If it were easy, and things would grow just because you plopped them down on the ground, what fun would that be ? We grow to cherish the plants we worked hard to establish, right ? :) Plus, just think of all the weeds that would also flourish right over the tops of the desired plants ? Hee, no, give me semi-arid for the maintainability aspect. I know that eastern woodland climates are much much more prone to weeds. We got between 1.5 and 2 inches of rain yesterday...I'm not carrying water to the fencerow naturalization project for at least a week. And everything is so happy. Too bad I wasn't constitutionally able to plant the allium stellatum, vernonia letermani, or habranthus tubispathus...I just couldn't bear to move pots of flowering plants into the row away from the house, till they finished flowering. In about a week, I'll be ready to plant the remainder...just as the soil gets dry enough to require buckets of water again (if no more rain). Oh, and I have seedlings of coreopsis lanceolata (yes that weed), and engelmannia peristenia to plugs in...they're growing by pairs in plastic Dixie cups. I drilled a hole through the stack of cups, and they made perfect 2-3 inch pots to grow the seedlings up to potential rabbit snacks (yes, even by the house, they've nibbled and not liked). They go sometime next month...I want to get them a little bigger before they face the wild world w/o me looking at them 2-3 times a day.

If you have not yet purchased a grill for your daughter, check out the Weber Baby Q (I think it is also called the Q120). It is an excellent little grill - well constructed, good capacity, and heats very evenly. We use ours as a portable grill (mostly for tailgating), but you can buy a Weber cart (either rolling or stationary) and an adapter hose to use with a standard propane tank if you want to use it on a patio. We bought ours from Amazon.com - lots of reviews to help you make your decision. Hope this helps.

I had a plumber run a natural gas line out to my Weber grill. He then installed the natural gas adapter to the Weber grill. There is a shut off valve near where it comes out of the house. And one in the basement which I shut off if I'm not going to be using it for awhile, like over the winter. I can't tell you how much easier it is than schlepping those heavy gas tanks (not to mention running out while grilling something!) and how easy it is to turn it on and off. I simply turn the valve on, then turn the grill knobs to "on" and grill as long as I want. Then when it's time to turn it off, I turn off the knobs and then the valve. If I buy a new gas grill I'll buy one that is designed for natural gas use. Having the natural gas hookup has made grilling as easy as using my gas stove inside. So far as the igniter, my broke early on, but I didn't replace it. I just use one of those red pistol type candle lighters that fit in the lighting hole safely. Whoooshhhh!

I've been grilling BF the past couple of days on his views about getting a grill. He says, "We don't need one, we won't use it." But I know he has been eyeing that little Weber one whenever we go to K-mart or the hardware store. I like the little front tray part on the marine one Tricia posted. I think the cheif plus for us about having a gas grill would be ease of use and the chance to have some outdoor cooking space to supplement our tiny kitchen. My stove area is claustrophobic to say the least. It would give BF a chance to cook without having me in the way making the salad or whatnot. As it is, cooking together is a study in patience in my "one butt" kitchen. We dream of having our own place someday, with room for a big garden too. I've had some rounds of illness that have made it hard just to keep up with what I have here. BF is my rock, G-d bless him! BF has a covered back patio at his house just off the kitchen back door so he can grill year round and he definately has used it as a kitchen extension since his kitchen is almost as small as mine, albeit maybe a little bit better laid out. I don't see us grilling in the winter when the patio is full of snow. We'll not be covering our tiny patio for a good long while, if ever. I do have an extra patio umbrella though, so maybe I could leave it set up over the grill in the winter, lol! BTW, anyone who doubts the benefits of vegetation for combating the heat island effect should hang out in my yard. It is probably 10 degrees cooler out there than it used to be when I just had a big ol' wooden deck on the back of my house. I never went out there in the summer, it was hot and I felt like I was on display for the whole row/neighborhood.