few days, and the idea that this may have actually been the last below-freezing night until later in the year has me too wired to sleep! I'm gonna go survey the damage, clean up some and site some Hostas! Still have to plant 'Elegans' among others ;P Have a great day everyone, talk to ya later! Don B.

Hi there, I am so sorry that you've hit this dilemma at this stage in the process. I have the same u-shaped kitchen with almost the same configuration, except we have double ovens where your fridge is, and our fridge is on the opposite side, at the end of the counter left of the sink. I spent many, many hours designing our kitchen and thinking through the walkways with appliances, door swings, stools, etc. Our original blueprint called for our kitchen to be 12' deep, with a 24" island with no overhang for bar stools. In a prior kitchen that we remodeled, which was 12', we added an island with stools and had about 33" walkways, one of which had an over door opening. It was very tight, especially when we had guests around the island, which was basically whenever we had guests! So for our new build, I already knew 12' would never work, so one necessity was that we bumped our kitchen 3', making it 15' deep. Our current island is 24" with 10" overhang, making it 34". With 2' of counters/appliances on the sides of the "u." that leaves just over 3 1/2' (about 43") on either side of the island. Our walkways are "comfortable" but not spacious. If someone is sitting at the island on a stool and I need to open one of the ovens, I just tell them to hold still, and I can open the door and have about 6-8" between the door and the back of the stool, which is fine. Honestly, I think 15' is the minimum comfortable depth you can have in a u-shaped kitchen with bar stools. If I built this same design again, I would make it more like 17' deep. I am guessing yours is more like 12-13' deep? Imagine how much space you would have if you had an extra 3' feet of depth and you will see what I mean. If I were you, I would either: 1) go without bar-stools at the island and just have the regular 1 1/2" overhang all around; 2) if there is room, make the overhang on the end of the counter and maybe round the counter on the end so you could try to get 2 stools in; or 3) if you're really set on having the overhang where you have it, perhaps in addition to moving the island closer to the dishwasher side, you could get a new counter top with less overhang, such as 10" overhang instead of 12" if that is what you have. As I discovered in my last kitchen, when you're dealing with walkways, every inch counts! Good luck!