It's a beautiful morning, think I'll go outside and smile

It's bright and sunny with a delightful spring nip in the air. The lilacs and roses and hydrangea and all kinds of other things that I transplanted from my old house with its sandy soil and filtered sun, are clearly in heaven with the sunshine and good rich soil that we have here - I didn't expect much the first year after transplanting them, but my lilac for example is covered with more flower clusters than I've ever seen on it. I'm working at home today so once it warms up a bit I'm taking my laptop out to the porch and working from there; it's just too nice to stay inside.

But the best part is, I've got three guys wandering around in my house talking about where to cut cut holes, where equipment is going to be installed, etc. Yes, folks, the HVAC guys are FINALLY here. I told them that if they didn't do a good job I was going to sic my attack pugs on them. So far they seem like a very cool bunch - good sense of humor, and jumping right into the work.

Lucy: Yo, Murphy, did I just hear them guys talkin' bout takin' shortcuts on that ductwork install?
Murphy: Don't worry, doll, I'll take care of it. Ain't no sloppy holes being cut in THIS floor.



(Click here to see why dog bites are a real threat with this job, if you hadn't seen it before)

I've decided to stay out of their way and not take pictures while they're working, but I'm going to take pics every day. Whooooo how excited can one woman's life (and blog) get?!?

Now, I need to spend a little quiet quality time alone with my bank balance, saying good-bye. It's about to go completely away, and even though I keep being promised that it will eventually come back, I know that things will probably never be the same.

Any brilliant gardeners out there? Ideas needed!

We have been overwhelmed with not knowing where to start in terms of landscape design, so we finally decided to focus in on two things: Removing a lot of crap (a lot of junk trees/shrubs/ivy plus some serious pruning), and sprucing up the front walk.

We have a 50-60' front walk that needs SOMEthing. Well, what it really needs is to be replaced with a wider walk made of brick or pavers or something appropriate, but between budget constraints and an impending road-widening and front-sidewalk relocation in a few years, we're not going there for several years.

For now we would like to border it with something to make it look a lot less stark and a lot more inviting.

What we want is:

• something that is low (under 1'), and that will spread (or can be contained) to under 2' or so.


• tending more towards a mound shape than irregular or spikey


• shade/filtered sun tolerant but not hostas (Partner is sick to death of how I kind of overdid hostas at our last house, so this is one thing that's non-negotiable)


• flowers at least some part of the year or has colerful foliage (i.e. not just a little green-only evergreen)


• perrineal or self-sowing annual.


• year round visual interest or evergreen foliage is preferred


• relatively low maintenance


• not starkly formal

We're in zone 7a, and have fairly good soil.

Now, I know that we're not likely to find something that fits ALL of these criteria, so "low", "not hostas" and "shade/filtered sun tolerant" are the only two things that are non-negotiable.

Oh and a dream request would be to find something that's a fragrant plant or herb that fits all or most of these requirements.

Anyone have any great ideas?

Here's a pic that shows at least part of our front walk. FYI, that azalea will be moved before we plant whatever we decide to put along the walk. And we're going to start shaping the front beds (probably something that involves a curve out from the front walk edging and is generally a curvy less-formal shape overall) and putting in some of the anchor plants that we want there, including a hydrangea and that stray azalea).