Outofspite: Nice pix!!. I love the info they have on their website as man they have nice selection. I have been getting the coleus bug myself and have been offering several varieties to my customers and they seem to be enjoying seeing all the new coleus that have been coming out over the past few years. I personally only have four but will probably have to break down and acquire a few more. I carry about a dozen at the garden center at any one time so far this year. So far I don't buy any mailorder so I can't help there but the Rosy Dawn website shows they are doing it right by all I can see from that end. Happy Grwoing y'all David

Thanks Kirk for adding a link I had no luck with it.Oh no I have to wait till Christmas Eve when my kids and grandskids are here to see me open it.They are excited about it as much as I am.When the mail man brought it up to the door.I put it on my love seat and I thought why not take a picture of it and share.It's waiting for the tree to go up.On Christmas Eve I have an open house and right before friends and neighboors come in Santa comes and sees my grandkids,and he'll be here for me to open it. Have fun in the next couple of weeks.Joan

Pam, your zoo garden is such a lovely idea. how about Lamb's Ears (stachys)? And, sort-of an animal name, i have a "Rudolph" spurge in a sunny spot in my kids garden, which gets red tips that look like red noses in the winter. And for shadier spots, Bear's Breeches (Acanthus) and Tiarella "Tiger Stripe". Please post some pictures when Evan's zoo garden flowers! Your veggie bed sounds wonderful too. I have several veggies just planted in sunny spots around the garden, but without really preparing the soil well first, I am not sure they'll do that well. Maybe a veggie plot will be on my list of projects next year. This year, we want to finish our ivy removal project, we have just a couple of areas left. We also need to finish laying a patio. I'm excited about the finished products of both, but not the work involved! I'm most excited about my seed starting efforts so far -- most of these have been Wintersown. I have a lot of seedlings now and will try my best not to kill them at the planting out stage (which i did last year). I think my biggest goal for the year is to get my kids (aged 5 and 3) out into the garden more often. We planted peas, carrots and arugula a few weekends ago and they are very excited that all have sprouted!

It occurs to me that this discussion probably should be on the trellis thread, but since the OP did mention support... ..."With plastic I would have to untangle the vines from the plastic in order to leave the plastic in place... ...If I understand correctly, you tried that and it took too much time." Although I do not leave my trellises up from year to year, I did try to recycle the twine once, as well as to leave all vines in the garden to be tilled under. If the vines were left on over Winter, they were dry & brittle by the time I removed them in Spring. I would cut the bottom of the vertical string, cut the base of the vine, and cut any tops that had grown beyond the trellis. Most of the time, I could then pull from the top down, and the vines would slide off. It took practice, and some varieties were more difficult to remove than others. But in the end, with the wife & I both removing the vines, it took several days. The weather is fickle here, and I don't usually get the luxury of that much time; so I decided that my time was worth more than the cost of the twine. I've actually been wanting to change my trellis system, to reduce the time I spend each year erecting them. I have thought about 5' tall concrete remesh, cut into 5' & 10' lengths & attached to the poles with zip ties. The different lengths would be combined as needed depending upon trellis length. I already use zip ties for attaching the bottom support, so I know they hold up pretty well. SSE uses basically the same system on their farm, where they use thousands of feet of trellis. But there are two drawbacks. The first is that to get the lengths of remesh I need, I would need to cut my own from the 150' rolls. Sounds easier than it really is. The wire is fairly heavy gauge, and after you cut it, you then need to bend it straight... which is also difficult & time consuming. I have 2 rolls now, and might get this done eventually... but it will be a lot of hard work to turn those rolls into flat panels. The other problem with using steel for the trellises (whether remesh, fencing, or cattle panels) is the storage issue. Because of my crop rotation, the trellises will be in different places each year & must be removed before Spring for tilling. As it is, after Spring cleaning, I have to make piles of poles & rebar rod off to the side of the garden. That much remesh (or steel fencing), when stacked off to the side, would be a real eyesore. My main garden is on a friend's property, so that is out of the question. "No one has mentioned trellis netting & it works well and lasts several years, though I am not doing long runs as some are." I considered it in the past, but found it cost prohibitive. Also, although it might last several years, you have to clean all of the debris out of it after the first year in order to reuse it. While that might work for small runs, it would be nearly impossible to clean off 100' or more in a reasonable amount of time. Oh, and on the topic of cleaning trellis material, there is an easy way to clean old vines from wire fencing. Just roll up the fence - vines & all - when everything has dried, and (in a safe place) set fire to it. Presto! no more vines. Cool, unroll, and reuse.