keepitlow, at first I thought the thing about keeping shoes in your fridge was a joke taken out of context or something like that, but there was a link to the full article and... oh my gosh! You know, when I was in college and lived in a 300 square foot apartment I STILL tried to cook in my tiny kitchen. I had lived in the dorm the year before and was so sick of other people cooking for me and not having that control over my own food. I can't imagine just unplugging your fridge and eating take out all the time. I mean, yes, I do get take out sometimes, and go to restaurants, but if I lived on it... it's so fattening and so expensive! *** macky77, "'My soil won't grow anything and I can't afford or don't have time to build raised beds and buy all the special ingredients you NEED to make super soil.' The most common situations they cite are either living in rental properties with neglected yards or new developments where the topsoil was not replaced after construction." Well, as other people have said, yes, new developments can have awful soil. Bermudagrass sod doesn't take much. I live in a rental house with a neglected yard (at least until I got here). Actually it's kind of interesting to see what's hanging on in a yard where nature has been allowed to take over. I used to have scarlet sage growing in the front (hummingbirds LOVE that stuff) until the Lawn Police ordered us to mow it down, and in the back I have pigeonberry, black-eyed susan, wild sunflowers, and rain lillies growing, along with some other wildflowers I have yet to identify. I betcha the land is actually better off for it rather than being maintained as a Bermudagrass monoculture soaked in herbicides. But anyway, back to having good soil, this goes back to my idea that maybe people think growing veggies is harder than it really is. I live in south-central Texas. The soil here is clay with limestone rocks, and I'm growing stuff right in it. Didn't build any raised beds (don't want to build any permanent structures at a rental house). Potatoes didn't seem to like it, but tomatoes, beans, peppers, squash, etc. don't seem to mind one bit. Digging in it is a big of hard work, but it's better than gonig to the gym. I wonder if the garden media has anything to do with this. You know, TV shows with perfect looking gardens, soil you can dig with your bare hands, etc. I wonder if people actually think that veggies NEED perfect soil to grow. Sure they might grow better in perfect soil, but they can make do with what they've got. You don't have to be Martha Stewart. I see gardening as a partnership between me, the plants, and Nature. That means that I don't have to do ALL the work. Lots of plants grow just fine with no human help at all. Veggie plants have evolved alongside us for a while and now need some help, but I still feel like I'm letting them and Nature do most of the work. When people say they can't grow plants here because it's too hot or dry or we have bad soil or something, I always think of the Hopi and related tribes that lived off their gardens with no modern technology in the DESERT. I don't live in the desert, and I do have modern technology, and I do have the farmer's market and grocery store as a backup, so I think I have it EASY. Actually, it reminds me of something from Buffalo Bird Woman's Garden where she talks about how white people don't know how to plant things right. I forgot specifically what it was she was talking about, but I only wonder what she'd think if she saw our gardens today.

Wendy, Not sure, but the first could be a Mourning Cloak. Don't know the second one but the third is an Amarican Painted Lady. Just saw my first APL a few minutes ago. I'm surprised you got a picture since mine are so shy and see me coming and take off. :O) If you see a Monarch around your Asclepias, those are the ones to take photos of as they are most likely females. The males will flutter about more, not caring where they feed. Females generally stay around the Asclepias when laying eggs which they are doing at this time of year. Great shots! Can't believe your Buddleias are in such full bloom. Mine are just starting to set their buds. Lynda, You are welcome. LOL! I am always ready to enable members of a great forum who have enabled me many times in the past!

Hi Stephanie! We had hours of thunder and lighning....but so little rain. I was hoping that if we were going to have all that "fuss", we'd have a good old-fashioned downpour to go along with it. We haven't had a REAL thunderstorm in such a very long time here. We had a thunderstorm last summer, probably in late July or early August. It had been SO VERY LONG since we'd had one that we went out to the covered porch that is attached to our barn and sat in the lawn chairs and watched it rain! Isn't that pitiful? We later found out that a lot of our neighbors did the same thing. LOL It was a lovely storm...lots of huge dark clouds and tons of lightning (one lightning strike ignited a fire in a hay barn north of us)...and we had a double rainbow. We got about 3/4s of an inch of rain in a fairly short time. I really miss the rain. (sigh) During the recent ice storms we had thundersleet and that was pretty cool. And, back in 2004 we had thundersnow. Oklahoma weather can be pretty interesting, and is rarely dull. Already this morning I have started seeds in little peat pots for 60 kinds of hot peppers, sweet peppers and herbs . Now that all the tomatoes are outside for good, the lighted shelves I use for seed starting were looking sort of empty. I don't get into much of a hurry with the peppers since they sulk if planted in cool soil. I'll be mowing three acres of rye grass today! Also planting nasturtiums "Caribbean Cocktail" as a companion plant in the vegetable garden, and, of course, today the tomatoes will actually go into the ground. About that laundry and housework....do you mean to tell me that we are actually expected to do those tasks when it is "gardening time"? I ALMOST have my husband and son convinced that you shouldn't cook or do laundry or do housework anytime the sun is shining and it is warm enough to be outside in the yard. Note that I said "almost". I'm home alone today, so once I step outside in a few minutes, I have no intention of coming inside to do anything! Have a wonderful and productive day. Hope the fence project goes well. Dawn

I planted a KO Double Pink at the mailbox about 2-3 years ago, expecting it to grow big and become this summer workhorse everyone gushes about. Not even close. My experience so far has been underwhelming. First, who says they are disease free? Here in the South, mine got BS worse than most others I have. Second, it is not growing. It blooms, it does nicely in the Spring, it looks good while the bloom is young but has dubious bloom aging and the repeat is questionable. The mystery for me is why the bush overall stays very small, despite careful fertilizing and all that. It has barely grown at all since I got it at the nursery and these are supposed to get to 5 ft high. I can only suspect it gets too much root competition from the boxwoods planted very close to it, especially the one in the middle. All in all, nothing to write home about. What do people think of the newer coral KOs? They seem to have something much more elegant about them than the red and the pink. I love the pink's early strong, fresh color but the aging bloom becomes both washed out and garish. So it's a major meh so far and it has had enough time to provide itself.