Don't even talk about fur thongs! I did wear a fur SARONG to a party once. *grin* The tree thing has been covered, so I'll touch the second one. Kev is too modest to do so. I think we as Americans have too many hangups about the naked human body. Even more so with the naked male human body. I mean..look at nudity in films..it's mostly female. In some R rated films, a woman's who-ha is in plain sight, but I challenge you to find a full frontal scene where a man is involved (I think of Julian Sands in Warlock or that other cute guy in 28 Days Later). If you feel sexy and comfortable, that's really all that matters. How can guilt come from something so natural..I just don't understand.. Clint

Gorgeous photos, Chaz! I can't choose a favorite! I am leaning toward the night bloomer, though! Or maybe the red Hibiscus... The form of your night bloomer is unreal! I did not expect it to look quite like that! I had imagined a more cacti-looking form, closely hugging the pot... if you know what I mean! Wow! That's amazing! It's the one plant I really haven't taken the time to closely research... I can see I need to get on that, and learn more! The red Hibiscus is really beautiful! Our local Lowe's has some red flowered ones in large pots, but they're too high priced right now... I thought I'd try to grab one when the price went down a bit... call me cheap! In my gardens, Hibiscus are more the focal plant type, and I really don't have room for another... but I'd make an exception for the red! Your gardens look terrific, Chaz! I'm happy it all worked out good in the end! You guys have done a fabulous job on your yard! I can see all the hard work that went into it, all the stone work, all the pathways, all the planting and choosing of plants... it's a beautiful scene! Plants continue to surprise me with their ability to adapt and survive adverse conditions... most cope pretty well, I find. Notice how the weeds cope even better? LOL! Anyway... I'm happy that you're happy with the end results, and I'm glad I could be a small part of it... don't hesitate to ask for anything else you'd like that I might have... I'm glad to share! Nice job, Chaz! Great photos!

If you have just moles, then you have the raised tunnels across the yard and no plant damage. They eat earthworms and grubs and such. I've used a castor bean oil repellant with good success. If that's what you have, the repellant will help if used exactly according to directions. It needs to be watered in so it's in the ground at the level the moles are tunneling. Voles are extremely destructive to plants, eating the roots and crowns of many kinds. I lost several hundred dollars worth of hostas many years ago before I realized what was going on and my MIL lost a huge rose bush that literally fell over from loss of roots. I don't know if the repellants work against them or not. A cat is an excellent solution since they think vole and mole hunting is great sport. They usually kill the moles and leave them lying around but will eat the voles. At least that's what our cats have always done. The other solutions are traps or poison bait which can be enclosed in specially designed bait stations. I worry about the poisoned critters being caught above ground before they die and eaten by cats or other predators and then the poison going up the food chain. I've done it in the past when we didn't have outside pets and the neighbors were far enough away that I was reasonably sure no pets were going to get in trouble. But it's not my favorite thing to do. I much prefer letting a cat do my dirty work for me. LOL They will also keep the chipmunk population under control. The mulch, compost, and manure can be stored near each other without problem. Tarps might keep the dogs out but are not really necessary for any other reason. The manure will age better without a tarp and be ready for the garden faster but I understand the need if the dogs are fond of it. We had one that loved to follow the neighbor's cows around and find the freshest pile available to roll in... then thought he was the sweetest smelling thing alive and wanted to be petted! Nasty little critter, but we loved him anyway! LOL

Renovator8 - Thank you for that link, I'm going to try it out. The house will be located in the Triad, NC. Also, he is a really good person, he's going to help us, but it will be like I said on his personal time, so we're going to try to get as much done at one meeting as can, because me and my fiance are trying not to take up too much of his personal time. When he told us to have everything like we want it, he meant that way after he drew it, maybe we wouldn't be inclined to change it 3 or 4 more times, because we really spent time pouring over things picking them out. That's the reason I was asking what did you provide for your architect at your meetings so I can try to get a lot of this taken care of in the first meeting. I've also been reading and reading on this site all the links that I can find in the building a house section that may help us. The only thing I really can't find is detailed break-down of when to start picking things out, i.e lights, flooring, etc., I was hoping somebody could give me some of their timelines when they picked things out.