These tips are all great! I use the "pack 'em in" theory of gardening to cut down on the weeds as others do. It also cuts down on the chore and expense of mulching. I used to deadhead, but the goldfinches and other birds really appreciate the seed heads, so now I do lots of my garden clean-up in the spring. Actually the plant material is brown and dried up at that point and I've found usually I can rake an area and the dead stems come right up. As opposed to clipping back in the fall when I have to cut each stem. There simply seems to be "less" plant material to get rid of after a winter since it's all dried and shriveled up, if that makes sense at all. I am really learning to settle down about getting it all done. This summer I haven't worked too much in the garden (because of the heat) and it has been so enjoyable finding other fun things to do (like the beach, etc!). The thread about garden seating pushed me to add adirondack chairs to the backyard and lately after work I come home and read a magazine out there instead of weeding. Much more enjoyable. What LL said is true. If people aren't gardeners they won't even know they're weeds and I really think that most gardeners going through a garden that has weeds think to themselves "PHEW! I'm SO glad to see that they have weeds too!!" Let's face it, ALL gardeners fight the weed battle and can appreciate weeds in any garden. I still have not learned to garden the size I can take care of. I'm only on phase 3 of my yard and have another 2 or 3 fairly sizable areas to work on. However, I have learned to pace myself and work for about 5 years on a certain phase of building an area before moving on to another area. During that time I think a lot about the next phase (plant material, design, most especially how will it be watered, etc....) So far we've been OK with the amount of space we've gardened. I'm wondering in which phase I say "Uh Oh, now I've bitten off more than I should have!" I know someday that will happen but for now I'm going to keep my phased approach and hope for the best. Unfortunately, once all the phases are done, I'll be 15 years older and at that point will be looking at how to pare down the garden!! LOL! Pfmstin, I've never heard of that material and it sounds very interesting. I'm definitely going to check that out. Xantippe, what type of edger to you have? Do you have a machine? So far, my DH is my machine! We're (OK, really HE) is edging many new garden beds and anything we (HE) can do to reduce time/energy would be great to know. You see, the less time he spends on edging, the more time he'll have to help me with other things! LOL!! Gardenweed, Amen to planting more fall plants. The garden season for those of us in northern climates can be extended into November with flowers and color. There are so many great fall plants and shrubs out there that are worthy to extend the season. You know, I've heard many times about cardboard and newspaper under mulch and have "thought" about doing that for weed control. But some of you brought up a very good, important point with that tip in that the worms love it. I hadn't thought about that before so thank you for mentioning it. I am going to use this tip in the backyard where it's a new area and needs to be covered.

Benefit lip plumper was a waste of $ for me too.

Thanks! @honeychurch, yours is great---I've been watching Craigslist for islands and tables, but hadn't thought of searching for work benches, so I'll give that a try. And @bmore, that is pretty much exactly what we want! Maybe it's worth trying to find someone local who'd be willing to build it and see how much it would run us...the main challenge there is that we're in a pricey labor market, so even a small woodworking job tends to get expensive fast, and I think it's beyond our DIY skills/equipment. *sigh* Possibly if we got someone to cut the wood, though, we could manage the rest of it? (One upside is that, since our wood counter is just IKEA butcher block, we could get another piece of the same wood to use for the top so that it matched, too...hmm!)

Here is the email I got from them: "It has been an interesting first summer selling roses. It seems appropriate to put some plants on sale. This sale will end on Saturday the 24th of September at Midnight. I wish to thank all of you that participated in our MNOP sale. Now it is time for something less restrictive. With the exception of Yametsu-Hime all varieties are on sale when purchasing either 4 or 8 plants. Mix and match as you wish. 4 plants for $40. Or 8 Plants for $70. I will adjust the plant prices at shipping time to credit back to your payment and reflect the above prices. You will see the regular prices in your checkout. Our regular low shipping rates by Priority Mail apply to keep your overall cost low. If you could include some alternate selections in the comment section that would be greatly appreciated, we find that this software still tends to want to accept an order for a variety that is out of stock."......