Here is a picture of my veggie garden. I have raised beds made out of recycled pavers. Here is a link that might be useful: more pictures of my garden

Sadie, I looked at the photos, read the comments, then went back to the photos to see what everyone had seen. I would echo many of the comments. First, lets remember that 'instant' does not happen in gardens such as ours. Even though we know that, I still repeat that thought to myself even after many years of gardening. It's a work of art which we are creating in partnership with unknowns such as the weather, conditions of the soil, and other living things such as your groundhog. (Unfortunately the groundhog does not see it as a partnership.) I must say that I do like the look of your garden. You comment that the Mullein must go, but I have to agree with Stage Rat - it provides a place for the eye to go, height, and is a statement in itself. At this point I'll also mention that it appears the groundhog does not eat it?? A plant I would definitely keep growing since this appears to be the case so hopefully you have seedlings to keep it going since it is a biennial. Don't be scared to move the Peonies. Consider that they are something you want to see when they bloom and their foliage lasts all season so they could be used as foliage fillers for the rest of the year. Again, Stage Rat's recommendation that the crowns appear on top of the soil is crucial for bloom. The Asclepias is nice! Again, another plant the groundhog won't eat since it's poisonous/toxic to them, so you might like to try some Incarnatas or other varieties. There are other plants which they won't eat for the same reason so do a bit of research and see if you would like them in your gardens. I have a deer issue and Monkshood are great plants, Poppies, Foxgloves and others. I've stopped fighting the battle somewhat and now plant things they don't like. Your Yarrow also appears undisturbed and there are many varieties with stunning colors out there. So take a chair and go sit a few feet from your garden. It's actually quite beautiful. :O) That's not to say that everything is where you want it, but consider the plant and what it is doing for your garden then make a decision as per moving/culling based on the adversities you face, bloom time, whether you like it or not, foliage staying power, purpose, etc. Oh, and consider that next year it will all be different whether you change anything or not this year!

I deadhead every day also as long as the weather is fit. When I get home from work, supper just has to wait until I have taken my daily stroll through my flowers with camera in hand. I like to dead head for the same reason as daylilyluver. Here are a couple of shots of my beds: Just added this section on the west side of the house a couple of years ago and I call it my sitting garden. My husbands only stipulation was to have enough room at the back of the lot so he could drive the truck between our property and the neighbors if he has to. Still have room for more, but am taking my time to see how big everything gets first. Already have a few second thoughts about the size that I had hoped on some things. A weigela was the only thing back here a couple of years ago and I didn't mind it's size then. Now, I am going to cut it waaaay back after it blooms every year. A different angle of the sitting garden. Not sure if the porcupine grass was the best thing to put in here (it's the striped thing behind the green chair on the left). I wanted to use it as a back drop, for privacy, but am thinking that maybe I should have used something else because it looks like it's going to crowd some other plants that I really like. The arborvitae trees in the background belong to our neighbors. As you can see on the far right, one of them is dead and we thought they were all going to die. I wish they had all lived because I liked the privacy, but as it is, they lost over half the row. I try to avoid getting those dead ones in the picture and our neighbor is being stubborn about removing some of them. This has been a 5 or 6 year problem, but that is another story... Love having the plants around the oak tree, but am having a difficult time keeping the poison ivy away. I just saw another start of it a few days ago. This is another shot where I tried to keep the neighbors dead trees out of the picture. Small section of our 125 foot long border at the NW edge of our lot. We made it 8 feet wide so we could use the 8 ft landscape timbers in between sections. It makes it nice for mapping where the plants are. Unfortunately, my map is still a work in progress. Vickie

The following was posted on thekrib.com/lights/reflectors: Victor wrote: This exact same topic was discussed on one of my reef aquarium list a couple months back. One person, Dana Riddle (www.aquaticwildlife.com), has done many lighting studies on many types of light (MH, VHO and PC). He found that a white surface did indeed reflect as well as the metal reflectors. The only problem was that after sometime, 'painted' white reflectors turned yellowish and were less affective. Someone on that list is starting to use white rain gutters as a reflector and he will report to the list if the white 'powder' coated metal 'yellows' over time. Being a grower of many different kinds of plants for most of my life, I have tried just about everything under lites at one time or another. I've probably read every publication on the subject, in English, on growing plants under lites. One common item,in these writings, has always been a list on reflectivity values. And flat white paint has always been near the top of the list. It's cheap, it's easy and when the paint 'yellows' get out the paint brush! It ain't rocket science and your plants will bearly know the difference. Your wallet will! Michael - -- Michael Serpa * Bay Island Orchids 2311 Pacific Avenue * Alameda, CA 94501 Tel: (510) 521-8245 * Fax: (510) 865-1787 http://www.bayislandorchids.com My own take on it is that my old garden was packed with T12's, and the LIGHT GOT TRAPPED BEHIND THE LAMPS, whereas my current setup is with nicely spaced T8's, 20 tubes over a width of 70", so there is over 50" of space for the reflected light to get out from behind the lamp. That's also a reason that I like Gavita's for HPS, because I can mount a MH between them, and a little higher, and the Gavita lamp is so small that it hardly blocks any of the light, so I get a nice coverage with the Halide for the blue/violet supplement that seems to be of benefit. Paul Mozarowski. Here is a link that might be useful: Exhaustive discussion of paint vs mylar vs foil etc