My favorite sun-loving annual!

Benary Giant Zinnia from Seedman.com

My property is almost exclusively shade, so it's a real challenge to find flowers that will thrive with little sunlight and that our woodchuck family won't devour. So my yard is very heavy on the hosta, astilbe, impatiens, and hydrangea (though the deer love to snack on those).

Many of my friends have the opposite problem, and because they know I like to garden, they often ask me what types of plants and flowers are best for high heat and full sun. kristinaleann asked the same question just the other day in Advice for Moms, and she got some good advice.

It all depends on where you live, of course, but yesitsme311 gave a very thorough and long list of sun-loving annuals and perennials beyond the run-of-the-mill geranium and marigold variety. Click here to see her list of sun-tolerant annuals and perennials in Advice for Moms.

Some of my favorites on the list include:

Photo by Cafe Kim

Do your kids collect seashells at the beach during the summer? They can be great for art projects or displayed as mementos...as long as you clean them. Otherwise, trust me, they will stink to high heaven! Here's an easy way to clean seashells.

Did you know you can get a tax break for certain summertime activities like summer camp and summer cleaning?

Here are some tax tips from the IRS to keep in mind when thinking about money and finances this summer...

The face of evil.

You may call them groundhogs. Woodchuck, groundhog, they are both one in the same, and a whole hungry family of them are living somewhere in my yard right now. Still a better name would be gardenhogs. Those chubby squirrels absolutely leveled my flower garden last week.

Flats of impatiens, black-eyed susans, echinacea, hostas, gerbera daisies. Buckets of money. All gone.

The other day, they actually came close to the house and snacked on the herb pot of Italian parsley I had growing nicely. So I moved the pot to the top by the door. Last night the little suckers topped it all off, ruining my plans for herb rubbed grilled pork chops this week. Grrr.

It seems like every house on my block has had a garage sale this June! I took the liberty of paying extra special attention to the crappy ones so I could share some tips about what not  to do when hosting a garage or yard sale.