The Man for reds = David Kirchhoff! And, no, I don't even have any of his yet. But I've seen BETTY FORD and others in my nearby AHS display garden, and they are stunners. I also second floota on POINT OF VIEW, a Sanford Roberts. One of my top favs in my garden this year. LARGE and BRIGHT. Stunner. The always and deservedly popular RUBY SPIDER. I'm in love with this one. An older, very good red: POINCIANA REGAL. Good, good doer, dormant, I really like this one. I saw HOLLY DANCER, which gonegardening mentioned, at clump strength in a region 3 summer meeting tour garden....one word = WOW! One that was also a clump strength wowser, and that I have and can vouch for is the newer and still pricy RED SALLY, a Gossard beauty. Sunfast! (gonegardening & floota -- that was the eyecatching Gossard red in the Bange garden, wasn't it??? I forgot to write the name down.) Yet another fab one at clump strength and, coincidentally, in the same tour garden as the two above, is Pat Cochenour's MYSTIC PIZZA....now that I think about it, I think you "need" that one! Clump strength wowser but sounds like it'd be too short for what you want: REGENCY DANDY. In fact, that one and another you should look at, ROCKET BOOSTER, a Santa Lucia, tied for first place as best red. One that I got yesterday at the club event and so can't say much about is ROYAL GUARDSMAN, a John Benz red. But I've never seen a Benz intro I haven't loved, and this one's registered as having 35 buds on 4 branches. If I were to go through the little notebook I carry to gardens, I could list WAY too many reds. But say the word, and I'll do it. :)

I did not know about pulling a square foot of horseherb at once. I'll have to check this out. I hate the stuff, as I'm a SA grass person. To answer your questions, fyi, I just purchased my first house last year, and I've inherited some drainage problems in the yard, and have heavily compacted soil. Last season was a "do what I can with the leftover money" season, and, I had to deal with a 10'x25' section of take-all patch. I will be core aerating in a couple weekends as this is the earliest my schedule will allow. I already put down corn glutten meal about a week before it warmed up, so I know my timing was right becuase I already notice a huge difference in number of weeds between this year and last. Now on to your questions: Water- Did not water all winter (I know, I'm still learning) Last season I did not have to water much due to the enourmous amount of rain, but when I did, I followed the deep and infrequent watering schedule you have posted on this website. How high mowing? A do a "step" approach in that I watch how fast my grass is growing and follow the rule of now more than a third off the top, so as the season wears on, I get to where I use my mower's highest setting, mowing at least once a week. I had a month last season where I averaged mowing every four days due to the large amount of rain we had. Weeds in shady area- I have dichondra and horseherb in both full sun and in full shade. They flourish in both places. I've notice that the dichondra is mostly in the areas where I have problems with rainwater collecting (my drainage issue). The horseherb could care less if I water it or not- it just thrives no matter what.

YES! All of you look GREAT! I learned a lot in doing mine and, I have now finally figured out how to get enough light without the flast. It was a learning process. And, as I said before...not as easy as it looks. Pattico, good job! I like your wall color. sooey

Beautiful! I am so jealous! I did not know this trick until our wedding florist told me about it. We had seen a photo of a magnolia garland and wanted to copy it for our daughters wedding reception. I thought it would be very costly, but went ahead and asked the florist about it anyway. He said "simple...it won't cost you a thing!" The reception building owner already had the artificial garland (we just used one strand of garland - didn't need two) and I took cuttings from a friends ginormous magnolia tree. We wanted something simple, yet elegant. This is what the garland looked like. A professional photographer took this photo. Unfortunately, I don't have enough evergreen to use from my new yard to decorate my home.