Outsmarting the tree rats (squirrels) around my house is a full time job. This past spring I hit on a new idea. When I plant a container I invert an empty wire hanging basket over the container and the plant gets sun and can be watered but the squirrels can't dig in it. Another idea: I bring in a lot of plants to "over winter" under lights in my garage. I have so many that it is hard to reach my hand under the lights (4 shop lights) to the middle for watering. So I bought a pump sprayer with a long wand and it works great! In late winter I add a little liquid Dawn detergent, few drops, to each gallon of water and not only does the soil get wet easier but the worms that are waiting to hatch into distructive pets just don't hatch. Don't know what it costs me to run those four shop lights all winter but I don't care. It is a small price to pay to be able to "garden" every weekend in the garage. Many people have mentioned that they mark their outdoor plants with a "permanent Sharpie". In my experience there isn't a "permanent Sharpie", they all fade and quickly too. A grease pencil/china marker or expensive "no fade" garden center marker are the only markers I have found that won't disappoint you by fading. Eight years ago I decided to learn about gardening so I tapped into my local library. I checked out nearly every book they had on gardening and learned so much. The Gardenweb forums are also a wealth of information and entertainment. There is always something new to learn and I appreciate all of you who take the time to write in your ideas. One last idea from me...I keep a small notebook on my computer table and jot down any idea I find that's new and I will want to try. Little pieces of paper get lost but I always know where my notebook is and also use it when I order "on line" so I will remember the name of the company and the order date. Tina or Trowelgal

Received my seeds today! Thank you, thank you, thank you! Thank you Kamil and everyone! I'm just about to go start mine! I even got my favorite color, how's that for cool! Maybe we could do a swap based on color next time...Hm, I might have to start one of those based on purple.... :0) Thanks a bunch guys/gals it was fun!

Thank you, Marti, for continuing the conversation. It seemed obvious that folks were trying to hijack the other thread because they disagreed with some of the opinions, and at the very end several were posting gibberish, in what looked to be and attempt to run the thread to 150 posts so that it would be frozen. besides being ever so childish, that is also a weirdly controlling thing to do. It's a shame. Posted by beverly27: "Don't you think that after 151 responses everything about this topic has been said and resaid? Why didn't you just let the topic die???" She explained why, she found the discussion "absolutely spot on." I doubt that there is any general topic in the world that is 'over' in 150 posts. What I find worrisome, though, is a vigilante attitude that questions why someone would wish to discuss a complicated topic further, and a topic with such a variety of opinions. If we are unimpressed with a topic, perhaps we should just ignore it (I do that all the time) or even start a new topic that we are interested in? In the origianal post, Is it just me or does everyone look to have a magazine home?, christyinco stated "As I scroll through the endless sites and images on the internet to get ideas for my home I am struck by how many homes look to be perfectly decorated - like out of a magazine. Fresh and up to date on all the latest trends." "I can get discouraged in my own home and ask myself if I've made the right decisions in decorating or why it is that after a year of living somewhere our DVR is still on a plant stand under the tv" "We just purchase a piece at a time and live in the "almost" finished spaces" "I suppose that one of the other things that I notice is how spaces have no personality anymore." Christy had touched on some contentions that every amateur designer has come across, and certainly that every professional has to address. 1. Discouragement at not achieving design goals quickly. 2. Trying to live up to perfectly decorated homes in magazines. 3. Having to build (as I call it) a design one piece at a time. 4. Lack of personality in modern design. 5. Trends. These are quite different but somehow related subjects, that all bring about a spectrum of views. But mentioning the word "trend" around here can be like pulling a mandrake from the roots, what with all the screaming. And I wonder if that is the issue that some folks find most painful, as if they had been pulled up by the roots? It has been suggested that in the Kitchens forums the 'trendy' and 'on trend' are aggressively promoted and any traditional design is squelched. Well, this isn't a kitchen forum, and I haven't visited there to read the posts. But I can imagine why folks would promote the trendy in a kitchen. The thing about kitchens is that they are expensive to rehab and they are where we make our food. People don't live in the same home as long as they used to and see upgrades as a possible investment -they don't want to spend $25,000 on a kitchen and have it bring the value of the house down. If they imagine moving in 5 years, their 'updated' kitchen should still look relatively fresh if it is on trend right now, people are looking for "newer" kitchens, not "older" kitchens when they buy a house and a traditional style kitchen often looks older the day it is installed. The other thing is that a new kitchen looks more hygienic. It just does. I didn't write that it is more or less hygienic than a traditional kitchen, just that perception is what counts. As far as design goes, I feel 'trendy' can be a neutral word, but I admit that I am ambiguous when it comes to trends. My design isn't what you would call trendy, and I do tend to move in a direction opposite of trends (or most likely, I feel that I have been there done that). But I think new trends have their place, especially if you are getting tired of your old decor, and want a little change, like a wall color, lamp shade, curtains, pillow or side chair. Updating is most important for a Traditional design which can easily look dated and quickly turn into a dusty exhibit at a local historical society. There is nothing worse, in my mind, than a beige and brown Traditional interior that looks like a very faded, old albumen photograph. On the issue of trying to live up to the perfectly decorated homes in magazines (2), I like what awm has to say about artistic talent, and her appreciation for it. Years ago my mother taught hobby painting. The students met each week and copied greeting card art, and calendar art, and if they were courageous, they copied a photograph from National Geographic. Time to time I dropped in on the classes to help or visit, and one thing I noticed was the students' general berating of Modern Art and Fine Art in general. (They did like the Impressionists, and when the students wanted to copy those mythical Kinkade Cottages with the rows of bright flower hedges, I tried to steer them toward something more Barbizon). As a whole the women made mediocre work that could be pretty or even have a decorative appeal. There was nothing wrong with the paintings, and a few of the students even showed a talent for this kind of work. But as artists, or art students, I never quite understood their constant need to ridicule Fine Art. Of course, it had to be insecurity, resentment and jealousy. I think the same emotions often play out in discussions on decorating with people who do it as a hobby or who lack the raw talent. Rather than appreciate those who are gifted or admired, they want to throw darts. I took the painting group on a field trip to a major museum to show and explain Modern art. An ethereal painting by Baziotes, caught their wrath and was deemed childish. I pointed out the subtle color changes and effects created with yellow glaze over pink, a technique that would work well for a sunset, and the fact that the coromandel brown in the Baziotes made the pink color glow even more. The point being that they hated that painting when they first saw it, which meant to me that they should study it in depth to reveal it's secrets. If they had no reaction to it, there might not have been anything to discover. Anyway, I do believe that if you design your own home, you have to find a way to make yourself happy, like making your own oil painting. It isn't going to be a museum piece (Magazine worthy), and comparing your work to a Museum Artist is going to make an amateur feel unworthy. However, looking at museum work might make any artist's own work better. You get ideas, pick up tips in the most unlikely places. And that's what the design magazines are good for, too. It might also help to look to blogs (Apartment Therapy) and magazines (World Of Interiors) who aren't afraid to show homes that are well lived in, shabby or even quirky, and realize that when you look at magazines that are written to show off wealth and sell Bentley cars (Architectural Digest) or push the latest garbage pumped out by the furniture industry (Elle Decor), you don't have to buy into what they are selling, but like visiting a museum or poster shop, like an artist, you should only be looking for inspiration not for personality, because those magazines won't provide it, (personality can distract from sales). But if one tries to impress others, or be something they are not, they will forever be on the unhappy carousel. Posted by Mmmbeeer: "Some people want to talk about window dressings and countertops and some enjoy trying to understand why and how a topic like decorating, which seems to many people to have such superficial appeal, is actually such a complex expression of who we are and how we choose to live." So nicely put, and brilliant. Here is a link that might be useful: Screaming Mandrakes

I don't rule out specific colors or shades altogether, but there are colors that I would never use on certain materials, if that makes sense. Some materials have colors that are naturally associated with the material and that's fine. So I would have a terra cotta floor or tile roof in the natural color, but I would think a bathroom painted in terra cotta semi-gloss would be awful. I would have a black leather sofa or black walls even, but I would probably not want black bathroom fixtures. I like cherry and mahogany furniture, but I really dislike the red-burgundy tone of a very popular prefinished floor in new construction here. I would probably buy a beige rug, but I really dislike the beige porcelain variegated tile that is ubiquitous in bathrooms here.