If the wedding is in December, it might be easier to get a metal arch and use berries (from Michael's?) and fresh greens to decorate it. All the Christmas stuff should be in store by then. Many farms come to town to sell Christmas trees. You may get a supply of fresh branches from them.

Good idea!

Home Depot sells fresh garlands, too, made from tree trimmings.

Going with the pre-made arch, you could weave the white pine garland through it, add some white lights (with green wire) and some swags with poinsettia in them. You might even be able to get some amaryllis to bloom in time if planted mid-September. Of course, you can always check with Trader Joes. They usually have white hellebore in stock for $10 each and they might be able to order some white glads for you as well.

Christmas tree sellers often trim the bottoms off trees to make them the "right" size, resulting in lots of extra branches... when we first moved to this house, I got obsessive a few years with making big swags for all the windows etc. since they pretty much let me stuff as many branches as I wanted in my trunk.

My daughter and her boyfriend decided to get rid of an area of lawn on a slippery slope, with the idea of ending the task of mowing it now and landscaping it later. I came up with the idea of putting in landscape-timber stairs, and provided some (hopefully helpful) advice and other assistance as they slaved away.

My daughter and I dug up and transplanted a volunteer Crepe Myrtle which was growing under an Azalea in her front yard....that's the only thing planted in the new beds so far.

You sure have the experience in gardening on a sloped backyard, Susan. Looks good and will get better.

Thanks, Sally!

What a great idea, @Muddy1! Having seen your beautiful backyard, I have no doubt that your daughter's garden will be lovely too.

Tony and I are thinking about doing something similar. We are having people in this Saturday to plant trees in the uphill part of the lawn in the backyard. I want to reduce the back lawn by 50% and will still have more lawn than I need. I don't even know what I was thinking for keeping that big lawn in the backyard for so many years and struggling with keeping grass alive on that terrible slope all this time.

Thanks, Donner! That sounds like a great idea for your back yard. What kind of trees are you having planted?

My daughter's new hillside beds got some more plants today....my daughter and I transferred 3 clumps of Black-eyed Susans to the new beds because they were growing where their new A/C condenser will be installed next week.

Found the perfect arbor on Craigslist for only $70! The size is just right and the finish even matches the furniture. It took a bit of engineering and a trip to the hardware store to get it anchored in the ground and sturdy, but it was all fairly easy. Can't wait to plant Honeysuckle x 'Candy Swirl' and Pink Jasmine 'Stephanense' next spring!

What a great find!
I like the pumpkin in the birdbath, too

Hasd to click again to find the pumpkin.

Wonderful arbor!

Great find of the arbor, and it's all looking wonderful, Mike. Your neighbors must be so pleased to have you there.

Ha, I spotted the pumpkin but had to click again when Muddy said it was in the bird bath LOL Mike, your front garden just keeps getting better and better!

Just sensational. I could cal it an old man's dream, if I knew any old men.

It looks as though I my have to give up my long time affair with Firefox. Win 10 just wants the Microsoft products and works well with them. Firefox not so much. I guess I should be happy it seems compatible with Corel's PaintShop.
Holly heard that there was a free downloadable Win 10, for Win 7 and Win 8.1 users on Microsoft. After a bit of research I found it and installed it on her laptop. It was more like an update that a new installation, saving all her files, pics, and preferences. The only downside was it took almost 4 hours on a DSL, just as other users have noted. The best part is Win 8.1 is now a thing of the past. I believe I read it's available through Nov. 31st. I find Win 10 to be a good bit easier to use than 8.1, more like XP.

I'm still limping along with Firefox. Lately it's been crashing every time I start up my computer, needing that one more click to restore my tabs (and I keep a lot of tabs open). What browser are you using now?

little Chromebook works for me, I've become a google gal.
although I don't know why my phone photos aren't backing up to google photo anymore,gotta figure that out- aha, just had to get to google settings on the phone

I'm using Chrome on my phone or Fire tablet... but I don't use it often enough to really have a feel for it yet. Google remains my favorite search engine, though!

Thx for input!