patlovesdirt, I didn't mean to say I liked your garden the way it was "better" than the beautiful revamp...just that I haven't reached the point where I can get anything to grow and bloom as lovely as you do in whatever arrangement you have...LOL. It's easier than I thought to attract Monarchs. Just grow Asclepias (milkweed) and Monarchs seem to find it somehow. This was only second summer I had milkweed. Last year I reared them indoors and released. Didn't have time or energy for hand rearing this year but I check on cats and chrysalids everyday outside on milkweed. I have Incarnata 'Ice Ballet' (swamp; white flowers), Tuberosa (sp. orange flowers) and grew well over a dozen Curassavica (tropical; yellow, orange & red combination flowers) to supplement two species that are perennial here in Zone 6. Had to start tropical milkweed indoors so they'd have enough leaves and then time to flower in this zone by early-mid summer. Doubt that would be a problem in your zone 8. Flower colors/hues on tropical milkweed are hard to guarantee from collected seed since they're cross-pollinated so heavily. I've still got too many cats that had better hurry up because they could get caught up here in the cold. They need to form chrysalids and eclose before it gets too cold if they're to start their journey to Mexico to overwinter. I'm afraid some of them won't eclose from chrysalis stage before it gets too cold for them to fly. If that happens I'll detach them from wherever they made chrysalis, reattach to netting container, overwinter in unheated garage and bring them out when weather warms up NEXT year. Can't bring chrysalids into heated area during cold or they'll eclose without outdoor heat to fly anywhere let alone to Mexico for the winter. You're new guy will be on his/her way to Mexico in next couple of weeks. Somehow they find each other and start to fly en masse down south and then across southern US over to Mexico. Most people think Butterfly caterpillars are as "gross and icky" as other creepy crawlies in the dirt. Once you see the whole process from tiny little cat to seeing beautiful butterfly eclose from chrysalis you never look at the caterpillars the same again. I've gotten a little maternal with them and talk to them...I know, I've gone over the Butterfly edge but sometimes I have to rescue them from falls off tropical milkweed in containers, fights among different size cats whom I have to separate to different plants (larger ones will eat small ones) and the like. Found one newly eclosed Monarch on the ground struggling to dry its wings after its chrysalis had fallen. Picked it up and it held onto my finger in the sun for a while. Then I told him I couldn't sit there for hours and put him on milkweed stalk with flowers so he'd have nectar when ready to eat. If you want perennial milkweed the species Asclepias incarnata has beautiful pink flowers. Doesn't bloom for very long but presence or lack of flowers doesn't seem to determine whether or not they lay eggs on milkweed. They just find it somehow. The Tuberosa is much smaller and comes with usual orange flowers but there's a yellow flowered cultivar. All milkweed I have in butterfly garden was stripped bare before cats were finished eating so I had to transfer them to tropical planted in containers. Unfortunately, I lost many leaves back there to either slugs and/or mildew from too many weeks of continuous rain. Believe it or not I've never seen a Monarch nectaring from anything but the Zinnia I grow for nectar. It may be that I don't have enough sunny space to plant swaths of nectar plants and have to rely on too many containerized nectar plants in sunny places...I just don't know. That situation doesn't seem to deter hordes of Skippers of all kinds and Cabbage Whites from nectaring on everything and anything. I grew some Verbena bonariensis from seed this year. Big attractor of any creature that wants nectar. I'll probably be sorry when there are tons of selfsown seedlings next year but wanted to try it since it's heralded as a no fail attractor and it was that. NOT for small gardens but I've seen so many photos here on GW where it looks lovely among other taller perennials. Besides, it's deer, rabbit and groundhog resistant which is a big consideration for me. Those darn maple trees have grown so much over past 3 years that my sunny spots to grow most things have disappeared. That's why I grew most of the tropical milkweed in huge storage containers I got from a recycling center and rehabilitated. If you want seeds of any of the 3 varieties I have just email me through GW with your address and I'll send them to you once they've dried. The roots of the tropical might just be winter hardy in your zone 8. It would probably have top winter die off since zone 9 is probably limit for evergreen with it. Sorry for the "Monarch tome" but it's one thing I gotten to know about in gardening and I don't have a vast pool of successes to talk about yet! :) I still love your garden "before and after"!

This was planted about 15 months ago as far as i know, the previous owner planted it and had a professional come every month to groom the plants. I tried all of your suggestions, i gave it a handful of 12-11-18 fertiliser which was the only one i could find with the extra substances needed. I also added epsom salts and extra manganese which am still trying to get off my shoes, so i think that should do the trick. Also i will do deep waterings twice a week now instead of one and also some light watering in between and see how it goes. @Zinepusher, i'll post some more pics for you tomorrow. Cheers!

All of the zucchinis and all of the melons are dead. And my volunteer All Blue potato looks done for, too. I sprayed the pyrethrin, but either it was too late, or it didn't phase the bugs. Anyone see Starship Troopers? Or read the book? Was Heinlein a gardener? Maybe this is where he got the idea. The three remaining brassica in my raised bed are hanging in there. And I haven't seen any more leafminer damage. The potatoes are doing fairly well, except for one, a Carola. It sprouted, poked above the soil, then dried up and died, even though I took pains to keep the bed watered. I doubt if it'll come back. I bought a new hose, and it's a dang site better than carting a watering can all over the yard. Especially since, on my last attempt to drag home soil from Home Depot, I threw out my right elbow, and now it's painful to lift things. I harvested all of the fall-planted garlic. I guess they're curing in my dining room, which smells of eau de allium. My vacation's basically over, so I'll have to wait until this next weekend to do anything with them. I put the last of the tomatoes, a San Marzano, in a container outside. I buried it deep, about 70% of it underground. I also put some purple basil with it. I took the peat pots off of both of them, so we'll see if that makes a difference. None of my sunflowers are coming up. I planted four more seeds outside today. I told myself that when I got done with the yard and the garden, I'd start a thorough cleaning of the house. When that started looking ship shape, I'd go out shopping and maybe to a movie. I never quite got done with the yard. And I've got, um, 15 minutes left of my vacation? Sigh. Oh, well.

Roseabby - must have been posting at the same time! The pic of my hallway is really misleading I think. The canvas is actually centered on the wall. To me at least, the picture makes the wall look waaaaay bigger than it actually is and the canvas look smaller than it actually is. When you walk into the hall from the vestibule your eye actually takes in the entire back wall including the door to the kitchen which is between the canvas and the nook. Tina - in a small house it is important to me that everything have a purpose or be used on a regular basis IN ADDITION to being pleasing on my eye. I have to have somethng decent to look at amongst the explosion of kids toys and dirty socks in the downstairs! Just as My3dogs shows in her place - form and function don't always have to be sacriifced for beauties sake. In all of those cubbies hold mini books that my children look at on a daily basis, Thank You notes so that there is no excuse to not write one, paint chips that I obsessively pick up, fabric samples for when I learn to sew and old books that have been handed down to us that just give me a warm feeling when I look at them and think of all of the other hands that have held and read them.