Shade is at a premium in my yard, so I'm very picky about what hostas occupy the little that I have. If I could only have one hosta, "June" is the one I would choose. June is stellar. This hosta is small-to-medium sized  (12-16" tall x 30-36" wide) so it is perfect for the front of the flower bed. Not only is it sun tolerant, but it is incredibly slug resistant. Each leaf is unique and it colors up depending on how much sun it is exposed to. My June (pictured) gets morning sun, so it looks yellow-ish and green. When grown in complete shade it looks dark green with darker green margins. The leaves are waxy and thick, plus I love the crepe texture they have. June gets purple flowers in July, but I have to admit that I cut all the scapes off before they flower. In my opinion the scapes/flowers take away from the tidiness of the plant and the beauty of the hosta leaves.

June was awarded the American Hosta Growers 'Hosta of the in Year' in 2001.

"George Jets On" is one of my unique bi-color daylilies. Despite the diminutive blooms, this daylily is extremely showy in a clump. It is Wisconsin-hardy; a rapid multiplier and a prolific bloomer. From the moment I planted my two original scapes -- it really took off. This plant completely embodies the saying "bloom where you are planted." George Jets On is a multi-award winner (Honorable Mention 2003, Annie T. Giles Award 2006, and the Award of Merit 2008) and continues to be a popular choice.

George Jets On was hybridized by Rick Yost in Ohio and registered in 1999. This daylily grows approximately 28" tall and has 3.75" blooms. The flowers are consistent and hold up very well all day long. I grow this early-midseason bloomer in my backyard flower bed where I can appreciate it up close.

Time warp......It is still a mystery to me what failed when I baked those brownies. They came out of the oven like a big slab of rock-hard brown concrete. Some how, some way Ange managed to get them out of the pan for me. I'm pretty sure a hammer and chisel were involved. Instead of throwing them out in the garbage, our boys suggested that the birds might peck at and eat the 'brownies.' So out to the bird feeder the brownie hunks went. We didn't see any birds, but come early evening we saw a chubby opossum perched inside the bird feeder. The opossum was in the process of furiously stuffing the brownies in his mouth. His cheeks were puffed out! We were all laughing, but still kind of worried that he would get really sick from eating an entire 9 x 13" pan of brownies.  At any rate, the opossum *completely* cleaned out the feeder, shimmied back down the pole to the ground, and slowly waddled off.

When it comes to my brownie-baking skills, this story has become legend in our family. Ange and the boys refuse to let it go, even to this day. But there's one thing we know for sure; opossums love brownies!

The opossum received its name in the early 1600s from Captain John Smith of the Jamestown colony in Virginia. The name is derived from aposoum, a Virginia Algonquian word meaning “white beast.” Did you know the opossum is North America’s only known marsupial? It carries its young in a pouch much like the Australian kangaroo. The opossum is a nocturnal scavenger, often visiting dumpsters and garbage cans. Their diet includes roadkill, insects, frogs, birds, snakes and fruits. When hunted the opossum possesses an instinct to play dead, or “play possum” when threatened.

Facts from nationalgeographic.com

I'm crazy about rocks. All of my flower beds have rocks of some sort in or around them. Most are river rock from a quarry or limestone scavenged from razed barns (with permission, of course). Over the years I have collected literally tons of rocks, and I love working with them in the landscape. So much so that I decided to create a tiny rock garden where I could place all the neat specimens that I found, or were given to me. My favorite little princess in the whole world, Jade, often gifts me with rocks--and many of them are covered with glitter paint. So my rock garden even has extra bling.

The large rock pictured is a Colorado red rock, a garage sale find from Ange. The other rocks include rose quartz, white quartz, basalt, agates, amethyst, petrified rocks, and lots more of "I-don't-know-what, but-I-like-them" rocks.

What I like best about this garden is that it rarely needs weeding!