I love the pot chosen for that... whatever it is... something juicy looking that is not native to Maine. ;). I love skunks, too. I think they're an absolute marvel of adaptation. They're pretty active here all winter long (it gets COLD here) and they pretty mind their own business. They cruise around, looking for "leftovers", grubs, and they seem to coexist nicely with a variety of other species. So a "too nosey" dog/cat gets nailed every so often? the way I see it, they probably deserved it! But I like animals. LOL about VW buses. A good friend of mine had one, too. We nicknamed it the "hippie bus", it was one of those pop up rigs, too. It was fun to make a new screen thingy for it! Cindy, there's a lot of work surrounding a death, isn't there? My late aunt was a stickler for attention to detail and had EVERYTHING in order when she died... I have saved several of her notes to me and one of them says this: "It's not easy getting off this planet". Was she ever right! Apparently, Mum flipped out this morning. She assaulted people and threw things (!!) I've been told. She has been transferred to a geriatric unit at a hospital for "observation". I spoke with the admitting nurse and asked them to check her urine and her level of hydration. I told them about her urostomy and told them to contact their staff stoma nurse ASAP. I told them about her hearing aids (one is broken again!) and that they should have her entire hearing aid kit transferred with her... . I asked if I should go right down or let them handle it (worried that seeing might make her more upset). I gave them some advice on how to handle her and what topics of conversation will often change her focus. I KNEW this would happen; predicted it to my brother after the last meeting... to the DAY. I have NO confidence in any of the medical field, in fact I tend to regard most of them with disdain now; what a sad commentary on what I've encountered thusfar with respect to care for infirm elderly. Deanne, I hope Deb. is holding up well! I feel myself degenerating into "poor company" once more. :/ I struggled through the bolsters today, WILLING myself into the zen space sewing can provide me. I made several very foolish, "amateur" mistakes before settling into the zone. It wasn't a particularly good day, but by the end of tomorrow I'll closer to finishing 2 odious jobs and will be better prepared to focus on Mum's most recent crisis. Somehow painting "man" doors doesn't seem very appealing right now. :) I figure as soon as I find something soothing to occupy me the "social worker du jour" will call and want to discuss Mum...

Thanks everyone. :o) Barb, I had the same thought. There's more to tackle on the property but that was the biggest and worst of it. It's good to have it at this stage. And actually, my boyfriend was outside the other day (between mulch batches). A neighbor stopped on her way while strollering with her grandchild just to compliment us on all our hard work. Cheers, Kate. LOL I have to wait to plant anything. The bed has to bake a while. there's so much woody debris in the soil from the roots, stems and all the nonsense that came out. We'll see what it's like after the rains of the summer. Guaranteed though that the azalea will NEVER get like it was in that first pic. I'm thinking some smaller ornamental grasses or something around the border. I have the summer to do some research though. Linda, thanks so much. :o) I look out from the porch and it's like a full body sigh of relief seeing it at this point. I drive up the street coming home and I feel like giggling not to have to contend with that vine et al anymore. There's still 2-3 cubic yards of mulch that needs to be spread but it looks 1800 times better at this point that I just had to share! :o)

OK, we're not finished but here are some progress pics. First, a big thank you to my wife who has really jumped in and helped me a LOT on this! A few generic comments- we've still got some planting to do, particularly around the gazebo. So it's not 100% complete. As mentioned above the plants are spaced for their mature size. So they look a little spread out right now, but they'll grow into place. The Bermuda grass is just coming out of dormancy, so it looks pretty wimpy in the pics. This first picture is the view from the driveway and sidewalk approach. There's a Siren Red Crepe Myrtle accent with a couple of Cordyline Red Sensations next to it. Veriegated liriope and dwarf mondo grass fill in the area in front and a border of Red Muhly Grass is behind. I discovered that spring is a bad time to buy Muhly Grass because it's not growing yet and is therefore hard to find except in small size. It'll eventually fill in and create a solid border though :-) The below pic shows a red banana tree (which was battered by high winds a couple of days ago, that's why the leaves are torn) surrounded by Pee Dee Gold Liriope with some Dwarf Mondo grass in front of that. That's a Tonto (red) Crepe Myrtle in the back. The grass is Mexican Feather Grass and is beautiful when the wind blows it! There is going to be a large Koi pond in front of the gazebo with an arched bridge connecting the patio to the gazebo (that's why nothing is planted there).The small bush/ tree outside of the bed is a fruiting Pomegranate tree. They only grow to about 10'. Below is the back of the gazebo with a Texas stepping stone to the backyard area. The small plants surrounding the rock area are an interesting new variety of Asian Jasmine called "Salsa". The leaves are beautiful- red, green and yellow all on the same leaf! It is not supposed to be as invasive as regular Jasmine, but I enclosed it in metal edging just to be sure. The Crepe Myrtle to the right is lavender. In the background is the stepping stone & gravel path we made back to the equipment pad. I like this because it makes for a really cool "zen view" from the other side of the pool through the slide opening. This is more Mexican Feather Grass with the Pink Muhly border coming up to each side (just beyond the pic). That's another Cordyline in the middle and Blue Fescue lining the front (this view is from the back). Last pic, this is really to show a "before" pic of the pergola. I put this in myself many years ago and it needs to be refreshed. I'm going to rebuild it sometime this spring or summer- removing the roof panels, power wash the cedar, install a roof gable with "sunburst" pattern, re-roof it with sheathing and shingles, install some decorative trim on the columns. That's it for now, back outside for more landscaping!

I think given where you live, the warmer weather, and that it's a patio pond, you most likely don't need to worry about your fish going into semi-hibernation. And oh, trust me, the in-ground is a PITA to prep for winter! We have to drain all the underground pipes leading the the UV light and pump and filter. We have to empty the pump (easy) and shut it down, empty the buried bio filter (not easy, a lot of cursing and freezing hands!), and everything gets wrapped with insulation and covered (we don't have a pump house, just fake rocks covering things). I keep aeration stones going all year so no change there, but add a pond warmer (those usually last only a year), and well, you get the picture! Ha! Spring time we start everything up again, usually some troubleshooting involved, and there's the 'pea soup' to watch over - I usually let that remedy itself. Ah, cardboard. I finally learned about it last fall here on GW. Lifesaver! My DH thought I had lost my mind, but not anymore! I've also stockpiled newspapers to keep weeds down in our veg garden. "I think it would be cool to put some arching grasses around in areas and a bench!" Well, great minds think alike!!! Savannah Ruby grass I winter sowed last year, Shot up like gangbusters! Seating wall around the patio and I just flip my legs over to sit at the pond : ) Those bright red flowers just above are a compact zinnia but they took half the summer to really spread out. I'm thinking of adding more perennials, fewer annuals. We planted a sunflower and zinnia patch last year and it was wonderful so intend to do that again this spring... I added some daylilies and other bulb plants this fall, and where I'd planted blue forget-me-nots, I might dig those up and replace. They just were too leggy with no blooms to speak of. I tend to go overboard with flowers, and I need some greenery to break that up. It's all a work in progress as I'm doing it by the seat of my pants : ) I have kept my beds weeded so they aren't in bad shape, but two larger patches still need some plastic laid over them to tone down those thorny things before I can sow seeds this spring. I'm adding some pea gravel, small river rocks, large river rocks, and flagstones to the pond area leading over to the garden shed... Thought I'd do that this winter but the weather hasn't cooperated, and lack of time. I've got a small in-ground concrete pond in the front yard that I want to mosaic with a fish design. Yes, I've got too many plans! Truthfully, SJN, I'm running so behind that if I don't get started with winter sowing, I'll have to wait until next year. And speaking of roses (I didn't know you had roses!), I'm not happy with the front landscaping, so I'm pulling it out and re-planting with miniature roses I think. Maybe a smattering of white candy tuft. What mixes nicely with miniature roses in a small space? Gators... Now that would really give me the heebie jeebies! But no more than copperheads, which we have (and I'm betting you do too). Have you ever seen one on your property??