Thank you so much for all your responses "whenever you get a new hosta, divide it immediately and put each division in a different area of the garden.." I would like to, but all of the expensive hostas come to me as single divisions, so they would need 3-4 more years until I will be able to divide them. "Why are you putting the pots in the shed for the winter?.." Because I am in zone 5-6, and to keep hungry critters away. It�s better to be on the safe side. This morning I ran out and replanted my expensive ones in pots. The gravel on the top will keep squirrels away. I would rather be on the safe side and will move them into shed for winter. I like the idea of using hardware cloth cylinders and gravel at bottom of the hole, and will replant the rest directly without pots. I really hope it will work. Thank you for this idea. I use soilless mix and the results are really good� no roots rot, but this morning I also realized that I lost another 10 out of a 2 dozen I purchased and planted last fall. I ran out of my soilless mix and was too lazy to drive for another bag. I had Miracle grow potting soil that I used to plant these 10. ALL of them are gone due to rooting rots, but the ones in the soilless mix are OK. Another lesson for me :( Out of my 0.3 acres the plant beds barely occupy 1/5 of it and I am overwhelmed with all the work that should be done to protect the plants. I do use Kaput vole baits, mouse traps, Cayenne pepper, Ammonium, slug baits ( and a beer sometime) in my arsenal. My husband, who hates gardening, would go crazy when every night I disappeared for an hour with a flashlight in my hand. I browse this forum frequently and looking at the beautiful manicured beds of hundred of hostas, and wonder how the folks with acres of hosta beds and collection of hundred of hostas are able to keep the critters and slugs away�. Dani

I spent the better part of the weekend tiling in order to fill most of the void, so I can check this one off the list! Waiting to hear from KD re: cabinet installation. We've done all the prep work on this end -- wiring for UCL, wiring for new appliances, painting, sheetrock repair, etc. However, life did come to a screeching halt today...I'm posting this from a hotel room 2.5 miles from our house. Earlier this evening, DH shut off the main breaker to the house to replace one of the other breakers...routine stuff. But when he flipped the main breaker back on, nothing...nada...crickets. (Yes, he did flip the switch to full off, then back on again several times.) With 95+ degree days lately, no way we could stay in the house for very long, even in the evenings. Emptied the fridge and freezer contents into coolers, and off we went. DH is surfing the net, trying to find a local electrical supply house that carries one of these breakers; scheduling the electric company to come out and disconnect the power is a whole other matter entirely. Sigh...one step forward, one step back.

No, I'm still here. :) I've read everyone's suggestions. My goal is to produce quality compost. Vermicomposting won't be considered because my family found the idea disgusting and is completely against it, even when I tried to explain that the worms are harmless and it won't stink. Some people just don't get it. I like the idea of trench composting, but the garden is small and I wouldn't be able dig a trench and drop kitchen waste during spring/summer. I prefer to use the space to grow plants. I've been collecting leaves from my city's self deposit sites. There are mountains of leaves, like snow. I should take a picture and post it here. Many of leaves have already been shredded. The only downside is that the shredded leaves are always somewhat wet for some reason. Even when an entire week is dry and there's no rain, the shredded leaves are still wet. When leaves are wet, I imagine it's slow turning into leaf mold and losing its "carbon value"?

So I actually don’t need the extra counter space as work space per say. I want the cabinets themselves (2 12 x 24” cabinets on the back side of an island) as space for paperwork and bills tha I’m working on in one, and for my daughters schoolwork and homework in another. We both do our work at the island and it would be nice to have a dedicated space nearby to tuck our day to day papers away when not in use that is near by where we actually work on them. That being said, if I can make these cabinets removable, I’d be able to fit two more people on my island when needed. With s living right next door to our in-laws, casual week-night dinners can get quite large (8 people) and just having extended local family and close friends over stretches that to 15. So every seat counts but I don’t want to exclude day to day function, either.