Tiffy, those milkweed just seeded in that one spot about 15 years ago and i never got around to pulling them out or moving them. Then my son and daughter who where 15 and 10 at the time, spotted the caterpillars on them. 10 year old daughter knew what they where and that was the end of moving them. I have just left that clump to seed and do as it pleases every year. and the monarchs sure love them. If my poppy seedlings, from seeds from the one in the pics, turn out half as beautiful, i will have nothing to complain about. Karen, I can't wait till end of July or early August either. I want home grown toms so badly right now. We've just gone into some heat and humidity again so it's hard to tell if they really will be later than past years yet. On the other hand, I have no complaints about continuing to pick ripe tomatoes when those that bought their plants are pitching them after labor day. I'm still in heaven picking mine. Last year the fall was so warm I picked my last ripe toms on halloween and then took off all the green ones and brought them into ripen indoors. booberry, I've been companion planting marigolds with my tomato plants both in pots and in the ground for 28 years and my grandfather did it with his 100 tomato plants on the veggie farm and he never had a bug problem in his career and I have never either, except for last year. One little tiny tim didn't get a marigold because of the tiny pot i put it in. that poor plant got the dreaded tomato horn worm on it. non of the others did. Didn't make that mistake this year. tiny tim is in a bigger pot and has it's own little marigold in there with it. I also companion plant 4 o'clocks around my plants that are favorites of the japanese beetle and I've never had a destructive season with them, the 4 o'clock leaves get nibbled and the japanese beetles die. the leaves are poisonous to them. i find tons of dead ones around the leaves they nibbled and i guess the message goes out to the others to leave my yard alone, it's a death sentence. Everyone I know that uses marigolds with their toms and 4 oclocks with their JP loving plants have no problems with bugs with them. Fran

Hi! Congrats Suzanne on that terrific total on the yard sale! What was the fund raiser for? Carolyn, I feel your pain re the heat! Hotter than heck here too... I think most of us are catching up on FB, but I find this to be so much more private, a safe place where we can bare our souls. This group is amazing, even if I haven't been checking in so often! Just wanted to say thank you for all of the prayers and good wishes, good thoughts from you guys after my accident. I am completely recovered from that nasty concussion, jaw is all healed and i have been back to work for the past 2 1/2 weeks! You might have seen that I have already been deep sea fishing and this Sunday I am taking my kayak out on Newport Bay. Can't wait! Can't find too many friends or family who enjoy kayaking as much as I do, so I went to meetup.com and found some new friends who DO! Ha! There is group at that link for EVERY interest. So Carolyn, go find 'em! You might suddenly find yourself with TOO much to do! : ) tikanis

Happy Canada Day to our Canadian neighbors and happy Independence Day to everyone here in the United States. I have nothing in particular planned, Elery and I have been working hard renovating the kitchen. I just painted countertops and they can't be used for a couple of days. Ashley is in the hospital, the docs think it's her gallbladder. No, kidney stones. No, wait.....oh, they don't know. Ugh. Makayla is signed up for ballet camp and I've been driving her back and forth to Grand Rapids. Fireworks used to be fun until they started popping them off at every amusement park, ball game, car dealership opening, whatever. Now I don't care if I ever see them again, but Amanda is working on the 4th of July and I might end up with Bud and Makayla somewhere. Have fun, everyone! Annie

Oh yeah, we moved everything out of the room about 2 weeks ago then pulled up the carpet, baseboards, dust bunnies, dog & cat hair, etc. and scrubbed the room clean. I've had everything from that room stacked up in the dining room for two weeks. It was a mess, but that's just part of the process. Now I'll start the same process on the sewing room, but taking everything out of there is much more daunting! It really does look like an episode of Hoarders in there because it's my sewing and crafting stuff, leftover stuff from when my mother lived with us, a couple hundred books, and the catch-all for everything non-Florida people would put in their basement. It's scary but it needs to be done.