Wow Jeanne...things ARE looking good in your "shed" garden! Your tipsy buckets look so good...I need to move mine, they are getting too much shade where they are. LOVE the windmill and the million bells is HUGE and GORGEOUS! So many cool accessories..the galvanized containers and the wheel with the zinnias in it are great. What is the tall plant growing right next to your shed...the one with big leaves and tall stalks? Looks really cool! TFS~

Plymouth (MA) Garden Club. Our plant sale is this Saturday May 21 from 9 to noon at the Chiltonville Congregational Church 6 River St Plymouth MA. We have very nice plants both divisions and starts carefully tagged and packed, as well as kitchen treats, attic treasures and boutique items. Come early for best selection. Benefits scholarships and civic beautification projects in our town. Thanks NH Babs for this thread.

Thank you everyone for your input. I will share some of my experiences. When I moved into my home 5 years ago and first got into gardening, I heard about this main garden tour that is run here through the local newspaper, free to the public, anyone can be listed in it - you just write your description and indicate the times and days you are open within the allocated time period. I thought, why not? The good. It was probably one of the most nerve-wracking thing I have ever done, but everyone was so genuinely appreciative as soon as they stepped in the gate, and expressed it. People were astounded at how many gardens in the afore thought 'lower city' were actual gems. I met some truly interesting people along the way, and some became close friends or people I would see regularly during the year throughout the city (one worked at Lowes, and I would make a point of chatting with him whenever I went there). And many people would come up to me out of the blue and tell me they had been to my garden. There was also a woman who responded to my description (I didn't write a straight forward description; it was very artistic). She was the only person who asked me directly what it meant, and then we had a very intimate discussion where we both shared some of the pains and losses we had gone through - it was amazing to connect on that level. The bad. One of the visitors to my garden was a young couple who were quite smitten by these large flexi-glass cones I had placed in my garden, which I had gotten from my former workplace. They went on and on about them, and literally insisted I sell them two, they wouldn't leave unless I did. This was when there were already a large number of people coming, going and asking me other questions, and I was on my own, felt a bit overwhelmed. I more or less said why don't you just take them now, and you could come back another day and give me some money for them. Oh yeah, they were giddy, they would definitely do that they said, I could trust them...never saw them again. Honestly, I had more than enough of those cones and they weren't a cost to me; it was the principle above all else. It was disappointing to come up against low brows when everyone else was so respectful. The ugly. Sadly, I found from the get-go the organization of the event to be a mess, with no support for you as a person who is volunteering your garden. When I first did it, I had absolutely no idea what i was doing - so I asked a few questions via email to the person coordinating it. No response. After a few emails, I phoned and left a few messages. No response. Ended up winging it as best I could. Found out later that I was not unique in this; many people experienced the same thing. Even the regulars would be trying to get answers to questions - like what the dates might be for the year so they can plan around it - no response. Some people were sympathetic, because "it's just that one person coordinating". And I appreciate the difficulties of organization, I have lived and worked it! But I found out that over the years, people were very interested in helping out, but the person coordinating - no response. So I'm calling BS on that. And that's just the tip of the iceberg, but you get the picture.

Percolation test went very well! The hole drained in 12 minutes. I filled it a third time for fun and it drained in 12 minutes again. Given the fast drainage, it seems like I don't actually need that big of a rain garden, which is great because I can keep it further from the sidewalk. The section of roof that will be draining to it is 285 square feet, so it sounds like we're looking at about ~57 square feet. I do have a question though. Given that the rain will be guided through an existing garden bed via a river of stone (my hope is that this will help water that bed as well, as it's pretty dry), do you think I'd be able to swing a slightly smaller garden at around 50 sqft, if needed? I might be able to do the full 57 but just trying to be mindful of all of the county guidelines about having everything at least 5 feet from any sidewalks or property lines.