proud.... This arbor was just stuck inbetween those two beds with no plan in mind... If I had made a plan, I would have had at least a gate on each side or something else white (I do have a white bench once you walk through), but the borders/shrubs were in already and then came the arbor...who knew I was going to be able to grow all these flowers - Since it looked so bare - just this white arbor in the middle of winter, I decided to put Carolina Jasmine which is evergreen - but last year I did Hyacinth Bean, gorgeous but left the arbor bare all winter.

Karen, that's the first blooms I've had in several years with gazania. The rabbits go crazy for it. Now if I could plant a bed of just gazania and the rabbits would stay there, I'd be happy to grow them for them. There a couple more buds in there on different plants so will have to see what other blooms I get. The purple one is different isn't it? Leisa, I have sporadic luck with snapdragons. Never have problems with just the regular dwarf ones, but fancy name ones give me a problem. those are bicolor kim from thompson and Morgan. had tons of seeds but only got about 10 plants out of them. All I do is sprinkle the seeds on the top of the moist soil in the container and put them out in March. I never cover the seeds with soil. Paula, my monkey flower seedlings went into 8 inch pots. The monkey magic is a real dwarf one, only about 6-8 inches tall and I have it in part sun. I've found that full sun is too much for them. Some varieties prefer shade, some sun and some do better in part sun. I have the monkey magic and a taller all yellow one that I also keep in part shade in pots. I never put them in the ground. Lynne, the monkey flower seeds are al but dust size. I'm hoping to have enough for trades in the fall. e-mail me in the fall to ask me if I got lucky and have enough for even a small trade. I love the cosmos daydream, been growing it for years and it always blooms the same, just like my pic. Hey Drippy, miss you up here, how's the weather doing down southern way? Do you like all the heat and humidity? Alberta, thanks, haven't seen you posting for a while. Will post a few new pics later tonight. Fran

Jay, Maybe the cooler weather has helped yours perk up a bit---I know that mine are looking a lot happier this week than they did last week too. Unfortunately the heat is back. Our local forecasters are saying at least 10 days of lots of heat and no rain, and since we have had rain recently, our heat index numbers here in southern OK will be in the 104-105 range or higher. It is supposed to be much worse in southwestern OK which has a heat advisory warning of heat index numbers in the 110-115 range. It sounds like a good time to stay inside during the heat of the day and only venture out "early" and "late". I'm glad to hear you're seeing more fruitset. I certainly have seen a lot more blooms the last 3 or 4 days, so hopefully some of them have set fruit during the cool spell. When picking tomatoes yesterday, I noticed some tomato fruitworm damage, so will be out spraying the plants with Bt in just a little while. It will be the first time I've used Bt in several years. I generally avoid it because of the damage it can do to butterflies and moths, but I'm not to let the fruitworms take all my tomatoes either. The harvest is heavy and the days are long. I hope you are able to start saying that back to me before too much more time passes. Chocolate Stripes. Chocolate Stripes. Chocolate Stripes. This has got to be one of the prettiest tomatoes I've ever grown and today I'll be tasting the first one from this year's crop. This plant is loaded with fruit, so I hope they taste good! Your humidity is so low. Usually we are only that low when we are in drought periods, although we did get down into the mid to upper teens a couple of days during the last big hot spell a couple of weeks ago. Lately, though, since 1.25" of rain has fallen in each of the last two weeks, we start our mornings with 95-100% humidity and then it drops to the 30s or so in the afternoon. If I could choose between "heat + high humidity" and "heat + low humidity", I'd choose the low humidity any day of the week. Larry, Your humidity is just awful. I like to get outside early to beat the heat, but that is when our humidity is highest so it really is more pleasant here in the late afternoon and early evening when the humidity has dropped. Yesterday morning, it felt like a steam bath here even though temps were in the 80s and I blame that on the high humidity. Yesterday evening, with a temperature around 90 and lower humidity, it felt so much more pleasant. I haven't found that firing the weatherman gets you any better weather. (sigh) What it usually gets you is someone new who doesn't understand the weather you have and promises weather they can't deliver. Our current local TV forecasters are wonderful and are the best forecast team we've ever had since we moved here. One of them is a gardener himself and occasionally mentions gardening in his forecast, saying things like "I think it is OK to go ahead and plant your tomatoes now if you can cover them up if a late frost threatens....". It is pretty cool to have gardening meteorologist! Carol, How wonderful that your mom is still so healthy and active at the age of 98! I hope her birthday was wonderful and that she enjoyed her lunch out. We do have a lot of 'old-timers' here in her approximate age group. There's a couple up the street that are (I think) 95 and 94, and another one a little farther away who is going to turn 101 later this year. Tim and I have often remarked that the "old farmers and ranchers" seem to live extremely long lives here, and I've noticed many of them still have large gardens and do some ranching even into their late 80s to early 90s, although "the kids" often have to "make" them stop driving their tractor once they reach a certain age. Dawn

I stepped on the scale this morning early since I was up and waiting for the coffe maker to finish gurgling that delicious brown liquid of life and I had a lovely loss. I am not telling how much, but it is really a nice one. (Hugging myself here and grinning like the Cheshire Cat !!) We attended the funeral and it was huge. There were so many people that they had to park on the lawn surrounding the funeral home and on down the street. The chapel was filled and lots of folks standing. This boy was truly loved by one and all. The boys parents (divorced) hugged each other for the first time in years. Everyone came together in a bond of love for one another and for the boy that died. It was a beautiful service and the day was beautiful as well. Sunshine and 85º and big billowy clouds in the sky and a breeze blowing. Perfect weather for a perfect send off. Helen