Ditto on the watermelons & cukes... but I would dig the compost into the ground about a foot from the plants, where the roots will reach it as the plants grow in size. You get a real growth boost when the roots find it, hopefully around the time that flowering begins. Compost is wasted as mulch, IMO, unless you have a lot of it. Better to dig it into the root zone, where it can be utilized by the plants. For garlic, I use green marsh hay, which has few weed seeds. The advantage of hay vs. straw is that hay decomposes faster, and releases nutrients to the garlic. Grass clippings would work too, as long as they are not wet & soggy... but I would avoid piling them up around the stems. Both of those mulches are good food for earthworms.

My Wonderful MIL visited every yr. She had just arrived when my DD ran up to her & said, "Grandma, why is your hair blue?" I didn't know what to do & she grabbed my hand & said" is it?" I had to tell her it was,she asked if I would help her pick a proper color as she didn't want her GK's to be embarrassed. I wanted to cry!!!! I went right up to beauty supply & we redid her hair & she was pleased! She told me if she was doing anything else that didn't look right to tell her & I told her she was just fine & reason I didn't tell her about the blue hair was she was great MIL with any color hair or no hair for that matter!! She told me her hairdresser had talked her into it. She was best MIL ever!!! I really miss her! About kids, I taught 2 yr old kids & we were supposed to talk about Jesus dying on the cross. I told the elder I couldn't teach that to 2 yr olds as they would just get confused. He didn't think so. I said I would test them & see. I asked them what it meant to die. Little girl said, I know, it's what my mom does. I said OH,tell me about it. She said, Well, she takes a bottle of smelly stuff & makes an awful mess of her hair & when it gets washed off it's supposed to be pretty but sometimes it isn't! Another said that is what people do in movies until the next 1 & then they are OK again. They deceided that 2 yr olds were too young to teach about dying.Jan

Finally remodeled the kitchen in our 50s California ranch style house. Waited 18 years but it was worth the wait. Room is about 12 x 12, U shaped but the fourth wall has the fridge and some pantry space. BEST THING: repainting the original cabinets (creamy white, Benjamin Moore Pottery Barn Mascarpone) and hardware (that old black colonial stuff) to save $$ for top notch appliances. I replaced my old cheap wall oven & fridges in kitchen and laundry with a 48" Sub Zero. It is quiet and it is so flat -- I gained a wider walkway through my kitchen. Even though the fridge is smaller than the two fridges that it replaces, I can fit everything in there that I need (though now I understand the popularity of the "drink station" fridge!) I replaced my 42" avocado green cooktop with the La Cornue Cornufe 43" in Provence Blue with brass trim. I did not want to give up double ovens, but the usual Viking / Wolf etc. 48" would require me to give up too much cabinet space, plus I never liked the huge oven and tiny oven combo and cramming 8 burners into the space where I used to have four plus a big griddle (that I used to plop things down, mainly). Now I have 5 burners so I have room for big pots and handles. I was really nervous about having two smaller ovens. However, you get the half sheet pans from Williams Sonoma and they act as racks. The fitted roasting pans that come with the stove work fine. I roasted a big five bone prime rib in there. I use my ovens so much more now than I ever did before, especially for meats. That stove is a thing of beauty and a real show stopper in the kitchen. LOVE the blue. So YES, the appliances make all the difference. ALSO LOVE having everything look kind of old -- we have Carlisle wide plank hard wood in rustic white oak (knotholes and marks); we have Barroca soapstone with some white veining; my cabinets are not pristine but they fit with the overall look. Patina galore even with new things! GO CHEAP with the faucets and just get chrome. With everything else stainless, it's nice to have something more glittery on the countertop. We have chrome in every room with plumbing and all of the rooms "match" even though we have faucets from different manufacturers. Accidental benefit: We hid the trash can in a pull out inside one of the low cabinets. We just attached the door face to the pullout mechanism. Well, one of my undercounter cutting boards slides out perfectly so that I can chop and then sweep the trash directly into the trash can. Sweet! By getting the new fridge, I gained more countertop space to the right of the fridge. I was able to have a built in shelf made for my microwave to get it up off the counter. We converted one of the broom closets in the laundry room into a tiny little bar. We used a remnant from our countertops for the counter; we spaced shelves for wine and soda storage. My husband routered out a few leftover strips of the hardwood to make wine glass racks on the top of the cabinet. It's kind of cute. What I'd change? I don't dislike my Kitchen Aid dishwasher, but for some reason it is hard to load small things like pyrex bowls, small cereal bowls, etc. It is great for tons of plates and glasses. However, I like to cook and I use a ton of those little custard cups for prep. I store leftovers in 1c, 2c, 3c, bowls and they never seem to fit right. I did not get the dispenser on the Sub Zero because I think it will stay cleaner and also the dispenser takes up room inside. However, I do miss crushed ice more than I thought I would. I always dreamed I'd have a fancy backsplash behind the stove. However, this stove is so beautiful that I do not want to upstage it. I will just hang a pot rail behind it like you see so often in the ads for the stove. Also I did lose storage space -- we moved a hanging cabinet over the countertop peninsula. I lost my baking rack storage when I hid the trash can. I lost my pots and pans storage when I replaced my cooktop with the drop in stove. I have been getting rid of old things and making room for new things but I am still moving items around to figure out where they should go.

mr toad- What a good idea to have the apple trees espaliered along the edge of the garden! I am going to cheat a little and put two dwarf apple trees along the back of the "fairy garden" which is close to the potager. If I wasn't leaving such a big area for the grape arbor, I would have more room, but I've always wanted a big grape arbor with a table and chairs underneath. Our neighbor had one years ago and I just loved it! He had the most wonderful concord grapes and would let us eat all we wanted...great guy. When he moved, the new owners cut down all the grapes :( If I had been older, I would have tried to save a few starts, but I was only about 8 years old at the time. However, it has inspired me to plan my entire kitchen garden around the grape arbor!