yeah, it's in my favorites, too. I e-mailed the same person who is responsible for the study of the tires used in the gardens. To his knowledge, there hadn't been any danger and if there was a possibility of snakes wanting to make a home, there would be a few things to counteract it. If you choose to pile the tires for planting, then the inside could be lined to discourage any snakes trying to get inside. Check any and all tires before even beginning to use them. See, I wouldn't have had that concern because we only have little garden snakes around here. In eastern Washington, there are rattlesnakes but I'm on the west side of the state. It isn't the dry flat lands of the desert type of land. Anyway, check tires. Then choose how you plan to use them. The way I want to do is to use only the actual part of the rubber that touches the road. Everything else is cut away. It leaves strips of rubber to work with. The same idea used to make sandles. When the rubber is in these strips and laid out, they're stapled to pieces of wood at intervals, to make a continuous runner, to be set in place. The length, width and height are all a personal choice. Basically, instead of 2x4's running the length of the planting bed, it's flat rubber. One tire width or more high, to make the border around the planting area. That's how I have intentions of using them. I can't imaging a snake wanting to cozy up to that. I think if I had any snakes around like you do, I'd be gardening inside a warm sunny vault of some kind. No way would I be outside any where near that kind of critter. Hope you still try the tire frame beds.

I have pink and coral drift roses and I love them! Mine have only been in the ground since the summer and they did not stop blooming! What I like about them is that the flowers are very full yet they manage to keep blooming. My pink drift grew next to a peony that battled disease after disease last year (mildew and botrytis) and it didn't get any of it despite growing in the same conditions. No blackspot on mine either and we always have blackspot. I will definitely be picking up other varieties in the spring. Not the best photo but I only took one for my garden mapping - This post was edited by Karolina11 on Thu, Dec 27, 12 at 13:15

IMVHO, I strongly recommend the 95-97 Chevy Camaro z28 series. very peppy, very good gas mileage,(if you don't punch the pedal all the time) and quite affordable to keep up. they keep their value through the years. and they are affordable to buy. the 94 is a bit of a lemon, so avoid it unless you want to spend a bit of cash upgrading it with sports parts. under 200K should be just at the point of needing transmission work. suspention wears out at this point also. you may want to factor this in when purchase price comes up. but 150K Z28's should easily be found in the 4K price range. another bonus with these vehicles is most repair shops enjoy working on them. and parts houses always stock just about any performance upgrades you could want. the 98-2002 models have the newer LS series small block, and I think they are a bit too expensive for what you get. I also don't like the EURO look headlights on the 99 and up camaro. but it's your money. John

Funny stories about different transactions. Bill_h, I'm glad to read that in the Motor City, it's somewhat of a free-for-all. It just seems appropriate, being the home of the U.S. auto industry. One thing that can work well for selling a car -- if you're replacing it with a new or used car from a dealer -- is what dealers around here call a "courtesy trade." You and the buyer of your car agree on a price as usual, then you and your buyer go together to the dealer where you're buying your new car. The dealer shows your old car on the sales documents as a trade, with the value being the price the buyer is going to pay for it. This saves you on sales tax in many states. The buyer then purchases the car from the dealer for that price. I know of many dealers who will do this for free, as a service to the person buying the car from them. A few charge the buyer a standard "paperwork" fee. They're willing to do it even though they make no money on the sale of the trade because it can help you buy the new car, since the buyer is presumably giving you more for it than the dealer would have.