Well its nice to see somebody else that jumped right in with both feet like I did last year. It was a lot of work and I swore that this year I'd be smarter and cut back some this year. But somehow it actually wound up bigger. I have one plot that is 30'x 40'(tomato's) another that is 24'x 40' (peppers(hot,sweet and bell),green beans,zucchini,lettuce, cabbage,Swiss chard,spinach,onions and okra)12'x20' my watermelon patch 3 at 10'x12' one each for corn, cantaloupe Gurney's giant and sweet potatoes and 5 raised beds 3' x 10', 3 for trellised cucumbers 1 for trellised sugar baby watermelon and one for trellised lil sweet cantaloupe and also a 3' x 24' section outside my fence for Athena cantaloupe to grow up my fence there also. I got in touch with a tree service and got a load of wood chips. I'm using it for mulch that I put down around my tomato okra and corn plants (before I ran out). I put it down 3 to 4 inches thick to help hold the water and also hopefully to cut down on weeding. Plus after the garden is done I'll till it under which will be good for the soil. Also after last year I got leaves from some of my neighbors and piled it in the garden (as my yard is somewhat hilly it helped avoid erosion) and tilled it in this spring again helping with the soil. Also get a soil test done so you can find out what the soil needs to get the ph balanced right (make sure you let the know its for veggies). I am going to try mulching some of the other stuff with hay straw again for water retention and hopefully to avoiding weeding as much as I can. If your gonna have many tomato plants 15 or more I'd say try making your own from either livestock fencing or get some (I forget what its called)but you can find it at Lowes or Homedepot in the building supplies section around the concrete its like the livestock fencing but thicker. Also if your gonna hand water like I do find something that will let you water the roots gently without bending. If you have a lot of plants that can be a back breaker. I'm sure I am missing a lot but thats what I have learned so far...........GOOD LUCK

I asnswered on other thread.

avesmor - thanks so much for your detailed response. I'll talk to DH about the rug! In the last photos the chair is facing the tv and I agree that this set up works better. The ottoman takes up a lot of room and we really don't use it so maybe that will find another room to live in. I can't keep any plants alive either (not even cacti survive my erratic over and under watering!) but maybe I'll look into getting some plants there. I have my eye on a large antique green glass fishing ball, and I might bring the color in that way. Bronze or metal sculptures are a great idea and I really like Allison's bookends. We have horse property (no horses yet) and a rustic ranch style house so that's more of our style. I'm going to keep my eye out for these during my flea market/antique shopping. Unfortunately, the sofa can't go back farther to accomodate the fireplace or even be turned toward it because there are walkways right behind both couches that connect the great room, the living room and the dining room. The footprint of this house doesn't work well so I'm a bit limited with furniture placement. It's an older house that's been added onto over time without any great master plan in mind! Our front doors used to open right into the great room so we included a foyer in our addition to address that, but it would have been just too much money if we were to change the whole footprint of the house. As an afterthought I wondered if we should have put the entertainment wall right next to the fireplace, which would have been much better for seating, but we would have lost a lot of light if we eliminated the large window. The fireplace isn't done yet and it's just a bit of a dumping ground right now! Nothing except maybe the floor candles will stay. I may try a mirror but it could just reflect the pillar between the couches. I like the idea of a basket with kindling although we are going to install the gas logs (my house smells like a campfire for days after a real wood fire, for some reason). We don't need window coverings for privacy reasons, but I was thinking about using linen panels - until we installed the trim. Now that I see the craftsman style details on top of the windows that I love so much I'm having a change of heart about covering them. The media unit does come in separate pieces but the three sections aren't intended to be separated. The crown molding on top of each section fits together like a puzzle and the sides of the bases are constructed in a way that you can clearly see each is meant to be connected to the other. Maybe we could put something on each side of the unit like plants or sculpture to break up the wood instead. Whew - that was a lot of detail - thank you!

Linen curtains in a color close to the wall color are always a safe choice. Any art you love will always work. Just pay attention to scale and don't hang it too high. I would remove those dinky lamps on the desk along with the vase of sticks at the side. They really don't add anything but clutter to the space.