Brenda, it is nice when even family members are enablers, eh? LOL!! I actually keep telling my husband "There's this garden in Western NY that someday we have to go visit!" I would love to see your beautiful garden some day. The different areas you have planted and the variety is amazing. I've been lusting for some more photos from you. Would love to see what you have on file for your veggie garden from last year if you have any time to post some. Goodness! I finally cracked open the catalog for my local nursery who I really like to support. She's a true plantswoman who I so enjoy chatting with, etc. I just sent an email over to her with my "list" (is was a long one) of plants to put aside for me for pickup when they open. It's a terrible habit I have of giving her a list each year for pickup. But my birthday is always right around when she opens, so it's a birthday present, right?!?! LOL!

What fun! I'd plant a tree in the turnaround, with most of it filled with low-to-medium shrubs that would hide the concrete from view from the street but allow the eye to pass on to admire the house. I'd then do much the same thing in the rest of the front of the lawn, defining your front garden as separate from the asphalt and vehicles of the road but still allowing pretty views through to the house from those passing cars. If eventually not every last thing could be seen at 25 mph, that'd be great--a little mystery is typically a lot more interesting and appealing than bare nakedness in buildings as well as people. :) On the garage end of the driveway I'd plant small-to-medium trees to grow to arch over the driveway and thicken up tall shrubs strategically to play down that end of the house/screen the garage door, focusing attention toward the front door. The insides of those shrub and tree borders could then be used as backdrop for lawn and favorite decorative plants, which would be more enjoyable to admire and work at in a semiprivate garden than a public area. All of it planned to also provide lovely views from inside the house, of course.

I need help find out what kind of pest is the one killing my Mint plants. Help please?

All that aegis said sounds great. And what your doing should work well. The only thing that stuck out to me are two things.. 1. Dont use rooting hormone on your leaves. Soft tissue plants dont need it and with my same experiment what it does is causes the leaf to make roots roots more roots and thennn some more roots and you dont get any babies. The ones I did this to I was able to cut it again and put them down without hormone and now they are producing baby plants. 2. I am sure we all have our own methods but from all I have read starting them in water isnt best because the roots that develop in that environment are softer and get use to being in water so when you transplant them to soil they sometimes dont make it as its a shock to there system. And with my experiments the other super important key is lighting. Must have lots of light. Kind of off your questions but hope it helps! I too am new to AV's just started last fall and have had alot of trial and error and done ALOT of research. Now I am really having great success and growing lots of babies!