We have several frosts, one hard, don't know if you would call it a hard freeze. We have some decent days, but I have been working so much I haven't gotten out. I'm really enjoying the hosta's that are turning yellow. I love fall colors. I just bought a Garden Glow Dogwood and need to get it planted. It is a wonderful yellow/gold color and will really brighten up the shady spot I have planned for it. Schoolhouse, I've read that when you cut some perennials in the fall, you allow water to get into the cut stalk and freeze the plant and kill it. If so, I imagine some plants are more prone to that kind of damage than others. I worried about that being a problem with the canna since they have such a large stem. Last year I left them at about 3', they had grown to about 10' (or higher). I still lost about half. Luckygal, my non-gardening neighbor takes a weed-wacker with a round steel saw type blade and mows everything down with her kids in an afternoon. LOL I borrowed it once, but it had way too much power for my weak muscles. Thanks, Laura. I've been working on the garden for seven years and I think I've finally learned enough to get it together. Another picture just for fun.

Nuthatch, Try the Growing From Seed Forum. I just let my Rain lily seeds fall to the ground & grow. Not sure what the true instruction are. Hope this helps. Honeybee

Thank you for the warm welcome. I like to think that I have some knowledge lol. I have links to pictures of my backyard and my neighbors backyard. What do you guys think? I circled the boxes in red in both my yard and my neighbors. My neighbor has 2 of my boxes in her yard and 2 purple martin houses which she plans moving out into the open more. I have not seen any house wrens but I do expect to see some in the next month or so. I haven't seen any TRES here at all yet. I did however see a flock of a dozen EABL fly over my area last fall before winter. http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h267/t_mann05/photo1_zps2cbbffb2.jpg http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h267/t_mann05/photo-2_zpsb9c85f75.jpg This post was edited by tmann05 on Thu, Apr 4, 13 at 21:42

Hi Bandz, I have a clinger feeder right now that the HOSP and the House Finches use and I also have an upside down suet feeder out for about 3 weeks with no chickadees using it. I will try to put next to the clinch and see what happens though. I want an upside down boss feeder though because this feeder is hung near my window and I find house finches make too much racket, I much rather hear the chikadees going for them, then the house finches, but I don't know if the upside down feeder they sell work because they usually say it only holds niger seeds.