Lol - beating me up is not unheard of around these parts - and I thank you very much for your kind assessment, Sam. I appreciate it - the fishing invite, too. I've done a LOT of offshore trolling for salmon & trout on the Big Lakes surrounding MI as well as lots of stream and inland lake fishing for a wide variety of species, but my salt water experience is limited. My first inclination is to assume that the paving stone is probably crushed limestone and that it would be inappropriate as a 1/3 fraction of a medium because of its perceived affect on pH. To temper that, I continually read that limestone larger than 200 mesh is considered virtually insoluble insofar as agricultural field applications; but then I reason that the application is an almost immeasurably minuscule fraction of the soil, not 1/3 of it. I also know that fig growers often mulct the top of their containers with limestone with no ill consequence, so I have to say I don't know. I suppose I'm way ahead of myself because we don't yet know that it IS actually limestone ...... Do you know what the material is? Where do you live? (You might wish to add that to your user info (like my "z5b-6a MI"). I'm going to link you to a thread about growing trees in containers. There is lots of info in it, and if you pay attention to the parts that refer to removing 'wedges' of soil from citrus during repots, I think you'll have all the info I might have repeated here. Take good care. Thanks again. Al Here is a link that might be useful: Click me for Trees in Containers

I love the profuse blooms and light yellow of my moonbeam, but my plants always lay over. My neighbors and those in your pictures are all upright. I had a plant in Seattle that was in dry sandy soil and received little to no care. It grew just fine but always fell over onto the sidewalk even though the foliage was brisk and full. We live near the mountains now, where the rain is heavy and saturating at times and frosts can be heavy well into May. The plant is in sandy loam and, like the first one, in hot afternoon sun. It receives more water and care than the other, but I can see no difference in performance. It too blooms beautifully but lays down on the sidewalk. I don't like the appearance when flowers are staked. What's your secret??

Thanks, vonyon. I, too, am wondering just how deep the water will be before the cattails will say "that's too deep." If they stopped right where they are, I would be happy. I would take a photo of the pond but can't get it all in one photo and have it show details well. It may be about 40 feet long by 30 feet wide but I am not a great judge of distances. At the center, it's about 8 feet deep and yes, the pond does drop off quickly. This area had been just a wet spot that we guessed was at water level and some folks wanted permission to cross this land to get to theirs to do some logging. In return for giving our OK, they agreed to dig us out this little pond and it has proven great for attracting wildlife. We have had 6 types of frogs/toads, one turtle, a heron stopped by, moose, deer, ducks, other birds, butterflies, bats, and more. I have planted various plants and shrubs around the perimeter. It's a challenge because one side is quite marshy and there is no good earth around any of the edges because they dug up the hole and piled what they dug out to make the bankings. So it's clay and rocks. So I have to amend any soil I plant in and hope it won't get waterlogged by the clay soil around it. So far things do well: rhododendrons, serviceberry, artic willow, some other willow, blueberries, roses, weigela, raspberries that grow wild there anyway, lilies, lupines (I know they are not native to Maine though), daisies, primroses, irises and more. From now on,though, anything else I put there will be to make berries the birds like. That serviceberry is growing so slowly though. It was small to begin with and has not put on much growth. Haven't seen berries yet. I think I am going to start a new post about a bullfrog that showed up at the pond for the first time this year. I read that bullfrogs will kill other frogs and I am wondering if we should try to remove him. And I THINK I see the female there too, though she looks a lot like a green frog. I have read about how to tell the difference though. It will be too late to prevent them from laying the eggs, but if they are capable of wiping out the other frog species, I wouldn't want them there, although I know this is nature and nature does as it wishes. But bullfrogs ARE native to Maine, so maybe he will only kill some of them and all will be well. I have read on the net about places out west where non-native bullfrogs HAVE wiped out resident frogs in areas. Sorry, I guess I put the whole post here about the bullfrogs. But I will still start another post, because I would like the answers to be delivered to my email. I wish we could put checkmarks beside "threads" that we would like delivered to our emails instead of just the threads that we start outselves. Oh, and you are right that I should also post on the pond group. Thanks.

My DH loves liver and onions - he eats it at a local restaurant, LOL. I don't like it at all, and I don't want the smell in the house. He also loves steak and kidney pie. After years of making this for his birthday, I put my foot down, and now I make steak and mushroom pie. He misses the kidney, but too bad - it makes me gag as I cook it. He loves sausage of all kinds, and I'm happy to cook and eat that on occasion, but I usually have a back up meal in the freezer for me.