It would most likely depend on the actual individual value of the plants being used as well as the species. Winter deciduous stuff might be dug up and stored for use the following season, expensive and/or slow growing palms or other species might also be planted as plunged pots, and simply dug up and moved back into greenhouses. What complicates saving and re-use for the following year, is the fact that insect pests also can follow the plants, and become typhoid Mary's for your existing house plants. Even if you do find out from the business owners or there landscape maintenance companies that the plants will be dumped at the end of the season, the plants aren't necessarily a bargain if you aren't able/willing/knowledgeable about how to prevent or more likely at best, minimize the pest problems. I'd avoid bringing anything inside if it will present problems for high value plants you already own, and get familiar with combatting mealybugs, spider mites, fungus gnats, aphids, white flies and scale, to name just a few of the most common uninvited guests...

I have a good understanding of chemistry, and synethetic molecules are a popular case study as they represent many important features of molecules in a controlled simplified environment. Anyway, I've discovered a lot of things about cleaning products through this, and one is that expensive brands are often very much the same as cheap ones. The vast range of products are composed of a fairly small number of chemicals and they mostly come from the same large producers. The disinfectant substance in a large number of products will have come from the same factory, as will the colour, detergent and other ingredients. The greatest difference between products is concentration, colourant and scent - the last two of which have very little to do with how well it cleans. I've also found that more expensive products have a larger number of ingredients, but they're not often useful. Thickeners convince people they're getting a stronger product, which is an illusion, just as optical brighteners (small reflecive particles) make things look whiter than they are, and greater quantities of foaming agent make lots of bubbles that look great in the bucket and don't actually do anything else. I am increasingly convinced that buying expensive products is often pointless. Much of what you pay goes in to expensive packing, advertising and ingredients that give the impression they're working better. The basic ingredients that do the real cleaning are actually of minimal value and are much the same whatever product you're using. Also, as a customer in my own house without any scientific tests I have found some very cheap products work better than brand names. The problem is that they don't know the specific dirt you're going to be cleaning with them, they can only guess and include the ingredients they presume will work well. In some cases an expensive brand with many ingredients will not work as well as a cheap product with few ingredients that just happens to include one which suits your dirt better.

I am sorry you are so tired and worried. Sounds like you have a lot on your plate. Your question is how to deal with this without blowing up at your DIL and DS. First and most important, go get counseling yourself or with your husband. The counselor will help you figure out how to set boundaries and how much to give of yourselves. Second, take time to exercise, get plenty of sleep and eat healthy foods. That old adage about flying with children...put the oxygen mask on your own face first so you can help them with theirs.... You will be able to do more for the children in the long run if you stay healthy. Third, your grandchildren have 2 loving grandparents who live next door, a nanny, and 2 parents. They have a network of people. Their love network doesn't look like what you wish for them but they have one. They are loved, they are cared for. Stop focusing on what they don't have and start looking at what they do have. I'm not there, you are, and your concerns may be entirely or partially valid. Having said that, they are 5 and 2. Soon the 5 year old will be more and more involved in school, activities, etc. The 5 year old will go to school all day, then have music lessons, sports activities, friends over, etc. That doesn't mean she won't need you or her parents, but she will be busy. The money your DIL makes will come in very handy for college, extracurricular activities, etc. As the grandkids get older you probably won't be needed nearly as much and that time is probably closer than you think. When that time comes, if you have damaged your relationship with your DS and DIL you will wish you hadn't. Also you may find that your DIL is better with the children as they get older. The comment about DIL not allowing anyone else in the family to be a leader in the family is not germane to this discussion. Your son could still have tea parties with his kids, take them camping, build block towers, bake cookies with them, play soccer in the yard. DIL is not stopping him from that. Stop letting those leadership thoughts live rent free in your head. As you said yourself, your son could make different choices, he doesn't, and that's on him, not his wife. I don't know, only you do, so I could be very wrong. I suspect you are enabling your son. I think that because you said he was checking his phone a lot during the day. If he was at home with the grandkids, were you over there taking care of them? There is a fine line between supporting and enabling and a good counselor will help you figure out if you have strayed over into enabling territory. A counselor can help you figure out if part of this is because the family doesn't look like what you expect with your DIL running a demanding business. My husband was building a business when our children were 5 and 2. He would have went on an 11 day trip, returned and went to work the next day and no one would have thought anything about it. He worked long hours then 6 days a week, and on Sunday went to church, came home and napped. He came home every night, gave the kids a bath, ate something and went back to work. This is a tough time for a young family and sometimes that can spill over onto the grandparents. I'm not dismissing your concerns or saying you're wrong. Just one glance at my husband with his little kids and even a total stranger could tell he treasured them, enjoyed them, loved them with his every breath. It's probably not the trip that concerned you but the way your son and DIL interact with their kids when they're present. The generosity issue is a good one to bring up in counseling. I'm not sure why you would want your DS and DIL to be financially generous with you. You have stressed that material things are not your focus, that you make decent money, so not sure why you feel a loss if they don't give you expensive gifts. Perhaps because your DS and DIL give expensive gifts to people they value and you feel not valued. A counselor could help you learn to let that go. Invest in exercise, getting plenty of sleep, eating healthy and counseling. That time will be well spent, and the sooner the better. It may take time to find a good counselor who is the right match for you, so get started now. You may have to try more than one. I hope you find something that helps. Best of luck with your grandchildren.

- Widen the walkway to at least 6’ wide so it pulls attention toward the entry. - Remove some of the overgrown plantings near the door that add to the shadowy feel. - Plant something bright but low-growing between the walk and the garage, about where the walkway turns. This will get rid of the need to mow grass in there and help pull a visitor’s eye toward the door.