I was on vacation, returned yesterday, happy to get so many responses to my post, and wonderful feedback. Coolplantsguy - yes, I do love peonies and heirloom plants for that matter, I just don't have the room though I admire them in my neighbors yard. The one we had toppled from the weight of the blooms, I don't know the variety, they were here when we purchased. Thanks for the suggestion, I will consider if I ever find the space again...my lawn gets smaller with each passing year. LOL. Pat, you make me chuckle. I'm like you. I spend so much time planning and thinking things through over the winter, only to find later that I don't like the combos or placement, so I plan again for next year. Some of my plant combos happened by accident & some I've followed suggestions when researching companion plants. I'm still learning how textures compliment eachother, and other things I didn't know to think about a few years back, but it's fun to learn. Summer is too short though. Prairiemoon, I also have Astilbe planted next to my Annabelle, and I enjoy the contrast of the red plumes and darker foliage with the brighter green backdrop of Annabelle. I've learned it's best to NOT fertilize it once it's established, it makes the blooms too heavy and they'll topple. Still, the rain does make them flop, but mine usually bounce back, I have one staked with a support, but it was just planted this year. I also cut my dianthus blooms back before I left for vacation, and returned to a new flush of blooms, the foliage tends to yellow on me though, I need to stop watering, I didn't realize they're drought tolerant. I forget the variety, it's got blue spiky foliage and red flowers. I will have to do more research on hellebores...we added a raised planting bed/retaining wall with a row of purple leaf sandcherries on top, and I'm looking for an underplanting in full sun; the sandcherries will be trimmed into a tree form once established. For now, I planted yellowish hostas at the base for contrast, but I know they won't do well in full sun. I'm glad to hear about Sedum Angelina, mine will be delivered some time this week, now I'm really looking forward to growing them, I just worry about our new dog, she's so rambunctious - she's a chihuahua boston terrier mix, the cutest thing, she likes to grab my plants and tug on them..I'll have to get her some more toys. I was thinking of amending my soil for the iris, adding more grit for drainage, we'll see if that works. I had one aster that bloomed for me, but it was spindly, a combo of dry soil in this area and minimal sun, but my campanula that I moved not too long ago is doing much better, must be the sun. I have to move the asters, just trying to find a location. It's funny about the Autumn Joy Sedum, my husband keeps telling me to pot them up since I can't find the 'right' place for them, I'll have to try that. I do like the blooms, very pretty, and they grow amazingly large after transplanting a single stalk, very impressive. I will try to post a pic of William Baffin rose when I have a chance..the pic is not mine as mine is only a few months new and I'm still learning how to prune them to shape, but my friend has one along their property and it's a stunner, grows upright almost like a tree canopy, and does well in our zone without protection and is disease resistant, with prolific blooms, but I know they have to trim it back regularly, it's a monster. Give me a couple of days and I'll try to post here if I can figure out photobucket. Of the climbers, I have Don Juan and Sombreuil. They died back almost to the ground, but new growth emerged in the spring, so they're still puny and it's the end of July, though I also transplanted them in early spring. We'll see next year if they do better. I purchased Smokebush 'Grace' and 'Golden Spirit' - I've read there's some potential winter die back, mine is only a month new, but I've also heard that they grow like weeds once established, so even with winter die back they'll grow like crazy. 'Golden Spirit' has new growth in a pretty lime green color and grows more upright in form whereas 'Grace' fans out. 'Grace' grows at a house up the street from us and it's just beautiful, especially with the smokey plumes. I ask my husband to slow down every time we drive by. :) Phyl in Chicagoland, I'm embarrassed to post pics. I still consider my landscaping in the beginning stages, most plants aren't mature or established yet, I've moved a lot around, still a work in progress. I had problems with photobucket last time I tried, but I'll see what I can do. I'll tell you though, do an internet search on 'Nancy J. Ondra', I came across her website when researching plants (that's where I got my iris and lemonbalm combo inspiration from) - her garden is to die for, absolutely STUNNING!!! I peruse her garden pics whenever I get the winter blues. Mxk, I was also looking at the Iris pallida but wasn't sure if it would look odd to mix these with the non variegated type. If you like the look of Jacobs Ladder, it reminds me of a shrub, Carol Mackie Daphne. Same variegated foliage, with pretty spring flowers. Connie, this is also my first year with wave petunias and I love them, I have them in hanging baskets. I've read they are self-cleaning, unlike the regular petunias, but I still deadhead here and there. I'd do them again, definitely. The foliage is also very pretty. Gabby, I used to throw tags away, but as the gardening world became more intriguing to me, I've learned to write down the names of my plants on a 'map' of my yard...LOL. Mostly in an attempt to overcome winter blahs, I also compiled a list of plants that need deadheading, cutting back, dividing, etc. so I know what to do come spring. Daylilyluvr, ok, like I said I'm an 'advanced' beginner in the gardening world, still in my learning curve. LOL. I had no idea Sweet William was a biennial. I've had it for two years now, the blooms are stunning, but this year it got all brown and ratty after blooms were spent, I chalked that up to too much watering. I cut it back and it looks like a few blooms are starting to come in again, but I had to remove old dried stems. Web says if you don't let it self seed it will shoot up more stems and act as a perennial...looks like that's what's happening for me as I likely cut back the spent blooms last year too. Crunchpa, my favorite person from the container gardening forum. LOL. I have a TON of containers this year, maybe too many. It takes me over an hour just to water everything, and that's just the containers, but I think I got overzealous and overstuffed them this time around...still, I wouldn't go without my containers, I'm hooked. I love that moss sedum, I'll have to try it. You always have the best pics. I still have dirt to cover until everything is established, I'm waiting patiently though my transplanting doesn't help either. I was looking into that red hot poker at one point, if I remember correctly I think it goes dormant mid season and then comes back again later?? Or am I thinking of something else? Pretty. I'll have to research more of the suggestions here, though I'll probably be losing more lawn in the process. :)

Well, we live in town, although it's not a very large one, so I imagine Code Enforcement would be on me if I tried having a sawdust toilet. But I'm doing all I can to conserve. It's been very hot and dry here. Even though I haven't posted much lately, I do get on for a little while every couple of days to read and find out what the rest of you are doing. I'm so glad you all take time out of what are probably very busy days to post and I'm sorry I haven't been very good at it. In the house, we conserve several ways. I do run my dishwasher but there are always those pots and pans that don't fit, and I won't put certain other things in the dishwasher. So I'm doing a sink-full of dishes probably every day. I put soap and water in the largest of whatever is dirty and wash everything in it, kind of rinsing things over it until it gets full. I keep rinsed-out milk jugs at the sink for pouring extra sink water into, and that's where the water goes from that largest thing when I've washed it clean. I find I accumulate several gallons a day just cleaning up in the kitchen. We have a small pump, and we use that to pump bathwater, either into milk jugs (I saved them all winter), or sprayed directly on flowers and shrubs with a hose connected to the pump. DH and I, whichever takes a bath first, "save" our bathwater for whoever takes it last that day. DGS, though, tends to fill his tub too full in spite of my best efforts to remind him, "It's a BATHTUB, not a SWIMMING POOL". If you use bathwater to water things with, please only put it on flowers and shrubs, not on vegetables and herbs, as there's danger of e.Coli if you do. On days when I have enough wash for a load, we pump our bathwater into the washer and use it for the wash load, adding detergent, of course. This goes down the drain simply because we don't have a good way to do otherwise, and the washer uses new water for the rinse. DH and I do tend to wear our jeans two or three days instead of one. But our shirts and skivvies would be too stinky to put into service for a second day. With our toilet, we follow the motto that California is known for, adapted as such: "Welcome to Oklahoma, baked by the sun, Where we don't flush for Number One". Of course, at the end of the day I go around and make sure everything's flushed because I don't like it all sitting like that at night. I kinda don't like it much during the day, but it's just the three of us and two bathrooms so it doesn't get too bad. When we get rain, I collect the rainwater that pours off the roof into two sprayer tanks that I bought at Atwood's on sale. The first one that I got was mushroom shaped, capacity 210 gallons, and I really thought it didn't hold enough because a good hard rain would overflow it. Plus it's shape did not fit very well with where we placed it. So next Atwood's sale, we got another, this one shaped like a big barrel on it's side, capacity 300 gallons. It fits better where we had the mushroom shaped one, and we moved the mushroom one to the other side of the house. A good rain will fill them both up and then some. Both tanks have a 8" diameter round hole in the top that the drain pipe is dropped down into when rain is forecast. When the tank is full, we reconnect the drain pipe as for normal drainage and put the screw-lid on the hole to keep mosquitos from breeding and cats and small critters from falling in. When I'm ready to water, we lower our little pump in and connect it to the hose and water away. It seems to take about 100 gallons to water my garden each time. We completely emptied both tanks early last week and I've had to water with City water twice. Our water is pretty expensive because whatever we use also increases our sewage bill. We got a little rain yesterday morning and that gave us only about 5" of water in each tank. But it's better than nothing! I'm grateful for whatever, and also for the break in the heat. I was beginning to worry that I was going to lose my garden. I did lose my Nanking Cherry bushes, both of them. When I replace them, I guess I'll plant them where they will get partial shade, rather than full sun. I have been getting cardboard every chance I get. For some reason I'm unable to get it from my neighborhood furniture store any more, but I've found another furniture store that gets deliveries every day. DH goes right by there on the way home from his work-out at the hospital fitness center, so he's started stopping in and getting some on his way home. I really like the cardboard from recliners. It's heavy and just the right size to fit between my raised beds. Since it's in such big pieces, it doesn't blow around as much or have to be weighted down as much as the smaller pieces did. I got some old hay from a little old lady friend of mine who had it in her loafing shed and hasn't kept cattle for the last ten years, so it's that old. But it's good for mulch. I've also used up every single bag of leaves that I collected last fall. Some of you will remember probably that I went around my neighborhood looking for bags of leaves being left on the curb. I tried to go to the door and ask if I could have them, but most of the time no one was home, in which case I just threw them in the back of my pick-up, drove them to my back yard and threw the bags under my big back porch. We got really lucky and found a hardly used Troy Bilt chipper/shredder at a garage sale last weekend, for half what they sell for at Lowe's. We started it up and it only took one yank to get it going. It's overkill for leaves, I know, but it'll be nice for all those hollyhock and sunflower stalks and for next time we trim the privet hedge. I find that my raised beds are not such a good thing when the weather is dry, as they drain TOO well. But I am mulching heavily and hoping for the best. And I do agree with Dawn that it's wise to plant things that will take the heat and the dry. I have found that sunflowers, zinnias and hollyhocks will grow well in my conditions without much care at all. Sorry this is so long! --Ilene

The word of the day is "Let the buyer beware" . How many here would call someone and say "I want a new car. Get me one and I will pay you what you want"? Why do we do that with soil? So often we see here someone bought some soil and it was not what they wanted, or expected, because they relied on the seller to give them what they wanted and that happens seldom. Someone wanting to purchase soil needs to determine what they want and go and look for it., same as buying that car. Do not rely on someone's description of soil as "topsoil" (a meaningless term), or "garden soil" (also meaningless), but go and look at what is being sold. Look at the soil, smell the soil, feel the soil, ask for a one cup sample of the soil for testing as described in "Soil test for organic matter" above. A good soil mix for a garden is one with about 45 percent sand, 25 percent silt, 25 percent clay and 5 percent organic matter, soil some maintain is improbable to get. If we all demand that mix it will become available if those selling soil want to stay in business. If we, as buyers, demand quality we will get it. kimmq is kimmsr

HI Sunshine_31...I'm so sorry you are going through this. My story has evolved and gotten worse. We switched lawyers to a more responsive lawyer who is really is working to help us, unfortunately we are in a really crappy and complex situation. We know for sure they were unlicensed, paid for unlicensed workers, did not get permits (but charged, collected, and provided waivers for permits), collected for items they did not procure, over ordered items that have disappeared from our home (flooring and tile), and did not pass through money from the bank to the subs. The bank is acting shady and has lawyered up. 12K in flooring has to be removed and a new floor needs to be installed. We had to have "special inspections" since the most of the renovations were unpermitted and have to pay $3500 to have the electrical fixed and brought to code (mechanical and plumbing issues are awaiting a quote). I should hear from the AG for Michigan today regarding the case...I'm trying to stay positive, but this is all so wrong.