Rita you sound just like me. We have a dairy farm so I never get too far from home. Hence the gardens. I love going to garden centers too. Of course right now it is kind of crazy around here. I have been hard at the gardens for the last 3 weeks straight but tomorrow we are starting haying so I will be stuck on a tractor for the rest of the week. It's about 2 weeks early for us. Got one email tonight that an order of daylilies and hostas is shipping tomorrow. I'm not sure when I will pick it up let alone plant it. Oh well - they do say make hay when the sun shines. I have had the crazies for Heucheras and daylilies. This year I've put in a new hosta bed and have bought many new clematis. I am not sure where they are all going to go but at least they can go upwards and not take up much room! Good luck with your lupins. I was weeding my perennial border today and have many baby lupins and hollyhocks everywhere. My delphs have returned but as usual as soon as they bloom we will get a huge wind and over they will go. I think we all have trouble passing up beautiful plants. They just all want to go home with you!

Thirdfrt, Just for your information, The basic inheritance, is the cost mom paid for it and the money you received for the house, the difference is technically your capital gain, minus all fees to sell it. Ex- mom paid 5,000.00 you sold for 100,000 and had 6,000 in fees to sell the home. Technically, you made 89,000.00 on the property. I would consult a tax professional for read up online at the irs website on inheritance and capital gain. I don't think you would pay any capital gain on the house only because it was an inheritance and depending on the amount of money, which is small, you probably don't have any tax on it. You can't claim a loss on a situation where you can't prove you actually lost money by selling the property, which you didn't, because you didn't pay for the property and it has accumulated some value since your mom bought it.

yep - we know!

Today I was off again -- my work-week now is Thursday through Sunday, but I still hit overtime -- but I was also out of cardboard. Typically, I gather it from my job when I'm there, and use it all on Monday when I'm off. Then, before I go home, I head to the center of town and gather more cardboard from outside the stores -- every Monday night it's put out for recycling pick-up the next morning. That gets me through mulching on Tuesday, but then I'm out again. So since I'm off three days beginning this month, I'll use Wednesdays to scout the next areas to be planted and cut the borders. Today I did the next two family plot beds with railing borders on my "do these first" list Eleanor wrote for me. The first was the Lippincott bed, which gets early morning sun, dappled shade from about 11am until about 2pm, then mostly sun until sunset. The next bed -- the Staat family plot -- was one I was really looking forward to, since it's basically full-sun all day. Here, I'm going to try some of the more tender old roses -- Chinas, Teas, Noisettes. I've experimented with them in my own garden, and I've found that they need at least one of two things to keep going here. One thing would be a protected spot, such as against a house. Here, Winter damage is minimized. My tender roses along the house have about as much damage as do typical Hybrid Teas planted out in the open. The other thing would be a spot in full sun all day. Here, even if Winter takes its toll, the growing season here is hot enough to push them to regrow a lot. My "Bermuda Spice" is in a totally unprotected spot, and sometimes Winter really does a number on it. But even if cut back all the way to the mulch line, this rose will rebound to five feet tall by the end of the growing season, and blooming all the while. So, here's the Staat bed, outlined -- well, the first two pics, anyway. Because I took more than ten of Staat but less than ten of Lippincott, I'd rather divide it here and make two posts than have to do it in three. To be continued......... :-) ~Christopher