Echo about building soil with compost & mulch. For everything besides annuals don't bother with fertilizing so much as adding soil conditioners as mulch, as planting pockets, or layered on top of cardboard for new beds. I've never purchased soil for new beds, but made plenty of compost in place or in the vegetable garden beds early spring or late fall. Gather up free materials, use lawnmower to make smaller pieces, or blender for kitchen scraps to speed things up. -used coffee grounds from St*rbucks (ask your family to pick up when they're driving by) -manures - composted 1st unless rabbit or llama/alpaca -dried grass clippings -fall leaves (collect while fresh so you're not gathering up slug eggs...) -household papers (used napkins, tissues, junk mail, etc.) -homemade compost as much as you can make in a few different places in the garden...under shrubs, behind tall plants, in holes or pits dug directly in garden, in vegetable garden in fall to use as mulch for perennials in spring--once enough materials build your 3' squareish pile & turn with garden fork every 2-3 days. Keep moist & covered for best results. We dug & removed grass for an expansion one time years ago & decided gardening that way hurt too much. Now we just do the layer method & everything grows well. All that organic matter holds moisture to help plants settle in & I don't have to do much weeding to keep up! Another tip: use free hay sweepings from a feed store for a bottom layer in new beds or as bottom layer of mulch. In my area it is a blend of alfalfa, grass hay, & straw as they collect it over several days of business, so sometimes wet or dry, but it doesn't really matter for gardens. ** As long as you top the mix with something else you won't have sprouting weeds. I wear a dust mask, coveralls, & gloves. I bring my own garden fork & pull it out of a dumpster they use to put into garbage cans lined with bags, then tie them shut to put into my Suburban. If you only have a car, just reduce the size of your containers or use bags to make them fit inside the back.

I recommend them. I used them for 3 paintings I received as gifts. I was weary because reviews are mixed, but they were just so much cheaper than bringing them to Michael's or whatever that I thought I'd give it a shot (partially because they are located in Virginia, not that far from where I live so I thought... I can maybe just show up.) It still wasn't cheap but my pictures look BEAUTIFUL now! My only complaints are that shipping took forever and although they were pretty easy to put together, there were no instructions at all. So they sent some little pieces that I have no idea what they're for and I've just thrown them away!

It's funny how different people interpret things - well, differently. I don't get so much a stately vibe from this photo, as a rather run-down-at-the-heels, shabby feel. (In a good way, though.) This room is the equivalent of the expensive tweed jacket patched at the elbows after years of use. And I swear, I can smell it. Its scent is a heady mix of decades of furniture polish and mustiness from the damp. Looks like it would be chilly in here too, but if the fire were lit I might change my impression in that regard.

Last year I had so many black swallowtail eggs I had to give eggs/babies away! It was insane! This year I enjoyed an unusual early spring hit of black swallowtail eggs, then nothing until mid July. I'd estimate raising/releasing over a hundred in 2016, and maybe 60 in 2017. I have about 20 1st instars right now due to a late heatwave that I think made the BSTs think it was still summer. I am guessing most if not all of them will overwinter. Monarchs were average in 2016 and fewer in 2017. I only raise them to help keep their numbers up, and give most of my chrysalises away to friends with children/grandchildren, so I don't pay attention to their numbers as much. I have 3 milkweed plants that get about 6' tall, and I'd say I had 40ish last year and 25ish this year. There were probably more, but I don't search the plants as much as I do my BST host plant. I think I am the odd duck that isn't a huge fan of monarchs... I hate the ugly plants and all of their bugs, and they aren't as tidy as swallowtails when you're raising them inside. I had a nice amount of Giant Swallowtail eggs on my wafer ash this year, first time with so many, but found that bringing the eggs inside to raise was very difficult...most didn't make it - some eggs never hatched, and of the ones that did, most babies died in their first instar. Next year I will leave them outside until they are 2nd instars before bringing them in. The ones I found at that stage did well.