Thanks everyone for your advice, it has all been great!

I think I will sit back on the front porch and watch my gardens grow
while enjoying a tall glass of drink. I will definately take those
beers next summer, I am pregnant right now.

I realized yesterday that similar to the quote, "One man's trash is
another man's treasure," perhaps it is also true that one man's weed
is another man's rose!

Katherine

"Doug Kanter" wrote in message t.net...
In one of his great books, garden writer Henry Mitchell comments that
tourists love to visit Versailles, and comment on what amazing gardens were
created by King Louis the whatever. They forget that except for the statues,
the beauty they're seeing is due only to one thing: The labor of the people
who cared for it yesterday, not hundreds of years ago.

Perhaps the previous owner let one season go by without doing the necessary
work, hoping it would care for itself. As another person here suggested,
limit yourself primarily to maintenance and observation this year. Take
pictures, make notes, walk around with catalogs & books and identify what's
there.

Have a couple of beers. Things could be worse. You could be one of the
unfortunate people who doesn't have a garden at all.