The trick is to get them something to plant that isn't boring. For boys, hot peppers are a good way to go. Even the manliest of men (or boys that think they are manly men) will stop to dig in the dirt if it means they end up with the world's hottest pepper they can use to dare their friends with. For girls, try odd colored fruits. Pink blueberries, white watermelons, or purple cauliflower. For both, highly unusual fruits and veggies can do the trick as well. Kiwano melons are absolutely BIZARRE looking, and that makes them fun to grow. The trick is to not try and get them interested in the gardening at first, but in the end product. Just make sure its something you can't buy in the grocery store that still looks fascinating so you can pull the "Well, the only way you will ever get to try one of these is if you grow your own." deal. By the time they actually get fruit, the bait and switch will be done and they'll (hopefully) enjoy the gardening for it's own sake.

You still have time..I wish you and your fiance the best of luck. Many many happy years together. :) Is it going to be a big wedding? In a hall, etc? If so, are you planning on placing plants per table? Quite a few 'women' come here asking which plant would do best and look prettiest on tables at the reception. Some even bought a plant per person. Yep, there were good movies this wkend..I switch channels often, prefer a channel w/o a zillion commercials. I'm investing in DVD's..no commercials and I love Special Features. Learning about the actors, how a movie was made, oh and Bloopers are so entertaining. lol Binders. Did you ever get Recipe cards in the mail? They send a dozen or so, each card has a different meal. The idea is to buy more cards every month until a set is completed.. In the 90's, I received 'X' amount of plant cards for free, in the mail. Each card unfolds into four pages. I liked the cards and decided to join this club..'No contract.' It took a 1.5 years to collect all, 1000+ cards. The name is Success with House Plants. They send free plastic binders, and numbered cards that clip inside each binder. BTW, cards didn't come in numerical order, they were sent randomly. There's different Titles per section. For Example: Seasohal Flowers, Plants that bloom all year, Short-lived gift plants, Beautiful green plants, Exotic Plants, Cactus and succulents, Pest and Disease and more. A complete set is five binders. The company stopped selling this collection in the late 90's. I've gotten emails from people who were searching for these binders. I checked Ebay, 'helping people find used binders,' and sure enough, there were a few for sale on Ebay..One problem is most only collected 2 or 3 binders. But others had complete sets. I won't reveal the total cost after I finished paying for the set, but one woman I met here on GW found a complete set for 49.00. Which is dirt cheap!! I enjoy the binders..Each card has picures, and botanical names of each plant, added info like sun, soil, water, temp, propagation, etc. I might snap a pic of these binders later..'making dinner now.' Anyway, I'm glad I joined the club..There's so much to read, and the most beautiful plants.

We got some rain here last night, and lightening hit the transformer up the street. We were afraid it had zapped our vintage fridge, dryer and air conditioning but luckily they are all on the NEW circuits which are protected, and were just fussing! It was a hot and humid wait but we're back on track. After all that, we just got a 1/4" rain last night but it still was very welcome! Hopefully we'll get some more the next few days.

They are being installed as we speak ... there are a lot of them (perimeters, island, and butlers and breakfast pantries), so I'm not sure how long it will take. Counter templating is to be Wednesday, so I guess they expect to be done by then.