My first reaction was like Flowerlady's: OMG, what has she done? And then I realized you had hired help to clean up and I sighed in relief. I admire those of you who are able to hire help who actually knows what they're doing and help you. I have yet to find anyone here that I would gladly let touch my garden... The old timers know about vegetable gardens only (and the use of lots of pesticides and herbicides) and the garden centers are mostly concerned with grass mowing (of which I have none) and formal hedge clipping (I only have informal hedges). Noone here knows anything about old roses or even rose pruning. They simply prune roses to ground level come January and call it a day. The lady who helps me with the house wanted to help me out with the garden last year, when I was so busy working in a company, and weeded one of my beds, without my knowledge and previous consent. She weeded most of my opium poppies which were short from blooming... She thought they were weeds... I almost had an heart attack when I saw that and told her, yet again and as politely as I could, that the garden was off limits to her. The works we have just done to the house were another source of garden stress to me, as to have a crew of masons loose in the garden was a tough number. They broke and destroyed a lot of things in the garden, partly because they didn't have much room to move and partly because they didn't even understand there was a live plant there - to them, any deciduous shrub which had lost its leaves was officially dead. It took quite a while to convince them that they were dormant (i.e. sleeping, so that they could understand). So... I'm glad at least some of you can hire help which doesn't destroy more than it helps. As for the acreage, I used to dream of a larger garden too, as my garden is a postage stamp lot. However, given the absence of reliable help and the cost involved, I have gladly forsaken it. This garden is a size I can reasonably maintain myself, if I'm careful with what I plant and balance stuff which requires cuddling with other easy maintenance plants. More than this would be unrealistic and I would have to let the garden go. When I'm no longer able to care for the garden, if it comes to that, I'll move to an apartment by the beach and call it a day :-) Eduarda

I'm in Farmington Hills. All of my peppers are in pots. I used to do a big garden in the ground but I just moved into a condo a few weeks ago so no more inground veggies. Next year I'll do some tomatoes to. I did not notice much more ripening last night. just the one ghost. I have 3 Ghost, 1 naga Viper, 1 Carribean Red (supposed to be x2 as hot as a reg Hab), 1 Big Sun Hab, and 1 Trinidad primo 7 pot. They sure do take longer to ripen then regular bell peppers. I/m still hoping for some by the weekend. We're actually supposed to be back in mid 80s for a couple of days.

brianadarnell, Thanks--I figured it must be that way, but I reallly didn't know for sure. If the switchplates went over the tile, it seems that they wouldn't lay flat over the tile and also the box would be too recessed behind the cover. You would think that some smart tile manufacturers would realize if they made switchplate covers to match their tile (or perhaps just their more popular tiles) they would be big sellers. Or maybe some have, and I just don't know about them yet.

Beautiful use of color and I love the mixture of applique and piecing. Reminiscent of of Lisa Bongean's beauties at Primitive Gatherings..