I disagree about the money. I just spent some money on shrubs but I almost never spend money on perennials. I attend swaps and trade plants with local garden club members. Of course the trade offs are time and flexibility but I have gotten and given a lot of great free plants. Here are my Key ingredients for color during this transition period: Stela D'ora daylilies - they are really giving a lot of color now, earlier than some of the other varieties. Coreopsis Grandiflora - I love the threadleaf kind too but it starts a little later. This is my first year with the grandiflora kind and it is really adding some nice color. Roses - my Golden Showers climber and Mary Rose shrub are blooming their hearts out and will continue through the summer. Both varieties are high maintenance but fragrant and long blooming. I am in zone 6 but I sit in a colder micro-climate and the flowers mentioned above have been blooming for about a week. In my shady bed my Chequers Lamium are still growing strong. They are re-blooming after a shearing a couple of weeks ago and make a nice blanket of color under my Kousa dogwood tree. Next I am on the lookout for Salvia - I've see it blooming all around my neighborhood and it looks great!

I know from some of the issues with mine - I would open and close every single door and drawer. Ensure that everything is flush and in line. I would also bring a measuring tape for double-checking anything that seems "off". Then there's the more obvious stuff like looking for flaws and scratches.

I have “my grandmother’s” dressing ready to go in the oven. It’s good...but... It is not even close to Grandma’s Several things seem to be throwing it “off.” I baked the cornbread as usual. But... we normally have “bacon grease” made from a friend’s pastured organic hogs. He butchers them. He apple smokes the bacon. Chemicals never touch these porky pigs. I cook the bacon and jealously save the grease. A month or so back DH had cooked some commercial bacon (why?) and added that to the grease container. Yuck, yuck, and double yuck. Even with the small portion of grease I used, I can taste it in the dressing. I never sauté the onions and celery, neither did Grandma. This morning I did, and added one minced garlic clove. I tasted the raw dressing. Yes, it has raw eggs in it. I will not die! It’s not bad, but it’s not special, and it’s certainly not Grandma’s. I used all her ingredients - 3/4 cornbread, 1/4 light bread, celery, onion, sage, black pepper, beaten eggs, chicken broth... It’s good; we’ll eat it, but it is not even close to Grandma’s.

Ask the recycling shop. They'll let you know if they have a use for it, or they may want to collect it to insure there isn't a copy of the key floating around with theft potential.