I think I would never garden if I tried to make my yard look like those designer gardening books. Personally, I find some of them a bit too poshy, making it way too easy for me to get discouraged. My approach to gardening is that it is all an experiement. I take some ideas from gardening magazines as to what might look right together, then try similiar combinations in perennials that do well in my zone. If they don't work - they are out of here and I try with something else. So, my imagined image didn't work out, so what? Time to do some more research to see what will. My front yard garden is more or less under this experimentation. Next to the driveway and walkway I've got all sorts of purples, yellows and pinks. However, as one side of the house lets go of Spring, the other side of the front yard starts taking over with grasses, red sedums and vibrant Burning bush and red flowering Azalea. Think of a wave of color. Totally not intentional - it has just turned out that way. The back yard has mainly been one hardscaping project after another. Now that I've finished most of it, I'm starting to put plants that fit with the shade/sun factor and my zone. The color scheme is all purple, white and pink. I put stuff where I like it. If it doesn't work out, it gets moved elsewhere. I think too often we forget to use our own creativity by trying to mimic someone else's. There in a nutshell lies the root of our frusteration. My advice? Other than reading up on plant catalogs, put the decor books on the shelf for a while and go with what YOU like - not what any body else has done. You might surprise yourself. Heather

As always, fantastic picture Ken. Like Ken, I feed mealworms during the winter. I'm up in MA and I rarely see any Bluebirds in the summer months, but I get to feed them in the winter. I can't just put out a bowl of mealworms though. All the larger birds, and even chipmunks eat them if I do. So I have a feeder with a stovepipe baffle under it to keep undesirables out.

He does have rules for them, and he has become very strict. He feels like every time they are in his care he spends the majority of time lecturing them. He is lost I feel, but I am just very amazed on how they act, I have never came across children that act like that in my life and I, myself have 17 nieces and nephews and 6 siblings. I feel bad when my husband and I talk about the girls, because when it comes down to it I feel myself comparing them to my children and I shouldn't because that shows favoritism and he wouldn't dare do that to me or my children. Maybe if my children were the unruley ones and his were the more well behaved ones he would, but he can't really say anything bad about my children. Except for the occasional leaving the light on or acting like a superhero once in awhile. my 5 year old acts like spiderman and runs and jumps and some times make annoying sounds, but hey, he's a boy. My two oldest boys are outside all day playing basketball, that is their passion and they take basketball pretty serious for their ages. And my daughter is on my hip the majority of the time, she is very clingy and can be very fussy. So I guess that could work on his nerves, but I can't really stop a three from being winy. the wining has also gotten much worse since we moved intogether and the girls started staying with us on the weekends. My children are far from saints and i dont want it to make it appear that they are but they wouldn't dare to act the way the girls do. They act up at times like all children do but it is usually just little bickering between the two oldest. I am able to do things with them without being embarrassed of their behavior, they have good manners and pick up after themselves. They are just total opposites. They even get stressed out when they know the girls are coming and they've decided they would rather stay somewhere else then deal with the girls, but I can't not allow that. I do not want my children to resent me because they can't stand their step siblings. It's just terrible. I'm completely lost and so is my husband. I feel bad for even thinking or second guessing him. But I feel that there is no hope as long as their mother is alienating their father. Seems like the things she says to the girls should be considered child abuse...atleast emotional or mental abuse...I do not known though. Just a thought. Danyele

Our yard is small, but birds are encourage to visit. There are the hummers, of course. The common finches, goldfinches and house sparrows, mourning doves and Eurasian collared doves, towhees, wrens, bushtits, warblers, phoebes, ravens and crows, and migrating what-nots. In the winter I feed the white-crowned sparrows; always miss their songs when they leave for the summer. Lincolns, song sparrows and various others show up. Once I had a rare Harris sparrow. The escapee parakeets, and spice finches stop by. I discouraged the spice finches when their numbers topped 25 at a time--those things eat more than any other bird I know of for their size. The little piggies! Orioles visit occasionally. And then there are the Cooper's hawks that show up frequently. They go through periods when they will perch on the fence every day for a week, looking for the unwary. The urn water feature really attracts the birds. Even though I have saucers of water in multiple locations, invariably, the birds want to fight the flowing water by perching on the urn rim to drink. It is funny to watch them trying to master the skill. Bluebirds nest in the front yard, which is amazing considering we are in the middle of a tight-packed residential community! I would have thought it to not be bluebird nesting habitat at all. But they do, and often successfully fledge two broods per year. I pamper them with meal worms and Ochna shrub berries. Harris Sparrow Nov 2012 Mourning Dove