Genera of greatest interest to me are Acharagma, Ariocarpus, Astrophytum, Aztekium, Cumarinia, Epithelantha, Geohintonia, Leuchtenbergia, Lophophora (some of these are ILLEGAL in the US), Obregonia, Ortegocactus, Pelecyphora, Stenocactus (spectacular wavy ribs), Strombocactus, Toumeya, Turbinicarpus. Many of these are regarded as difficult and I rarely see any mentioned in this forum. To be honest, Mike, if you are interested, do a google for pics, that will bring up much better ones than I can produce. But I am more than happy to answer any questions about my small collection.

We had the same group of ladies from the neighborhood for 25 years. They made the decision to all "retire" at the same time, as they all became "workers" at the same time. I miss their familiar faces! I don't know anyone working there except the gal who makes sure the ballot scans properly - she's done that job for years and with various machines. When we lived in St Louis, polling places were usually in church halls. When we moved to LA, I was VERY surprised that our polling place was in a neighbor's garage! In KY, there is no school on Election Day so they can use the schools as polling places. I don't think I would like the idea of all ballots being "mail-in". Absentee, yes, but not all. I like the ritual of going to vote. And I like seeing all my neighbors doing the same thing. I think it adds to a community feeling - everyone doing the same thing at the same time. Of course, I don't live in a huge precinct where one waits in line for 3 hours to vote. I'd probably feel very differently then.

Cyndita, I kind of wondered about the fertilizer. I bought Bumper Crop rose food from a local garden center and used it when I potted a Scentimental rose. However, I put it at the bottom of the container so it isn't in direct contact with the roots. I had planned to stick with fish emulsion for the first year and then expand next year. Thanks for all your insight. I have a feeling our water bill is going to jump this year, although right now we're doing well with the rain. vaporvact, I did indeed go to Big Lots and found the blue container on the red stand in the second picture. The thing I got there that I like better are the two puppies statue in the rose bed. We had a basset named Droopy that we had to put down last Labor Day weekend, and so the rose bed is a tribute to her and the other dogs we've owned.

Ignore your neighbors :-) Rolling is just the opposite of what you want to do. It is helpful when laying sod or seeding a new lawn but after establishment, it serves no purpose and can actually be counterproductive to growing a healthy lawn. Any time pressure - and especially heavy pressure like from a roller - is applied to bare soil or to a established lawn, it compresses the soil and makes it harder for the grass roots to penetrate and water, oxygen and nutrients to become available. And if the soil is damp or wet as it often is in early spring, that is even worse. If you have mole hills present, just stomp them down. ps. The Lawn forum participants seem to be a little obsessive/compulsive about lawn care and you are also likely to get some wild claims that have little to do with reality. It's a bit of an odd group.