Hi Beth, I'm right on the edge of Charlotte in Weddington. I also have a home in Matthews. I didn't read all the responses but I'm sure by now you know that not only do crape myrtles thrive here but you simply can't kill them. Asparagus does ok if you can amend the soil with goodly amounts of sandy gravel to improve deep drainage. Rhubarb is tough to grow here. The roots want deeper cold to go dormant. If you can find a protected spot that stays cooler (wait til it snows and see where the snow remains longest) try that for your rhubarb. About your move, Charlotte is a mecca for folks from everywhere else. No culture shock at all. If you have school children know that Mecklenburg runs its school assignments by neighborhood (zone) and you also have the option of selecting from the many magnet schools and charter schools. Where is your husband's job location here? You asked about tolerance for 'non-traditional' yards (landscaping?). Really, very few neighborhoods are so restrictive as to cramp your creative style in gardening. Unfortunately, I just happen to live in one of those highly restrictive ones. Most just are happy if folks keep a tidy yard that's regularly mown and maintained. Usually it's the next door neighbors that cause more issues than homeowner's associations anyway. There are gobs of homes in all price ranges and lots of folks are lured to buying new construction. That's torture for an avid gardener because it takes a good long time to amend 'new construction' dirt and wait for trees to grow. It's fun to have everything brand new but tough on homebuyers if they're not here to supervise the construction process. Maybe someone from your husband's company here will be kind enough to send you a package of real estate books and new construction books, maps and other tidbits about the Charlotte area. You're moving to NASCAR country and home to the Carolina Panthers and Charlotte Bobcats. Not as many garden clubs as there are specific clubs (roses, camellias, hosta, daylilies etc). Word to the wise.. learn the Charlotte map before you even get here. When you arrive to look around,get maps of Union, Gaston, Iredell and Cabarrus counties and possibly some of the northern counties of SC so you can get a feel for the distances between hubby's job location and the areas you want to consider for housing. Talk to people when you get here OTHER THAN REALTORS. Agents are constrained from telling you anything negative about areas and schools. You can come on here again or in the 'conversations' Carolina forum and ask specific questions or voice concerns if you need more info from Charlotte area locals. Most agents don't know all that's going on in every part of the metro area in terms of planned development, zone shifts, falling/rising value areas. Some don't know about planned road widenings that could take part of your property here. When you get here, try and spend a fair amount of time driving around without a Realtor. For now,go online and google Charlotte and you'll find plenty of sites you can shop for home ideas in the Charlotte area. Unfortunately, what the photos don't show and the Realtors can't tell you are exactly the reason you need to drive around a great deal when you arrive. Once you're planted here, we can tell you all the great places to shop for your garden plants and landscaping needs. Dottie

Claudia, What a great story! I hope you make it that long too. I think that would be anyone's wish who still liked their spouse. It sounds like you had great role models and a lot of incentive to win your bet. Our anniversary is December 20. We got married at our old farmhouse, and the water froze that day. The whole system was rather antiquated, and our water was pumped up to the house with a tractor into a cistern. Actually, it was the tractor that froze, not the water. You know, washing my hair was an adventure. The pastor asked if I promised to ''love, honor and obey'' and I said, ''OBEY!!! I'm not promising to OBEY.'' He told me he wouldn't marry us unless I did, so I told him I'd say it, while I crossed my fingers and offered a ''You know what I mean!'' Good Grief. It was after all, 1980! We were standing next to our new wood stove that had hedge wood in it and it was HOT. We were still figuring out how much wood we needed to load it with, so we were sweating. Profusely. I kept asking everyone to back away from the stove. Meanwhile, in the kitchen, you could almost see your breath, it was so cold. My cake was quite FIRM, and hard to cut. Those were the days. I will say, I'm glad we've moved on from there!

If ye be lookin' for me rum ye migh be havin' ta walk me plank ya scurvy dog! Fun, huh? ;o) Here is a link that might be useful: I'm SOOO not making this up! Arrrrr!

More stolen goods: An old pirate was sitting in a pub, a young new pirate walked in and sat a few stools away. After watching the old pirate for a while just staring at a bowl of stew, the young guy asked if he was going to eat the stew. The old pirate said "nope", and kept staring... The young one asked if he could have it, the bowl was passed down. The young pirate started gobbling down the stew, when he got to the bottom of the bowl, he saw a rat and threwup the stew back into the bowl. The old pirate said, "Yep, that's just about where I got to". one more: A pirate walks into a pub, wearing the usual pirate attire but with the unusual addition of a ship's wheel shoved down the front of his breeches. The bartender says "hey mate, what's that ship's wheel doing there?". The pirate says "Arrrrr, it's drvin' me nuts!"