I have been slowly loseing faith in gardenweb over the last few months, after getting in arguments about people rleasing farm animals into the wild and people feeding cats and letting them outdoors I've become pretty pesemistic about gardeners as a group of people, but this thread is so fantastic to find that I just swell up with hapiness at reading it. Regarding birds, many people underestimate there importance, birds are invaluable to us because they are resposible for spreading the forests. They spread seeds from mullberries and cherries andapples and pears and all sorts of fruit trees providing a source of food for us to use if we really need to, and they also spread nonfruiting seeds as well, and those grow into trees and bushes too, soaking carbon dioxide up from the air and providing a fuel source should we need it. anyways back to the main topic. Rhubarb makes agreat foundation planting, the heat off the house can lead to a very early harvest and it can be a great source of food to restore dwindleing winter stocks fast. Strawberries can be laid out in curving rows below bushes to form attractive plantings. Cherry trees are often fantastically ornamental in spring, and blueberries provide a bit of winter interest. Scarlet runner beans produce well as a green screen covering the south sides of houses in spring and fall. Grapes hardy Kiwi and Hops (I know, its more of a spice, but beer is important too dagummit) can also provide great shade in the summer, even shade for two storry houses roofs. in the hot summer months peas can be grown in shade in many locations. Man flowers are themselves edible; Nasturtiums are completely edible, leaves and all; roses not only produce edible hips but the petals are edible aswell, if you are careful you can harvest the petals first and the hips later; Violas and Pansies are edibe; Marigolds are edible aswell and offer a significant degree of protection from nematodes in the soil that attack tom's and pots. Garlic, Chives, Leeks, and Onions are also easy to grow and provide a degree of protection, and these can be easily fit into corners of a garden. there are also medicinals to be grown, given the right kind of wood/grain medium mushrooms can be grown anywere, even in your root cellar. You can grow your own digitalis if you use it, untill not too long ago digitalis was issued from pharmacies in leaf form (fox glove) although some effort would need to be put into regulating the doseage. Asparagus is another early season producer, goes well planted along fence rows. and there are a miriad of great trees to choose for an orchard, some plants will even atract deer and squirels, which are edible aswell. Animals also fit into this story, guinea fowl and muscovy ducks provide eggs and pest controll. Sheep are an excilent way to keep a lawn trimmed (especially cosidering that the entire reason that lawns were developed was to mimic the look of sheep pastures.) if you have an acre or two of pasture land you can consider alpacas for wool rather than sheep, or if food is more interesting to you dexter miniature cattle produce more milk for there wieght than any other cow, a very high cream content aswell. I tend to dislike goats because billies will spoil the milk and they will strip the bark off of your trees. There are just so many things to talk about, I wish I could cram them all in. oh, rooftop gardening is a great place to go too, No deer or rabits to eat your hard work, Wyat Erp (sp?) grew veggies on his roof top when he lived here in AK to keep them out of the mooses stomach. and it really does keep your house warmer in winter and cooler in summer.

I know its been over 5 yrs. since the original posting but I got such a kick reading them. For the count- I am at 62 with 52 babies that need transplanting in the next month along with 76 leaves rooting as we speak. I started it last June just to have some color in the house! My husband is great he keeps buying me plants he sees I do not have. This Fri. he is taking me to the Violet Gallery (outside of Gettysburg, Pa.) I hope to leave with 36 more leaves. (named plants) I right now only have about 20 named ones. When I started the leaves it was to get 25 plants to give at next years christmas party. However I did not think I would have such a good propagation rate. I lost only 25 out of 193. Would love to trade leaves (of named ones) for other named ones. I guess I am addicted. There could be alot more worse things- ie. drugs, alcohol, etc. So addiction to AV's is a good thing. Right?

Wonder wonderful thread and pictures - thank you all for posting them. I am just starting to combine Heuchera with Hostas and ferns. I have a nice collection in other beds but I love them with the hostas. The feed back on Snow Angel has been interesting. Mine was really pretty for 2 years and now is about 1/2 the size - seems like it is not a very strong cultivar. I have some started from seed with no names and have really pretty leaf veining on them. Headed over to the Perennial forum and check out their Heuchera thread ..... Lynne

Pimms is gin based which is weird because I loath gin, but love Pimms! You buy a bottle of Pimms and mix it 1 part Pimms to 3 parts fizzy lemonade (I used Sprite Zero) or ginger ale. Chop up a cucumber into smallish chunks - I slice (not too thin) and then quarter them. Then slice up a bunch of strawberries and slice an orange or two. Put it into the Pimms - throw in a few sprigs of fresh mint and some ice and it's done! Takes 5 minutes and can be done directly before serving. It's light, refreshing, looks really pretty with all the fruit slices and the fruit tastes great infused with the Pimms. I highly recommend it as a fun, quicker (and very British) Sangria alternative.