I recently had a neighbor approach me as I was fixing some rotted siding on my garage. This is the neighbor whose lawn is saturated with creeping charlie. He asked, hey with all the money you are putting into this house, are you planning on staying here awhile? First, the repairs we were making weren't for cosmetic purposes, they were more functional. I'd assumed, "all the money" meant all the landscaping we've done ourselves. I love my yard, and I regret not getting started on it sooner when we purchased our home in 2004, we waited a few years and focused on the interior, with no relaxing, private, soothing patio to relax on. But, oh, today, we can enjoy sitting on our patio on our very small lot, with privacy from our neighbors. It's nice, and would I love to purchase a home with the landscaping already done? You bet, but I don't regret that I had to do it myself, because now I'm hooked and I love what I've learned - gardening and landscaping is very therapeutic to me. I've also wondered how much is too much, but I've been told by neighbors that I'm their inspiration, and we have people stopping at the front of our house to view our property from time to time, so we are heading in the right direction, especially as plants begin to mature. I have a small back yard, and yet in my rear yard I have a poplar tree (soon to be replaced), a mature lilac shrub, a hedge of privets, 2 smokebush trees/shrubs, a green giant thuja, an emerald green thuja, 5 purple leaf sand cherries, a serviceberry, a red japanese maple, a heptacodium, and a katsura willow tree, among various perennials, vines, and evergreen and deciduous shrubs. I'm thinking of adding a degroots spire and replacing the poplar with a dogwood or magnolia. The placement for each works, and creates a nice lush private space for us. I have run out of planting space, but I don't intend to lose more lawn, so now it's just waiting for everything to reach maturity and a matter of enjoying what we created. As long as you are comfortable in your own space, that's all that matters. There are a couple homes that we see on our walks in the neighborhood, with the front lawn completely over done in an awkward cottage style. There's nothing wrong with the style, but I think when homes like that are wedged between other homes with more open or formal landscaping, it looks odd and out of place. I feel sorry for the immediate neighbors. In my opinion when all you see is the landscaping from the curb and not the house, that's when you've gone overboard. I dread the day we sell our home and someone who doesn't appreciate what we've done lives here. We joke about it sometimes. But, I've recently heard from some new owners in the neighborhood that others talk about the work we've done on the house with the "striped awnings", so it's nice to hear when you've invested so much sweat into improving it and making it your own. I don't care if anyone thinks we've put too much money into our house. We didn't buy to flip it, and I don't ask everyone else how they spend their money.

I guess for the most part I am probaly over reacting. This is all new to me. All of the plants seem to be doing fine, except for the peony. There were several of those bugs on the peony; not a full blown infestation (as shown above) but enough to cause some alarm. There were four to six on the under side of several leaves (which I think are springtails), 10-15% of the leaves are damaged. This is the plant that started it all for me. I have always loved peonies and picked it up one day at lowes. I was not sure where to plant it and once I did I thought well something else might look nice next to it and now I have a small garden along the fence on the side of my home. It still needs some work, but I am happy with it so far. The real challenge will be next year. The front of my house is f-ugly. There are several, leggy overgrown rhododendrums (sp) which I will cut back in a few weeks. The whole yard is shade; there is a super large tree that blocks almost all sun. I am planning on documenting the whole process from start to finish in my journal.

We have a small hill located on left side of the front yard which I felt was a prime location for modern roses. It is facing east and could probably have the space large enough for 50 mature HTs. It has a fence at one end that could take at least 5 climbers. Thus, when I realized I had the inclination to grow modern roses, I went to my wife to pitch this brilliant idea. I told her that I wanted to go back to painting as a hobby but my motor skills have left me. But I told her that I could use the hill instead as my canvas and the rose as my medium for this "painting". Further, it is going to a dynamic one, the flushing of the roses will give it movement. Stunned, she thought for a moment, and then she said ok. It has been 8 years since then. I have toiled hard to get to a collection matching the painting in my head. I tried to use 3 roses of the same shade, instead of 3 of the same roses. I had to do this to give me flexibility in facilitating softer transition between colors and still get good definition. Each year, after the 3rd year, my wife would ask when my "painting" will be complete. I always replied, "IÂm close". Yearly kills, removal of under and non- performing plants, wrong color or height etc, makes it an impossible and daunting task. The best compliment I received so far from a buddy was "it must be hard to negotiate between bushes". My good neighbor calls it "roses in steroids". My other neighbor thinks the cumulative scent is too much. So, I continue to work at it until somebody says "you know, that could be a nice painting." Lesson is be brave and have fun.

Thanks Happy, for bringing up that assignment. lol. Yes we did try playing around with some assignments for a while, but found there wasn't enough interest to keep it going. Something I want to point out is that yes there are better times of day to take pics....but professional photographers who work on assignment, have to work with the available light. They can't wait around for a cloudy day. So its a matter of knowing all the functions on your camera and what they do. There are a couple of books that will help you understand exposure and shutter speed. Bryan Peterson has penned both these books. Understanding Exposure and Understanding shutter speed. You can also use your camera manual to learn the functions on your camera...it explains each one and what it does. You could try picking one function and practice taking pictures with it till you are comfortable and then pick another one and practice....this will make you more comfortable with your camera and its capabilites. Evenually you will know what functions to use where. A quick tip for white flowers is dial down your exposure by 1/2 to 1 full stop. In extreme cases maybe even 1 and 1/2 stops. This is done by using the exposure compensation button. Also if your pics are blurred use a tripod. If your camera won't give you a focus, you are standing to close to the subject. Either switch to macro mode or back away from your subject. If you are taking pics of pink or red flowers and the colour is looking weird.....again dial down using the exposure compensation button....till the colours look right. For uncluttered back ground, get a piece of foam core and paint it or tape some material to it....and place behind your subject. This will give you a solid clutter free background. Sierra