Ditto- But I'm just Mentioning my Perrinial Type Plants, that I have Kept Not just going for many yrs but Super Big in size as what they are from their Original warm yr round Orgins/County. I did it just as a Challange , Test to see and its worked and being Cheap . While saved the Money ( Ave $100) Rebuying them every year, I paid for it in Time and Effort .. and have you ever seen "Spikes" 4-5 ft Tall, like Mini Palm Trees? Or the same 5 ft tall Gerrainiums? or 6 ft accross Asparagus Plants? Not only blow the minds of Family and friends vistiing, but I bring one of them to our Annual-late Summer Garden show in town and have won an award every yr these past 5 yrs..Nobody has a Such Large ones as I have ! Especially all the Women & Pro's that have been doing Gardening alot longer than I have. I got One Pro Gardening Business doing the same now and they are catching up with the size of mine now! Went into their lace last Feb. and saw them in their Place/Atrium....selling for $100-$150 each! Germs 5x bigger than the usual $25 baskets with Stalks the size of Small Tree trunks! Takes Loopers to cut them or a hand saw! Just like Growing those 500-1,000 Lb Pumpkins! I grew them too for 5 yrs ! my Biggest was only 465 lbs..but started the Annual Largest Privately -Locally Grown Pumpkin contest in our town ! This Season? the Biggest was 678 lbs! by some 83 yr old Woman, that nursed it like it was one of her Grandkids, she said..! And since we're a Lake Resort town? The Great Pumpkin Boat Race was held this Yr for the 1st time too! 8 entered to win the $100 1st prize, $50/2nd and $25 for 3rd and Alot of Laughs! by the Jaycees! Special Prize ribbon went for the sexiest Owner- a 61 yr old former Playboy Bunny woman ( The Playboy Club Resort was in our town ), she did that job for its last 2 yrs in business here and She still looked GREAT in her Old Bunny Costume no less! Maybe she let out alittle In the Butt and alittle more support in the chest and wore a Wig, but her Bunny Tail & Ears were very cute & Sexy! ;-)

OMG that's what we got too! I'm really glad to hear that you had a good experience. I was a little worried going through Home Depot, but they were offering such a great deal, it was just too hard to pass up. Tuff Shed has a local warehouse center located by one of my clients, so I did some hard comparisons between the warehouse's retail product and the one they offer through Home Depot. The warehouse told me that the Tuff Sheds sold at Home Depot are made of the exact same materials and by the same crew as the regular warehouse sheds. The warehouse sheds come with some slight differences like added radiant protection from the sun but other than that, the only real difference is that Home Depot didn't want to offer the stronger warranties that they offer on theirs, but the difference in price was almost double. Yep, thats the barn we looked at, only in the 10x12. We really loved how open it was, it literally felt larger than the ranch style in the same size. In order to get an open feel in the ranch we opted for the 12/6 pitched roof and then we got the upgraded eaves so it would match the house. At first we were going to get the loft, but I saw a ranch style online with one built in and half of it wasn't really functional because of the roof. After that, we decided to change it to two 16" shelves along the back wall instead. So I see you got several windows! I love that! it looks so nice! My husband didn't want any windows but I couldn't resist having at least one. I really wanted to add transom windows to the doors, but we were already over budget. The ramp is what really killed us, but we had to have it for the riding mower. So did you paint or did they? And where is your metal foundation? I just know we will end up having to add some of the pavers under ours, the ground isn't too wonky, but it's still is off a tad. I figure we can build up the landscape around it afterwards. The guy told us to put pea gravel and limestone under it and critters will avoid it like the plague so we're doing that this weekend. Wow, you sure have a nice spot, very pretty, your house looks so majestic sitting there. I think we would have set ours back on our lot some too if we weren't storing yard and snow stuff in it. Way in the back by the property line we have another old shed, but its in terrible shape and wasn't worth restoring. It's mini barn we plan on tearing down this summer. I'm so tickled you had pictures! And thanks so much for posting them! That sounds like so much fun with the boats. When we lived in Louisiana, we lived on the river and boated all the time. Our neighbor even had a cool houseboat. Michigan is the state of lakes, they are everywhere so boating is a popular pass time for a lot of folks here.

Many of my jars were previously owned by someone living out in the CA desert who stored them outside the house - garage? shed? While I wouldn't want my lids out in the hot, the glass jars do just fine. Don't worry too much about them getting grubby because they just will. That's what dishwashers are for.

Thank you, Beth - the kind words are appreciated. I apologize for not getting to your message. I'm easily behind by more than 100 replies to forum members, so you're not the only one. I'm soo busy at work, and I'm trying to get all my tropicals repotted - less than 10 to go, I think. I'm off Fri & Mon, so won't have trouble getting the repots done this wknd, but I'll never catch up on the mail. You really need to cut those long branches back very hard. In a 2D photo, it's difficult to get a sense of how much the tree is leaning. In the top image, the lean doesn't look bad, but it could be a misperception due to lack of depth perception - no way for me to know. If the lean isn't horrible, it can easily be corrected by simply changing the planting angle during the next repot. So, I suggest you put a wedge under the pot and tip the plant to a spatial position that looks good to you, then do your pruning based on that. For demos, we do that to extremes when we style bonsai trees that need radical changes in the planting angle to bring out the best in the tree. Witness: See the 'before' image below The hardest part of the pruning is going to be choosing your apex (top). Right now, your apex doesn't exist, but I can arm you with the knowledge of where it WILL exist in short order. More on that in a sec. You want your tree to eventually be a dome - like a mushroom cap that is maybe as high as it is wide. So, the lowest branches should ALWAYS be the longest, or at least branches need to become successively shorter than branches immediately under them as their position on the trunk gets higher. Nature makes sure it happens just so, as a way to ensure the lower branches don't get shaded out by the stronger/higher branches. So, the really long branches @ the top need to be brought back into the fold by pruning them back to 1 or 2 healthy leaves. The lower branches that are really long need to be brought back so they sort of fit the mental image of a dome that you need to keep in your mind's eye as you prune. I'm guessing you'll be removing well over 50% of the canopy volume - maybe as much as 75%. Where branches will appear and in what direction they'll grow is very predictable. You can see that the branches will start growing from the axil (crotch) formed by the leaf and the branch, and grow roughly in the direction the leaf is pointing, not considering the effects of phototropism (growing toward the light). After branch pruning, to determine where the apex should be, just look for a leaf facing upward on the tallest branch. The leaf should be right above the point where the trunk exits the soil (with your tree tilted as you like it), or it should be pointed in a direction that ensures it will grow toward that point. Cut the branch off just distal to that leaf. Within a week or two, you'll see a bud erupt, which will grow into a branch. You can even help guide that branch into the most appropriate position. I'll be in Chicago in mid-Aug. If you're not too far from Deerfield, I could stop on my way to the hotel (Thu, Aug 17) and prune it for you. I've done that for forum members several times, and even repotted about 10 large plants for a wheelchair-bound lady in SW MI. Al