Esh, you read me like a book! I spend a fair bit of time down in East Tennessee (my ancestral grounds), and try to get up to the Mountains whenever I can. I've always marveled at the sheer number of different species there, many of which have landscape potential. While we don't all live in misty mountain woods, I think that many of the plants could be grown with a suitable microclimate. Hobblebush grows in full sun in the mountains, yet it would scorch if planted in the full sun around here. However, I've had luck with many Northern species by finding protected spots with cool soil. Oddly, a lot of those heath bald plants are found in the New Jersey pine barrens and in bogs in the North - Go figure!

Glad everything is starting to happen for you. Can't wait to see the photo's posted on your progress.

Bebe.....I was going to apologize for posting a new topic when you already had, and I could have just responded to yours, but I truly didn't see it when I started my latest chapter, now I can see why. We were both typing and posting at almost the same time, and me being so long winded, well I came in last. How funny! I love your C & S, it is so stunning with the black and gold and then the pink roses, I can see why you love them if this is a taste of the rest. My DGS also collected them and I hated dusting them, but the feel of the cups was awesome. Before she died she gave them to us GKids. I have a beautiful soft green and yellow cup that is so delicate you can see through it, I think she called it Irish Linen. It was always my favorite and I was always, but always afraid I was going to drop it or one of the others. Hope your cleaning and organizing went well! I am so OVER organized that I have stacking file holders for all of the seasons and general decorations and I still can't find anything and have to look through all of the books to find what I "fell" like painting. Awhile back I even went to so as to computerize a list in order of "what I want to paint next" OK...you all can stop laughing now! But I have vowed not to purchase a new book until I have all of the current "I would like to paint" done. That one isn't hard as no store around here have books anyway and I hate to buy books online! Took my DD and family to a play last night and it was a HOOT! My DGS had stated several times he didn't like "theater," but was kind of forced to attend, and he was laughing within 5 minutes, which was really nice as it was a comedy. The last two months had really been record setters, so cold and dry in Dec., and now warm and double our rain for Jan. Good ol' El Nino. The BC Olympic ski area's are having to create snow, almost unheard of this time of year. Well, off to do some line work and then hope to post pictures today. Take Care! Belle

I love making soil. I love it even more when someone else is doing most of the work for me. I'm itching to start some spring planting in my tiny garden, but it's technically still a bit early (our last frost date is supposed to be around the 18th or so, but these days who even knows) and I'm impatiently waiting for the contractors to show up and replace my rotted fence before I can do any planting in the back half where the pile of rock mulch over weed cloth used to be. The fence would have rotted anyway, but the bottom of it was completely eaten away where the rock mulch was piled against it. I have already put down a tiny new tree (Amelanchier x "Autumn Brilliance") which arrived bare root and needed to go in the ground ASAP, but it's not next to the fence, so it should be fine as long as the fence guys don't step on the 18 inch high forked stick which, seen with my eye of faith, is already a handsome small patio tree. The tree went in the spot where the old, scrawny, unhealthy cherry plum used to be, where I have been piling vermicompost and leaves ever since last summer. I didn't amend the planting hole at all - just dug and filled in. Enough leaf mold and vermicompost just fell into the hole to make me feel fine about the start my new tree's roots are getting. Anyway, the "someone else" who is working for me outside is a healthy passel of earthworms, which I can see out there every time I pull back last autumn's leaf mulch, which I diligently collected from the sidewalk in front of my row house and brought out back. Even if I can't set to work yet, I like knowing that they're hard at it. I've seen some of my red wigglers who rode out from my indoor worm bin, and at least three separate species of native earthworms: slow gray short guys, some really huge red nightcrawler types, and a longer, thinner, super-active wiggly worm that's new to me. I've also scattered out some seeds and grains for the sparrows and squirrels, inspired by some videos of composting chickens I've watched on Youtube: so there's been lots of pecking and scratching and digging going on in the layer of leaves, which is both fun to watch and will serve to further shred down the leaves for incorporation in the soil. When I do get to the planting along the back fence, I'll try to remember to post a soil pic as a "before and after" to the one at the start of this topic.