It takes another gardener to know how one feels, not just about the joys, but about the tragedies, too! And you know what they say... what doesn't kill us only serves to make us stronger! Your former plant-sitter obviously isn't a gardener... if she were, she'd understand how important all the work you've done to your yard is to you! She doesn't care about flora and fauna... she cares only about the money she can make pretending to look after it all while her clients are vacationing. Those kinds of people have empty souls... they're miserable people deep down inside, and we should really pity them... they never really see the beauty of nature around them, they'll never experience the emotion that a special flower in bloom can bring, and they'll never feel one with nature or experience the deep sense of accomplishment that working with nature brings. I've seen so many people like that, being in the dog breeding business as we are... people who look at plants and animals and only see the monetary value... it's sad, really. When spring rolls around again, you're welcome to divisions, cuttings, young stock... whatever I have... of any of the multitude of perennials and shrubs in my gardens! I have Daylilies (both named and unnamed), iris (named and unnamed), columbine, rudbeckia, echinacea, hostas (named and unnamed), ferns (most named), heuchera (all named), monarda in 3 colors, roses (named and unnamed, large and miniature), and a plethora of other perennials and shrubs, the list too long to pull out of my memory at this moment in time! I'm not even through my first cup of coffee yet! You have all winter to think about it, though... and you pretty much know what my gardens contain due to all the photos I've posted! There are some things that didn't make the photos, but I'll have a more detailed listing by then. I've always felt that the most beautiful and precious of plants come from the gardens of our friends. Gardening is for sharing! If not, then why grow all this beauty? Surely not to hoard for ones self! It can only be enjoyed fully if we share the beauty with others! I sure wish your yard could have shared in all the rain we've gotten lately! Last year, this area of the country was low on precipitation, but we're surely making up for it this year! Not a week has gone by since spring that we haven't had at least one storm with an inch of rain! I've only had to run the soaker hoses once so far this season... last year, they ran constantly, it seems! In fact, we had more thunder storms last night! Larry and I stood out in the garage and watched the lightening flash across the sky... the light show was incredible! The flashes were both orange and white-hot! Some were in the distance, but some were pretty close! Some flashes were like long bony fingers of orange reaching across the heavens and branching out, and others were thick blue-white spikes that tore from the clouds and shot straight to the ground! The thunder constantly rumbled, and it boomed loudly when a bolt hit close by! The accompanying rain was at times soft and light, and then it would downpour for a bit before tapering off to sprinkle again... it was an awesome storm! I'm always awed by nature! Remember when you were a kid... and you were kind of scared of thunder storms? My Dad would kneel with us, backwards on the couch, facing the huge picture windows in our living room, and every time a lightening bolt would flash, we'd count... one-one thousand, two-one thousand, three-one thousand, like that... until the thunder sounded... and then my Dad would say, "See? That one was only 3 miles away!" And he would explain to us how heat lightening was generated, how rain formed in the clouds, the cycle of rain to ground water, and all those things you want to know about when you're a little kid... and before we knew it, the storm would pass... and we wouldn't be afraid anymore. But I digress... Sometimes, there are opportunities hidden in the guise of disaster... I agree with Lizalily... this is actually a good opportunity to think about getting those few plants that you've wanted, but just haven't had room for, or just haven't ordered yet. It's also a good time to think in terms of water conservation... planting things that can tolerate a bit of dry. If you plan on taking several trips during the summers, laying out a plan of irrigation, and drought tolerant plantings for the areas that won't be irrigated, might be something to think about. Things like ornamental grasses and sedums can really be eye catching, and once established, they don't require much in the way of watering! I was all set to do some digging yesterday... to get some divisions ready to ship out... and the rains began! I suppose that's actually good, though... the divisions will be good and hydrated now, and should ship well with a lot less stress. The rain only set me back in seed collecting, saturating the pods. That will have to wait a few days, while the sun dries everything out. But, by this afternoon, the garden soil should be just about right for digging, and I can get some much needed dividing done! I did get lucky in that I got several perennials planted before the rains arrived yesterday! The rains gave the new plantings a good, deep drink! Well... I think that between Lizalily, Kitty, myself, and others... you'll be swimming in pass-along plants and divisions and cuttings for your gardens next spring! Put together a list of the colors and heights you're looking for, perennials and shrubs, seeds, and anything else you think you might want to add to your beautiful beds, and we'll all keep our shovels and pruning clippers clean, sharpened and at the ready! And by next summer, you're gardens will be so gorgeous, you won't have to go anywhere else for a vacation... your back yard will be a paradise!

timmy I think that will depend on the supply size of the hose and water pressure. However, in the past, I've run up to 10 drip heads on a single 1/4" feed without any problems. If you need more volume, you can purchase 1/2" tubing which will give you a lot more options as far as how many heads you wish to run, and the amount of water you want to flow.

I think you're prices are too low. You'd be lucky to make a profit on somethings. I just bought 2 peaches for $3 the other day. If you're making fruit pies and cobblers, I would definitely charge more for those. And,if your cookies have chips and/or nuts and butter, you'll be lucky to break even. Plus, you may have to plan on some stuff not selling. I would take preorders for the pies and cobblers (even cakes) and sell them whole for twice of what you paid to make them. People like being able to take bigger stuff home to other family members. If it's a fundraiser and a good cause, I would pay a lot more for homemade goods. I would price any individual item at at least a dollar or more. And, if you put enough fluffy icing on a cupcake you can charge big bucks for it! Just make sure to price stuff so that you're actually making a big enough profit to make it worth the effort. I'd hate to see you slaving and baking for 3 days to come out $7 ahead. How about doing some big iced cinnamon rolls one morning (or some other breakfast - bakery good)? I would bet you could charge a lot for those. People love eating with their morning coffee and will probably pay a little more for a treat then since it seems more like a meal instead of just a snack. Good luck; let us know how it goes.

To clarify some things about our ideas to buy on Isle of Palms - while we're going to hold off on buying, and may not ever buy on the island itself, the area around it seems to be exactly what we're looking for our retirement years. The island is less than 13 miles to downtown Charleston, and only 20 miles to the Charleston Int'l airport. Even closer than Charleston is Mount Pleasant, about 4 miles away (across the Inter-coastal waterway and a marsh), which has plenty of shopping, restaurants, medical care including a decent hospital. In addition to wanting to live close to the ocean, we want to live near good medical care (this is most important), shopping (I'm not going to stop doing DIY projects on any home I live in until my body gives out - it's my hobby), airports, etc. I love the beach - every vacation we can we go to a beach - we've visited many of the east coast beaches over the years - I never get tired of it. My husband loves salt water fishing. We have a boat that he takes onto the Chesapeake Bay all the time to fish, and we go tubing on the Potomac River with our grown kids and grand kids (who are still very little). We've planned on retiring to as close to the (right) beach as possible for at least 20 years and I think it's safe to say that we're not going to change our mind about that between now and when we actually retire. And I definitely don't want to ever live someplace rural again - did that as child and have family still there - definitely not for me. Even if we were young I don't want to live in a place where there aren't plenty of doctors, including all types of specialists, and I don't want to live someplace, where if one of us was in the hospital, the other would have to drive over an hour back and forth. I'm honestly surprised at how many people I know who retire who don't care about that aspect at all. So - given what we know we want/need, we've been considering all the areas close to the Atlantic between Wilmington NC and Jacksonville FL. A few years ago we visited every place that even seemed to come close to what we want. But when we were looking before our income and savings were a fair amount less than they are now, and housing costs and interest rates were higher, so it limited where we would be able to afford to buy, so we didn't consider some of the areas we could afford now. And this is a retirement place we're talking about - being able to vacation in it before retirement is a bonus. We could wait until we retire to buy, but as I said in the original post, I don't want to miss an opportunity to buy while the prices are low AND the interest rates are low. But I do think we need to slow down and take our time - visit and stay there during different seasons, including the heavy tourist season, and make sure that it's what we want. We may find that living on an island/beach itself is not that great and that we should go back to what we always considered to be our only option - living on the mainland, but close to the beach. People seem to think that prices will be low for a while - I don't want to buy and then see prices drop even lower - and that interest rates will be low for a while too. So I realize that there is no rush - but I still don't want to kick myself years from now for missing any "deals of the century". I know this was long - sorry about that - but I think my first post gave the impression that the whole idea of buying at/near a beach, and this one in particular, was hurried and not thought out. While rushing into it right now is undoubtedly a bad idea, I don't think the concept of buying a home sometime soon for retirement in a few years, if the prices and interest rates are really low now, is a bad idea.