Rich, I take all of my pictures in high resolution then use the free program Irfanview (http://www.irfanview.com/) to resize my pictures and save them as a reduced version (usually 640x480 size which results in files of about 140 KB. This is the perfect computer screen size. Then I upload these to my photobucket account and cut and paste the tags into my email. Hope this helps. Adam: We live in Wilmington NC and I am lucky to have a well so irrigation has not been a problem. The back of the house has a raised, very large patio --was cement aggregate that I have laboriously handpainted to look like brick (see separate album on that adventure!) Finished it finally last week too. It is such a large area, it was just too visible and the painted bricks help it to stay down viaually. We have been here for 8 years and I started the garden from scratch 7 years ago, but since I throw everything I have at each new adventure, I tend to overdo things as you can see. Thank you for all the kind words about my garden, etc. (you can tell I love it can't you?) The vine around the porch (both front and back) is Confederate Jasmine an evergreen for us with the most intoxicating scent when in bloom during May. I do have lab lab on the white garden screen in some of the photos. Love Daffodils, do not enter any just love having them. Thanks for all the comments on my photography too, if you take enough pictures, you are bound to get some good ones and with digital photography I take thousands! Instant gratification and no film to buy/develop. I am on my third camera now. I have so many more great photos, not all of them are on the photo site. I love to make CD slide shows with music and send them to my sister in Massachusetts (New Bedford) since she is not able to visit and can tour the garden too. Glad to share it with you. Pauline

I have looked and looked at those photos trying to figure out what is "off"...and I think I have it: There is a lack of balance. The two large ferns are set off each other as if they are bookends, however, they don't line up symmetrically with the windows, so the effect is ruined. Move the large fern on the left (near the corner) so that it is placed in the same relative position to the window as its twin. Then maybe a tall pencil japanese holly can go on that corner. I think that would look good from all perspectives. Next I would eliminate the smaller ferns and replace them with something a little more colorful or different in shape, texture, something, from the two larger ferns. The shape of the little ferns is not right against the white board off the house's sill. I'd actually leave the creeping jenny as it is...I like it and the containment provided by the hardscaping keeps her from spreading everywhere. You could cut into it a bit in a curved way (it will just spread out of that though) and put something a little higher and more colorful in. The jenny will just creep back in though. If you are the type that doesn't mind statuary, perhaps a cool, good sized garden "thing" could go there, resting on the bed of creeping jenny. Like a pagoda or something.

I just received a beautiful Oregon cedar 8x10 greenhouse as a retirement gift from my husband in May. I have been an avid gardener in Butte, Montana for 25 years. So, I thought a greenhouse would be a nice addition to adding longevity for my tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers. There are 3 raised beds in the greenhouse. At the bottom of each bed I put a layer of small stones. Then black landscape fabric, followed by 12 inches of soil. In one bed I planted 3 tomato plants, the second 2 cucumbers, the third 4 pepper plants. After 3 weeks all the plants were dying. The tomatoes had leaf curl, end blossom rot, and yellowing leaves. The peppers and cucumbers never did "take off". I went to the nursery that sold me the soil for the beds and asked for a hard copy of their soil analysis. The pH in the soil was 9, and all the other soil components were low. I removed all the sad looking plants. Then I removed about 1/3 the soil in all the beds, and I patiently re-added manure, peat moss and store bought topsoil to each bed. After rototilling all the soil mixtures together in the beds, I replanted the same things. And the same thing happened with the plants. My next step was to have a soil analysis done with the county extension office. The pH level was now 6.5, however there was a "trace" of Nitrogen in the soil...potassium levels were very high. Today I removed all the soil from the beds right down to the small stones...hosed down the beds and am starting over. While I will probably wait until spring to add any medium to the beds, any input would be greatly appreciated.

yeah, it's in my favorites, too. I e-mailed the same person who is responsible for the study of the tires used in the gardens. To his knowledge, there hadn't been any danger and if there was a possibility of snakes wanting to make a home, there would be a few things to counteract it. If you choose to pile the tires for planting, then the inside could be lined to discourage any snakes trying to get inside. Check any and all tires before even beginning to use them. See, I wouldn't have had that concern because we only have little garden snakes around here. In eastern Washington, there are rattlesnakes but I'm on the west side of the state. It isn't the dry flat lands of the desert type of land. Anyway, check tires. Then choose how you plan to use them. The way I want to do is to use only the actual part of the rubber that touches the road. Everything else is cut away. It leaves strips of rubber to work with. The same idea used to make sandles. When the rubber is in these strips and laid out, they're stapled to pieces of wood at intervals, to make a continuous runner, to be set in place. The length, width and height are all a personal choice. Basically, instead of 2x4's running the length of the planting bed, it's flat rubber. One tire width or more high, to make the border around the planting area. That's how I have intentions of using them. I can't imaging a snake wanting to cozy up to that. I think if I had any snakes around like you do, I'd be gardening inside a warm sunny vault of some kind. No way would I be outside any where near that kind of critter. Hope you still try the tire frame beds.