Well, the party line answer is clearly both, and obviously for me too, there is enjoyment of the process and the results. I think that must be true for any gardener who is involved in the making of their own garden space and who isn't getting paid for doing it. But I find that as I get older and farther down the garden path, I would like to enjoy the results more, and I find that the process itself can sometimes be tedious, expensive, require too much patience, and overwhelming. So I am going to be brutally honest here -- while I enjoy the work of gardening to some extent, if I could hire more people to do more things for me and just enjoy the results myself, I would do it. The problem is that, for the most part, if you are a real plant geek like I am (and a whole lot of others who responded above), you can't really hire people to arrange plants for you in the way you want them. So there is a certain amount that you have to be involved with yourself. Being involved again in the creation of a new garden, and having left a mature one, I have to say that so far, I enjoyed the mature one more. The last few years I spent there I did work a lot in the garden still, of course, but the proportion of time spent just enjoying the garden was greater. That doesn't mean that I was sitting when I enjoyed it. It doesn't mean that I didn't pull a weed or two when I walked with a glass of wine in the evening. But after 20 years working on that space, the garden felt "finished" to a great extent. That doesn't mean that there would never be anything new. But the garden had a certain cohesiveness that is certainly lacking in my new garden. It also had as much seasonal interest as I could pack into 2/3 acre in my rotten climate. So, weather permitting, the garden always had moments of great beauty and enjoyment for me. But then again, I know that one of the reasons the garden meant so much to me is that I had spent 20 years making it. I had watched the trees, shrubs, perennials that I had planted get moved from one place to anohter (NAY he says, "I MOVED them from one place to another"...) until they finally found a place that they (and I) liked. Still garden making takes patience, and it is hard in the early stages not to want more results, with less work at garden making. I think that's one reason why, relatively speaking, I did not take many pictures of the new garden this year -- in the last year I was at my old place I took over a thousand, this year less than 100. A reflection that the garden was more about process than results, so far. One of the greatest times of garden enjoyment I ever remember in my old garden was after a big garden tour. The weeds were all pulled, the plants all relatively pristine (it was mid-June), the crowds were gone, my family and the dog were gone, the walks and drives all neat and clean, no cars or other distractions to be seen. Then I walked through and enjoyed my own garden, for a couple of hours, nobody but me and the hummingbirds and butterflies. One of the best times of garden enjoyment I ever had, along with very early foggy mornings and late summer evenings. Give me more of those, and less back-breaking work, any day....

I somehow had the thought that this was only a temporary situation I've only ever lived in the Northeast, but when I've encountered them they always have been a temporary situation. Of course, the species one encounters in the Northeast are adapted to a climate with a serious winter. You may be encountering a species that doesn't have that adaptation since you don't live in a climate with a regular killing frost. As to their discretion, they're always rather small bees (maybe one sixth the size of a honeybee, maybe a little smaller than that). They may move in and out before you realize they're even there.

Yes, Bill, it's a mystery why some p*lants grow and some don't. I think that it is just so much more complicated then we can see, how plants thrive. Yet it appears to us that p*lants grow so simply. Quite the conundrum. That is very interesting about your lilac. I never had anything growing under it, so maybe I will try that some time. Claire, I am putting Thalia on my list for the fall. I think I am going overboard on daffodils lately. [g] They look so small when you first plant them, but they really fill out into large patches after a few years. I moved a patch into an area with not enough sun in the fall and it had no blooms at all on it this spring. So I think I am running out of enough sun. The Haweras are very cute and not so much dying foliage to put up with either. I did see the plant support and wondered if you had it in place for something that hasn't grown yet. [g] That Dicentra GoldHeart really catches my eye every time I see it. Really stands out. Wow, when that gets full grown! I really like Pieris and I hope I can keep them going in my g*arden. I fear I am too dry for them, but I water a lot, so maybe.

Thanks sara-s fo responding. Yes AstorLite is a type of paraffin. I've only ever worked with paraffin...not sure if I would like soy. Also don't know how the process differs. The 7 day candle jar (silly me I should know folks wouldn't automatically id them mentally) is 2.25" in diameter and usually 8-8.5" tall. I actually received a lot of advice from Bitter Creek...chatted with their person on-line which is why I initally purchased the wick sample pack and did the trial & error thing. I guess I'm hoping someone will tell me if I switch from a zinc core to a pure cotton wick and get the right size that it won't smoke. The first time I made candles was with pure cotton, but it was sized for wider containers I believe, not sure since it was bought by someone else for a group craft gathering. Still hoping for a brilliant short cut to get the residue out of the jar! I have several in the freezer to remove the remainder of the wax at the bottom (I guess I bought the wick holders with too high a whatchamacall it, lol). But then I have to face getting all that soot out...ugh! Thanks again, Suz