Rich, if you want to make the winky dude in your post, just stop typing wherever you want him, then take your mouse and click on the smilie up there on the toolbar. (He's right above the little earth-and-chain thingy, which makes links work) Click on him, then you will get a pull down with all the smilies.
And to make a link work inside of your post, you need to "copy" the link address (you know... go up to where the address bar thing is for the website you want to show, and highlight and copy it) Then highlight the word you want the link to appear in, and take your mouse and click on the world-and-link thingy. Paste the address you want into the little window that appears, and you're all set.
You can do
this, see?
And for the slab planting, it sure is hard to make them like you want them to be. Specially if you aren't used to working with groups. Wes, it'll grow a bit, and next year you can play with the spacing a little. Maybe group them all closer, like a clump, and leave lots of space around them??
Joanie