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Looks very pretty natural environment Lori. I know you worked very hard to make it look this lovely.

the learning curve has been steep, Klahanie! There's a lot of area to cover... I always wished for more room in my town garden and thought I'd hit the motherload when we came to this place... but, "bighting off more than I can chew" comes to mind. I've watched the natural parade of animals, birds and plants for almost 10 yrs now and have only one pearl of wisdom to pass on... don't force your will. I tried coddling treasured plants from my town garden that were never meant to grow here... it just lead to frustration. so now I've retired from active gardening LOL... If it's growing.. it's going... if it's not..it's forgot! :-) How has your summer been? my Aunt in the Okanagan was on refuge alert.

Lori, you sound like me. It could be my story as well. I am less enthusiastic about my gardening then in time when we moved here. For the same reasons as yours.
Our summer was record hot and dry. We got our first rain couple of days ago. Our cedar trees really did not liked the drought. my colchicums just came out and were beaten down to the ground with the recent rain. Never win.