Hey Everyone, Thanks for all of your great suggestions!! Given the fact that I have Triple Crowns coming in the mail this week, I decided to run to the store and get this done. I can't take another round of attacks!! Ok, so here is what I did. Brookw and Northwoodswis, I wish they had those fiberglass posts around here! I'm in central Ohio and I went to a local Lowes store and Tractor Supply Company and didn't see many options. I'm sure if I took another week to research, I could find the fiberglass posts somewhere. But I went ahead and bought the 8ft T posts for $6.50 a piece (ouch). I also bought some fairly cheap electrical wire that I will string between posts and attach the deer netting. My thought is this. The deer netting was cheap at $12 for a (7' x 100') roll. So I'll give that a go. If it doesn't work, I can quickly convert this system to electric. For the gates, I purchased a few 10ft pieces of Rebar. I will sink some pieces of pvc into the ground where I want the rebar and where I want the gait to open. That way I can move the fence in a hurry. Now if I go electric, I'll have to change the gate setup. Anyway, I know it isn't ideal but I'm hoping this will give me the opportunity to either save money or in the worst case scenario, upgrade to electric if need be. Northwoodswis - I know what you mean in terms of spending ridiculous amounts of money. My garden is a sink hole for money! Now I know why there are only 2 people in my entire neighborhood that bother to garden. My neighbors are constantly looking into my yard "what is he doing now," "is that a garden?" (laughing). Well I guess if food prices go way up, we'll be sitting pretty! Thanks again everyone, Terry

I went the opposite way. When Deb first got some clematis (4), I planted them in pairs a foot apart. I didn't care how close they were. The things didn't take up as much room and were away from roses. After all... they were just weeds Deb wanted to have. It wasn't like they were important :) I didn't care if they competed for sun and root space. Somewhere along the line.... I became fond of the things. Watched Dr Ruppel strangle Ramona and Jackmanii almost did the same to Ernest Markham. I was amazed at the size of the rootballs when I dug up established clematis. The roots on our 12 year old Dr Ruppel are 2 feet in diameter. Don't know how deep they go on him. I had to move the 12 year old Jackmanii and it was 18 inches in diameter and 2 feet deep. I began to respect them as good plants in their own right. I was also glad I had planted clematis at least 2 feet from the roses. Never expected weed roots to get so large. Hope you realize I am a very strange gardener. I get claustrophobic seeing clematis wrapped around rose canes. I try to keep the clematis on the fence or trellis. I want the plants to have room for their roots to grow. It makes for a strange garden too :) It is a jungle but I like to consider it an organized jungle, lol. Not saying my way is right or that planting clematis a foot apart is wrong. Just trying to explain why I no longer plant them so close together. Have to admit, life was much simpler when I just planted the rascals together out of the way. How can a rose guy justify spending time taking care of weeds.... or, heaven forbid, using precious garden space for a nonrose??? *sigh* OK, I'll shutup :) On preview I realized we do have some new clematis I leave close to other plants. We find volunteer seedlings and leave them where they come up for a few years. A couple of them are huge now and I'm gonna have to transplant them soon. How did a rose guy get so tangled up in weeds??

I agree with Dave, you look like you're too close to the fence with your weepers. I'd start off with defining your bed from the lawn. It looks like you could come out to the lower part of the picture with no trouble, unless there is something interfering that I can't see. Most people make their flower beds too small and end up trimming the plants in the bed so they won't go out over the lawn, or better yet, cutting back on the lawn, giving the plants more room. It's easier to do it right the first. I also agree with Doug in that two of one kind side by side is a bit formal. Just a personal opinion. Formality comes with it's own set of problems. I've had a garden for over thirty years and deciding planting distances on growth in ten years can be a mistake that you will regret later. The blank distances can be filled in with groundcovers and mulch. I don't like to say, 'and temporary plants that you will move later'. Sometimes that doesn't happen. Ask me. :-) By the way, where are you? Mike

I'm sorry, I'm all over the place here. I had thought about hanging the Romans in the slider higher, but they're inside mount and short as it is. I never thought of running the casing higher *and* adding fabric above the romans to make them look taller. I'll have to see if we have some casing that's long enough to go the 4" higher and redo it. But DH kind of likes the sign in the middle of the 2 pictures so we may just keep that. So, leaving windows aside, let's try to see what we can do with furniture. Later I'll need help with artwork b/c as I said I never hung any in old house and we were there 14 years. Now, I really want the bay to be a focal point, original plan was to build in bookcases on either side and have a small table with 2 caned Victorian chairs in the bay. But reality (living with extended family nearby) hit and we realized we needed more seating so we bought sofa and loveseat (and then ottoman) instead of just a sofa. We put the tree in the bay at Xmas time. I'm thinking eventually I'd like a (shallow) windowseat there flanked by bookcases but that custom work won't happen until we replace the carpet oh, 10 yrs from now. So, DH and I moved the LS *into* the bay with the ottoman in front of it (also moved the Victrola in from the LR where it clashed with dark wood tables). What do you think? With the back almost against the windows, does it make it a focal point almost like a window seat might? Of course, I should have just saved the expense of putting in the single sill now since you can't even see it. Ah well, it will still be there when we get to do the window seat. We tried putting the LS at the kitchen end but it just closed off the room and was hard to get by the table & chairs (another unplanned but necessary purchase since we had at that time been living 3 months with no island countertop, eating off a folding table and folding chairs - it took 6 more months to get countertop and I still have to finish the last barstool).