My plants are bought from all over. The big box stores are fine because I usually know what I am looking for and what will do well in my garden. I have my favorite mail order places for unusual stuff and for old garden roses that I can't find around here. I tend to plant things fairly close together only because I am a plantaholic who has NO willpower. I figure I can always fit in one more plant. I just have to be creative about it sometimes. I try to leave a bit more room for my roses. I have an automatic sprinkler system that I would love to convert to drip. Right now I can't afford it. Maybe next year. My watering schedule seems to do fine. Sometimes I have to go out and hand water a few plants and that is just fine with me. My soil was pretty darn good to begin with. The areas where I dug up the lawn were pretty compacted but on the whole I can't complain. It is deep, dark, easy to slide a shovel into and teeming with worms. I add stuff to it continually. I do have my problem areas that I am amending via lasanga method. My MIL has horses so I get all the manure I want. I have a small compost bin and I amend the soil with coffee grounds as well. I also started adding alfalfa tea to my roses this year. WOW! That stuff is great! I have been pretty good at pruning and keeping things clean. A little here and a little there. Some prima donna plants get more care than others. I live in the same town as Nancy and the wind here pretty much sucks. It is not a gentle breeze but a strong wind that makes it miserable to be outside at times. Our summers are cool. Maybe too cool sometimes. However, on the whole I think that my climate is great for gardening. I can pick lemons off a tree at one end of the yard and raspberries and blueberries at the other. I can gather an arm load of roses and cosmos for the table centerpiece and stop to inspect the bougainvillea on my way inside. How great is that! As for the bugs. I have the good guys and the bad guys. Usually, as soon as I see the aphids I start seeing the ladybugs. There seems to be a pretty good balance. I also have birds GALORE in my garden due to six mature Toyon bushes that are planted in the common area right behind my backyard fence. It sounds like an aviary in my back yard. The birds nest in the bushes, eat the berries in the winter, and the bees work the flowers heavily in the summer. The birds come down from the bushes and feast on all the bugs in the my garden and I get to watch from the window. Of couse they also feast on my raspberries but that is another story. ~Melissa

Thank you all for replying. It will be great to meet new folks and renew friendships with those who I have met before. Patti, how about getting together on Friday the 12th? I haven't heard from Joan. Since we will have Friday free we could come and visit you in Ocala. Name a place and time and we will be there with bells on. Monablair please let me know when you find out if you will be coming. I have talked to both Barbara and Sharon and they will be coming. Probably will be at the same restaurant as before. Renee, we will only have to spend one night in a hotel and that will be in Melbourne so I don't think we will have to worry. It looks like we will be spending Friday at my cousin's house and will head for Titusville on Saturday morning. We still need to find a restaurant and decide on a time. You gals going to Titusville have any ideas. Sandie since you live there can you make a suggestion? Liz, do you think you could meet us in Titusville on Saturday around 11 or so? I sure would love to meet you. Hopefully you can work us into your busy schedule. Anne we will be spending the night in Melbourne so can meet with you in the evening or very late afternoon. Need to have travel time from Titusville. Looking forward to meeting you. Marion and April, could we meet around noon on Sunday the 14th? You name the place and we will be there. Nothing expensive but want to have time to visit. Carol and I will head back to Ft. Myers after our get together. This is going to be so much fun. Carol and I are looking forward to meeting each of you. I hope that these plans fit into everyone's schedules.

lianne here, found the kt way back in '96 (13 years?!) and rather prefer to lurk than post, unless i manage to take a decent enough photo for public view met dude in '91 and married him in '97, he has a wonderful daughter who has given us two beautiful granddaughters, ages 7 and 3...i hit 50 a few months ago and dude is recently 59 we moved from jersey to pa in '04 and began deconstruction to rejuvenate our house...in january'08 we both became unemployed and have, so far, been unsuccessful in changing that status -- i envy those who haven't been touched by this "recession"...we were able to pay for the property outright so, thankfully, we don't have a foreclosure hanging over our heads and as long as we can sell something or borrow/beg/steal the funds to pay the taxes, we won't lose it...we had begun deconstruction/rejuvenation which has come to a halt while we live with my parents doing work around their place and we do what we can on our house jan'08 found one of my sisters (the middle daughter) with multiple myeloma leukemia, the prognosis was poor, sister di and i didn't match her for a transplant but they actually found a 10point donor match and sister jo went ahead with the transplant which occurred on may 29th... everything that can go wrong did and on august 5th 2008 she left us...she was a year and 11 days younger than me and called herself my "little pister"...i still can't believe this has happened...when i least expect it with a breathtaking punch, reality hits me in the gut and the waterworks start, whether i'm at home or at the grocery store, and frankly, i don't care who sees me cry...her boyfriend wanted to know if he'd be over her in a year, oh how i wanted to tell him Yes! but that would have been a lie...at the six month mark i myself realized i had to stop feeling sorry for myself, get back in the game so to speak -- and darned if my mellow dude with the enviably low blood pressure doesn't go and have a major heart attack! on friday the 13th no less...with no insurance we're going thru the demeaning process of applying for aid which i'm sure we won't get since you have to have some sort of income...his meds cost $200 a month (hurray! for the usa) in between heartaches i enjoy reading mysteries and short stories (here's to keeping libraries open!), photography with my nikonD70 that i don't know how to utilize properly and probably never will (every time i talk of selling it dude gets mad at me so i keep plugging along), finding new recipes or ways to better the old ones (especially now that dude says he'll eat broccoli! and he's not afraid of herbs'n spices), bird watching, gardening (winter tomatoes are so gross!), watching episodes of my favorite britcom: last of the summer wine...if i owned a pub those boys'n gals'd have a reserved table :o)

Hi - I am Renee, a transplanted Northerner now living in Central Florida. I first moved here after 9/11 and didn't think I would stay but I love it now - except for the hurricanes. I am 48 and single, have a wonderful BF and live with four kitties - Jack (orange and white tabby), Ernie (fat brown tabby), Lola (brown Maine Coon) and Kaci (black and white Maine Coon mix). I have recently taken up two fun hobbies. The first is raising Monarch butterflies. I just had another girl yesterday morning. I am mesmerized by the whole process. The second is geocaching. My love of rooting through thrift stores and garage sales makes me a natural at this form of treasure hunting.