Thank you :) So glad you liked the pictures Marcia, I am happy to be able to enable...Orchids in Florida are a must Pond...It is still new - and I am still working on it. The last step right now is to hide all the liner and add more dirt for the bog area... It is a bog-pond (I heard the definition somewhere and liked it). Basically, no artificial filtration system: no pump, etc. Lots of plants that are needed to make this "little ecosystem" work: oxygenators, floaters, marginals. I have lotus grown from seeds - have lots of seeds to share, water lilies (hardy and tropical), water hyacinths, etc. For marginals, water iris: lousiana, flag, taros, swamp hibiscus - have a few to share if someone wants a hibiscus seedling (I think it is called scarlet hibiscus). I am planning on adding more lousiana iris - already ordered a bunch, could not help it. I am thinking about adding more around the pond, and also creating a little bog area close to the pond with the iris. The idea of the pond came from my husband. He usually comes up with the ideas, and I execute. Though, he did all the digging - days and days of it (I helped, however insignificantly..). Here is one picture I took this morning: Bog ponds are fun. It is now attracting a lot of toads and frogs, and it loaded with mosquito fish (no larvae here - mosquitoes do not stand a chance against hungry fish) As for the garden, my husband and I are in the process of creating a "jungle" in the back: all under our huge oak. Lots of shade lovers: begonias, hydrangeas, ferns. We are making pathways. Before, it was a bare piece of land - and my hubby finally got tired of mowing and me nagging that I want to plant more stuff :) I also have a rose garden in planning, in the front yard. Once it is ready - yooohoo, it is going to be one pretty place ...if it all goes like planned :) Here are a few links with photos: Pond, the development - pictures sorted from oldest to newest: http://picasaweb.google.com/OlyaGrove/Pond a few pictures from the backyard: http://picasaweb.google.com/OlyaGrove/BackyardSummer2007 and a whole bunch of my galleries: http://picasaweb.google.com/OlyaGrove Thank you :) Olya

Beautiful Aprille! Your flowers and TIC are really beautiful and your pics of them excellent. Thanks for posting these. I really like the Iris just emerging and I especially enjoyed the ladybug having lunch:) I wish they'd show up down here, I have aphids running amok. It'll be another month before all the little toads show up for me. My fingers are staying brown from slicking & squishing them, LOL*

I would like to see more of your garden. It must be beautiful. Your roses look so well cared for. I'm a Columbine fan too, I have them around the feet of Glamis Castle. They are so easy when they like their location.

Umm, umm, ump, ump - UMH! Good stuff Jim. Glad to hear you got some rain. I've whined about our dry spell so I should report I woke up Saturday morning and my wife said, "we got 2 and half inches of rain" and I accused her of trying to pull my let. But, we did. So, while the watershed around here is still pretty dry, Amarillo is actually a little above normal in rainfall for the month. Probably been a year since we could say that. And I'm with you Carrie. Kind of hard to battle mother nature.