Unless you are building raised beds there is no good reason to spend money to amend your surface soil. The May 2009 issue of Organic Gardening magazine (local Library) has an excellent article on soil preperation as does the Octobeer/November 2010 issue. Basically these articles tell you to add lots of organic matter to your soil and in your area there is usually lots of organic matter fairly readily available for free as people get rid of the leaves that fall from their trees.

Good Morning, Everyone! Thank you all for the "welcome back". I missed each and every one of you. Stormy here today on this Good Friday. Dark and a bit chilly out. Good weather for gardens though. Glad for the rain though. We've had high temps and high, dry winds this past week and wildfires every day. Nothing close to here, but close enough that I could smell the smoke. My dogs erupted in chorus with every firetruck that passed by over on the highway.(hehehe). I took pictures of the gardens on the 31st. Glad I did, as the hot, dry winds dried out all the pretty yellow Jonquils later that day. Blasted hot winds ruined them before our Easter Sunday family picnic and egg hunt. They were magnificent in chorus with the yellow forsythias, white Bridle's Wreath, and Redbud trees now in full bloom all over the garden. My beloved Jane Magnolia is breathtakingly beautiful this year and smells so wonderful. I planted out some Orange Perfection Phlox yesterday. Tried them last year, but they didn't make it. This rain may ensure these do. I dug around in the bin at the store until I found one, just one package with moist peat inside. Holding it up to to sunlight, I could just make out something possibly alive in that dark green plastic bag. Makes me mad to pay five bucks for dead rootstock. They are not the best looking root stocks I ever saw, but think they will make it. I only need one to survive to establish a nice clump this year for next year's blooms. I also planted a package of purple Liatris and a package of Freesia bulbs for summer blooms. I love the smell of Freesia. Yummy. All the Peonies are up and beginning to make tiny flower buds. Hopefully the red ones and deep magenta ones will bloom this year too. If they do, it will be their first time. Some deer came into the yard this winter and ate the top branches off the one surviving River birch sapling, but it is recovering nicely now. I caged it with a tomato cage and for now they are leaving it alone. They are "camped" up on the hill, hiding in wait for my juicy, delicious roses to start blooming, no doubt. :[ I've been taking the dogs for walks up there every morning and hopefully their pee and poop will make them think twice about coming any closer to the back yard. My English Shepherd could easily take down a whitetail deer. DH said this weekend he would finish stretching field fence around on the inside of the existing barbed wire fencing to keep out critters. That won't keep deer out, but it will keep our dogs in, so we can let them run loose on the property. That will be great. They need the exercise and I need them to do their job protecting the place. They love it, too. Hopefully the raccoons & coyotes will take the hint. Keep Out! Anyhow, so far so good. Gotta go check on my chicks. They poopy up their water really fast and will be ready for breakfast. :) Talk to you guys later. ~Annie

Well, my old garden was completely out of control English cottage garden. I loved it (I'am actually still here till Jan. 10th) For my new home, I envision a perrenial border with some flowering shrubs. I also want to do a potager. I think this will satisfy my need for control in the veggie/herb patch. Right now, everything is under a growing layer of snow, so other than lovey trees and a great cedar fence, I have no clue what I have to start with....

Hi all, Thank you all for your comments and suggestions! I'll definitely look into rearranging things to see if we can move the DW to the right of the sink. I almost think putting it in the island might be the easiest solution (laundry room underneath has unfinished ceiling so that's not a problem). We could swap the 24" and 30" cabs around, and just substitute the DW for one of the 24s. buehl, I think a 24" waste would be overkill for us, but I appreciate your input. We recycle a lot, and it's all out on the deck. Usable storage will be much more valuable for us than extra garbage space. Thanks for the info on fridge size. In thinking about it, I think that we are so in need of storage that we'll have to use all the space we can for shelves/drawers. If, in the future, we get a bigger fridge, we'll just have to remove the pantry and use that for fridge space. idrive65 The window is not as shown. It is a large clear space in the center with a 24" casement on each end. I think that's likely why DH really wants the sink in the center, especially because it will be visible from everywhere on our main floor. houseful, you have good idea which we've actually discussed during this process, but because we are losing so much storage by putting in the window, and removing the partial wall between kit/dining we can't afford to lose that much storage in the island. The yellow cupboards are already in use in our kitchen, as well as an existing island, so we would be severely short on storage space if we just used them as a new island. I would love it if my hubby built the new island in the same style as the cupboards, but he just doesn't have time to do that in addition to the other renos (not to mention his full time job). Thanks again for all the replies. :o) ~Missy