Thanks, Jon! I ordered an embarrassing number of plastic totes (54 10-gal, 8 105-qt, and 4 35-gal, for a grand total of 66, lol) yesterday because the prices were too good to pass up (worked out to $1.08 per container, including my 9.25% CA sales tax), so I'm hoping the orders actually go through. If they do, I'll be scooping up seed potatoes anywhere I can get my hands on 'em, and plopping them into cheap totes to hopefully get a decent crop.

Moccasinlanding, i am embarrassed to say I do not know if that is an English Dogwood .. it was here when we moved in, and I am very very new to any gardening other than mowing the grass. I really have just started to hobby garden 4 years or so ago. Ken, as to that one Great X under the shrubs, I will try to get a early picture of it this year. I thought I bought all five of my plants the same time and place. Also unless my memory fails it looks brighter at first, Anyhow I will try to get some early comparison shots, heck it will be fun to have a photo project for the spring... The funny thing is I had them purchased and in the ground before I found out they can be DIFFICULT, my first thought was DANG ! I really liked that type. So far they have been no problem (it pays to be ignorant) or so they say... I have heard of locals with hundreds of types that can't keep Great Expectations alive, or lose them over a winter. So I just enjoy them and hope for the best... they haven't come up yet ! fingers crossed. This post was edited by leafwatcher on Tue, Mar 19, 13 at 23:44

All your comments have made my wife's day. She is the photographer and when she is taking pictures, she spends a lot of time composing the shot and then takes a multitude of pictures. When we purchased our digital camera a couple of years ago, she wanted a camera that "felt" like a D-SLR. We could not afford a real D-SLR. We ended up choosing a Fujifilm FinePix S6000 fd. When she takes flower shots, she uses the SP (Scene Position) setting and chooses the flower icon under Scene Position. This is the subsetting of SP that helps take the best flower shots. She uses that setting for any close-up shots. When taking the actual shot, she looks through the viewfinder rather than the little screen on the camera, and holds her arms tight against her body for stabilization. She patiently waits to try to catch the second when there is no wind and the flower is as still as possible. She also holds her breath when taking the shot. Last summer was actually her first summer of taking daylily pics. It was quite entertaining to watch the contortions she would go through to get "just the right" composition. She likes the pic to be of the flower and not the dirt behind the flower or whatever else might be distracting from the beauty of the flower (such as the neighbor's chain link fence), and that can take some creative positioning. Most of our plants are fairly small yet and don't have enough foliage to be a good background. She is even contemplating using a potted daylily to cart around as a foliage backdrop. She loves the challenge though.

Julia, absolutely DO NOT PUT ANYTHING ON YOUR ELECTRIC FENCE!!! When the power is on, it will burn it or ground it at that point where contact is made. (I hope I have this right.) We have to be vigilant and check the wires to keep them free of anything. We have some daylily foliage very close to the wires, and these will burn if they touch. We go in and clip them back if this happens. When you do your fence, try to keep this in mind. Try to keep them away from the plants as much as possible so there will be little chance of this happening. Unfortunately, our setup means we have to watch the plants that are close to the perimeter, and do our best to keep them away from the wires. Next year, we will be in the process of evaluating a number of the d.lilies and other plants in there to see what should stay and what should go. We might be able to move some things more into the middle and away from those lines. The moonflowers you see in the pics are planted on an old barbed-wire fence that we have never taken down--probably should do that some day. We try to start seeds in April or May and get them in the ground when they are growing good. We have a trellis in the middle of the Main Garden and the moonflowers are grown there,(and on the old fence.) Usually, by the middle of August into Sept. it is pretty well covered with vines, and it's wonderful when the flowers bloom. In the evening, the nighthawk moths come in to pollinate the flowers, and it's fun to watch them, they look like hummingbirds. We also grow tuberoses and they bloom about the same time, so in the evening the fragrance is tremendous. Avedon