Wow sorry to hear about the bad news. I work in the utilities field, and have run across this problem before myself, ie gardens planted or extensive landscaping in our easements. It sounds like they are going to be replacing their gas lines. So the not so bad news is that unless there is some homeland security issue you'll be able to have your garden again after the work is done! Also as someone mentioned, if you politley and reasonably explain your situation to the crew doing the work, we will usually go out of our way to help you out...scraping your good garden soil up and off to the side out of our way, and then putting it back in place when we're done. Also while the situation does stink bear in mind that the crew doing the work is just a group of normal folks trying to make a living, and they had nothing to do with the situation. One other piece of advice, call the gas company and speak to them preferably whatever crew supervisor is doing the work(get a name first and last of the person you s/w) you may not have to move your whole garden...gas easements are huge...but if the main isn't deep they may only need you to move what you have thats within 5-10 feet of the pipe. My crew has worked many an hour of overtime, putting back someone's garden all because that person politely asked if we could help them out.

The old adage "if you want something done right, do it yourself" rings very true here. I like the yellow stakes idea. Even if the mow/blow guys can't read, surely they know their colors - do not touch!!! The yard man who does the landscape care where I work clips the formosa azaleas like hedges - even after August when they have set their buds for next spring. I told my boss but he still does it, and there were no flowers this year. Duh! You grow up in Florida and don't know azaleas aren't hedges??? I've had my neighbor's "20-year old handyman/gardener" spray RU in the wind (my whole front yard of roses was downwind) and say "my uncle says it only kills grass". There's no cure for stupid. The builder of our subdivision (34 lots) did not want an HOA but after erecting a nice entrance sign for the subd name was told by the city that doing so required him to have an association (?!?!). So he went the minimally invasive route of a POA - Property Owners Association. In Florida anyway a POA may or may not apply even the few rules they have which are only meant to protect property values NOT dictate house color, yard plantings, etc. Our rules do say we must have grass in the front yard, but the board has not enforced that against me. :)) Invariably, there are errors in communication - especially between men and women (I won't say more, but I don't understand what's so hard about LISTENING). Funny thing - my bosses DH is a very verbal, non-mechanical, lawyer-educated but non practicing man who repeats EVERYTHING he says at least twice. At first I found it kind of aggravating, but then I came to appreciate the second chance to "get" his instructions and now wish everyone would "tell me twice". I'm more and more grateful for the toughness of OGRs. I hope hoovb's HOA Mons Tillier is on its way to recovery, and I hope luxrosa's 12" tall teas survived. I will be hugely impressed if they do. Sherry

Carol, I'm glad you enjoyed your trip to Ardmore.....we did arrange that one cool day just for you....LOL! Be glad you are not here today....it is currently 102 with a heat index of 108 and I have the hose running in the lily pond because it is down about 6" since the beginning of the week. We just came back from Ardmore few minutes ago, and there was little six-point buck in the driveway, making his way toward the garden. I guess he was going to eat anything growing out through the fence. The half-inch of rain we got wasn't much, but our fire dept. hasn't been paged out to a fire today, so it must have helped a little. People here do not pay directly for fire protection, but the county gives each dept. some money every year--it isn't even enough to pay our annual gasoline bill, but every little bit helps. We do lots and lots of fundraisers and it is never-ending, you know. Our citizens are VERY good about supporting Love County's 14 volunteer fire departments, though, and we always appreciate that. Dawna, It broke my heart to stop watering, but I swore I wasn't going to run up an outrageous $350-per-month water bill like I did during the 2005-006 drought....remembering that all that water didn't even keep the garden alive then, so what's the point in doing it this year? Only a little over 16" of rain here this year, and I think less than 3" combined for June, July and August so far. Combine the drought with the long string of days over 100 degrees (it's been as high as 106 to 108 here with heat indexes up to 116 degrees), and the garden (and the gardener) just can't take it. We've had lots of the usual hayfield fires started during either cutting, raking or baling, but its so dry that they have been burning lots and lots of acres per fire, instead of only a few. Lots of fires along the highways too, of unknown origin, but probably started by cigarettes thrown out of windows. I've spent as much as 10 hours at fires in one day, but usually only 2, 3 or 4 hours or so on most days. I'm just too tired. Between the drought, the heat, and the fires, the garden's just sitting there withering up and dying. It's OK, though, surely next year will be better. : ) Right? Moni, I bet Montana was wonderful! Well, I'm not giving up on gardening permanently, just giving up on keeping the veggie garden alive this year. Love County is in what the U. S. Drought Monitor terms a "moderate drought" and I believe our rainfall has been "below average", and sometimes severely below average, for 11 of the last 12 months. Our rainfall is roughly 10" below what it should be at this time of year. Even when rain does fall, we normally have severe drought conditions in July and August anyway, so without the "usual" rain, we are really hurting. The garden has been very productive thus far....tons of big, huge, softball-sized onions, a lot of potatoes, zillions of tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, a moderate amount of beans (less than most years) and I'm still geting okra, melons and pumpkins, although the plants look pretty bad at this point. Both our freezers are full and I have lots of onions and potatoes in the cellar. I'm still getting ripe tomatoes because the plants had tons of tons of green ones when I quit watering. At this point, I don't have much time to garden. Fires are happening with a frightening regularity....mostly grassfires and a few of the larger wildfires, a couple of car fires, and one major structure fire (over 10 hours long) at a wooden pallet factory earlier this week. I've been gone to fires so long, or in town on fire business, or running to Sam's and Costco to get food and drinks for the 14 fire department's firefighters, that I wouldn't have time to work in the garden even if I were inclined to try to water and keep it alive. I've also been on-line designing and ordering custom safety vests, hats, and t-shirts for our fire dept., so lately its been all about the fire department. That's OK. The work the VFDs do is very important and I don't mind diverting "gardening time" to "fire department time" every now and then. I just hope it all settles down by next spring (we need rain and a lot of it between now and then) so I can start over with fresh plants in a new season. : ) What about y'all, Moni? Did you sell the house yet? Did you move? Somewhere in the madness of trying to survive the heat and drought, I lost track of what's going on with y'all. Let me know! Dawn

For the kitchen, only you can know how much that might bug you. Personally I think of after meal cleanup-the dishwasher is usually open and we are putting things back in the fridge. The rest of the time it probably wouldn't be that big of a deal to me. As for the niche...that would bother me every time I walked down the hall. Can the niche be made a little narrower so that it would be 'centered'? Even if you just use trim to do it it should be an easy fix unless it is off by alot. Hope you are feeling stronger today and ready to tackle these challenges, Let us know what you do!