Dora, How about a butterfly/bee garden? You could plant borage, butterfly weed, lantana, pentas, purple coneflower, shasta daisy, bee balm, black-eyed Susan, liatris, lavender, verbena and yarrow, just to name a few butterfly/bee loving plants. Good luck!

My DH gladly handed most of the decision making and planning to me - just not his thing and I do nearly all of the cooking. I did narrow choices down to a couple and ask for his input before making any decisions, but he was pretty accomodating. Early on I did ask him for things he would like in the new kitchen. All he wanted was a fridge with ice and water thru the door. Easy-peasy. Curiously, my DS (about 10 during the reno) really got into the whole process from helping with the layout, to picking paint and finish colors. We learned a lot about kitchen design together, and although I never let him over-rule my choices he did play a big part in some of the finish choices. Last summer we redid his bedroom and he lead the "design team" with some guidance from me. Now he has a room that suits a teenager (the "man-cave", lol) and a great deal of pride in showing off his bold choices.

Thank you Stephen. I've been retired for about 10 years so I have a lot of time to do things. Doing them though, is getting more difficult as I age. e.g. I finally sold my climbers. Here's that link to my garden. There are several albums and it is quite disorganized. photobucket.com/user/Botann/library/?sort=3&page=1 Mike

Bella rosa, if a jug seems to be drying out put several inches of warm water in a large container and set the jug or other seed container in the water and leave it for awhile so the mix can dampen. Try to do this anytime the containers are starting to dry out. One way to tell is if the container starts to feel lighter. I prefer Pro Mix but also use Miracle Grow without the moisture retaining crystals. Those crystals keep the mix too damp. Also if it rains a lot I will cover the containers with plastic sheeting so the mix doesn't get soaked. Works best when the mix is damp but not soaked. Failure to germinate can be caused by lots of variables. Mix is too dry or too wet. Tiny seeds covered with too much mix (best to surface sow and press seed to contact with mix), old seed, unripe seed, seed needing scarification, seed needing cold stratification, seed needing light to germinate so must not be covered with mix, seed needing dark to germinate so must be covered, seed needing two winters to germinate, seed germinating sporadically (columbine), seed needing a warm period then a cold period to germinate. I mostly surface sow and press the seed with the back of a plastic spoon to make contact with the mix. Bigger seeds generally get covered lightly with mix and pressed. When the weather gets in the mid 70s I remove the covers so the seed doesn't cook. They will need to be watched closely so the mix doesn't dry out. Moving to a shaded or partly shaded location helps. i am still ws annuals. Our last frost date is May 15 and I will direct sow some other annuals then. 2016 results: we have had a few days 20 degrees above normal, around 70F, still only have four containers (out of approximately 50) germinated and one of those is a container of delphiniums sowed 2014-2015 season. Thought I had some good germination in a couple of jugs then realized the seeds germinating were sunflower seeds. Some critter must have hidden some bird seed in my mix in the garage. So it goes!