Hello, Juanita! Why no responses here? Too bad. I love your post. I got into photography while taking pictures of my roses and daylilies and garden and now am doing bird photography. It is a lot harder than flowers but I love it. I took a photography class last year but it was a bit advanced for me at that time. Now I have a different camera, a Nikon, which I use for everything but birds. My Canon SX50 can't be beat for birding so I am sticking with that for now. I just may take the Photoshop class as I need to do better with it. Hope someone else sees this post and responds. Kathy near Sacramento

The stakes I have are definitely not hollow. To get them in the ground for the tomato containers, I had to go most of the way up a 6' step ladder with a 3 lb hammer. It took some elbow grease to get them about 2' in the ground, with what I think is 6 or 7' showing. They're really solid. No, they aren't sugar maples, and they don't belong to me. I think one is a Norway Maple, not sure on the others. I may get the bounty of the "helicopters" in the spring, and the leaves in fall, but they grow on the properties of neighbors behind me. I suppose I could have someone come in and trim what's over my yard, but it really wouldn't help much. Once the growing season gets in gear around here, I can take some photos and show you. When the crown of the tree is over another yard, and in between your stuff and the sun, it's a losing battle. Greater suburbia life. Nah, I tried Knockout Roses before I knew anything about landscape roses. Haven't read the article, but it's not a type that appeals to me. I gave the two I had to a neighbor with a bigger yard. I'm looking at Pope John Paul II. The main requirement for me, for roses, is fragrance and disease resistance, not necessarily in that order. I only have room for a couple, so they have to be special. I like hybrid teas and old garden roses with a ton of petals. :) Wish I had room for compost piles. Zinnias are pretty. Are there photos somewhere of them that I can look at?

Hi there Frakielynnsie!! I will keep my mind open and remember to keep checking the site. In the meantime, will try and finish my trading page and see if I can figure it out as well as start some more seeds and cuttings to propagate for trade. I was a great trader and would send packed boxes when I had more prior to moving Unfortunately lost a lot in the move. So starting over and hard enough when you're doing it for yourself let alone when you are trying to finish a Memory Garden. So I have a few that I can list right now for some hens and chicks if you like Or we can do so at a later time. Again thank-you for the info....smiles Always a friend, Sincerely and respectfully, Carol Tenen or Perkisun on GW

If you notice, most of us have our zone and general location included with our names as we post. It's nice to not have to remember to add it every post, and gets us advice that is more likely to be pertinent to our location. Here's how to add it to your name: Go to Your Houzz in the upper right of every page, click Edit Profile, and on the left side click advanced settings. Well down the advanced settings page is a blank labeled Climate Zone for Garden Forums along with a link to find your zone. If you add info on your state or the nearest large city either here or on the profile page under the name posted, you will get even better information since zone only relates to average coldest winter temperatures. Then return to the top of the page and click Done Editing.