What style is your house, and what direction is your hedge? The old fashioned 'Annabelle' hydrangea is very hardy, the blooms turn from green to white to brown. 'Pee Wee' oakleaf hydrangeas have four seasons of interest, with their peely bark, but require a little more water. Clethra alnifolia 'Hummingbird' is a great plant, and has a pretty fragrance when in bloom. But these all have white blooms. For really long bloom time, and COLOR, nothing beats the Knockout roses, they're also tolerate some shade. I have the single pink ones in a west-facing bed, which gets full sun until the afternoon when they're shaded by the house, and then they get the setting sun.

Kylie, I love that picture of your GD!!!! I know....I did not look that cute with the frog in my hair! LOL!!! Amelia....You are so funny! I actually thought about taking it back but did not want to drive back there. I thought about giving it to the neighbor kids. I usually take my snake skins to them as they love that kind of stuff! Kristy...I will try and get a pic for ya. I don't know exactly what kind of snail it is. I was surprised for such a little frog...how high and far it could jump and how much energy it had. Of course he may have been freaked out cuz he did not like my driving skills! LOL!! Karyn, We have an edition across the street that has a huge pond built all around the neighborhood. It is a gated community and I don't know how far I can throw.... hmmm. Will let you know what happens to him. Joyce

What happened if you didn't have other kids around in your area? I only had my little brother. I never attended preschool. Mom would run to the store for things maybe once a week but basically our interactions were only with each other. Did it ruin me? No! I went on and got good grades in school and graduated in the top 10% of my class in high school. Didn't go onto college though because I took a year off to help out my Mom who just divorced and DS came along months later. MY brother had a hard time with reading and a few times and was really bad with school in his middle school years. He just didn't want to do the work. He started high school and got staright A's the whole time, even in Calculus and Psychics! He's now attending school for computer prgramming and other computer related things and on the Dean's list. Most of my family and kids I went to school with did not go to preschool at all. My son is also 2 1/2 and as long as he seems happy and he's learning and growing, I don't worry about him. I work with him by talking to him and telling and explaining things. He's picking up on a lot and even seems to learn things just by catching us doing it once. He understands more than most people think he does. I know of parents who sit home all day with their kids but don't talk to them or anything. They do one thing and keep the kid in their room or something and those kids would certainly benefit from preschool because the parents don't take the time to do anything with them. (SIL is one of these parents and now has a kid in Kindergarten that loves to learn and is bright but they don't work with him. He just sits in front of Cartoon Network at home or a video game. Now he has to attend Kindergarten all day to catch up with the others to even move on. It's all been because they didn't see the need to teach him colors, numbers or shapes and other skills). It's your decsion really but don't think that kids won't be any good later on without preschool. I sometimes think preschool is overrated because not all of them are good programs. ~Leslie~

Thank you so much for the info and beautiful pics Izrddr. Are all these from your home? I love your Echeveria pumilas. They would go nicely with my home's color. Do they turn more pinkish the more sun they get or less water they get? I also like your Echeveria subrigida... I wish we were neighbors. I'd be your first customer :) Joe