This is sort of an opening to a subject that there is a lot of denial about. I used to have a name for it, but I forgot it - something like "planned lifespan". There is the idealistic view that a garden of small plants planned to grow into their full mature size will remain a successful composition for decades and decades is THE right way to design. Maybe it is, but is that really going to happen and is that really what people want or only what they think they want? No composition will smoothly grow into that ideal garden over time. When a garden hits that stride, it will not stay there on its own. It needs help. It needs help to get started. It needs help to keep on track to develop into what it is supposed to be. And it needs help to keep on keeping on. So the big questions are where, when, and how do you want to apply that help. How long do you want to wait and assist the composition to get it to where you want it? It is pretty much an even investment no matter which way you go. If you invest cash for bigger plants you get the benefit of "being there" almost right away, but you flip over into the limiting mode of maintenance a lot sooner. If you save money and start with smaller plants to eventually grow into a nice composition, you have not only to wait, but you also have to nurture the composition into what it is supposed to be because it certainly won't get there on its very own (some plants will need to be controlled before others approach the maturity that is required for the composition to be in its intended state). That last sentence is the most overlooked and really the answer to the posted question. "it takes a lot of knowledge to notice whether the new plantings will eventually look like what you want, whether the "bare" look is just the immature garden, whether a "full" look will be overgrown in a year or 2, whether the plants are evergreen, perennial, or what." It does not take as much knowledge to know what it will look like as it takes enough knowledge and effort to make sure to develop it into what you want it to look like. Then it takes additional knowledge and effort to keep it the way you want it to look for as long as you want it to look that way. The closer the composition is to being fully effective, the less knowledge and effort is needed to get it there, but the sooner the knowledge and effort to keep it from declining will be necessary. Obviously the enjoyment of the composition starts sooner as well. It is important to understand that the landscape is still there when it is not in that enjoyable state. This is why it is more and more common for people to opt for more instant landscapes and to keep them for a shorter time frame. It maximizes the enjoyment time and limits the time when enjoyment is less. You ultimately create the life cycle of your landscape - when it is born, how soon it matures, how quickly it matures, how quickly it declines, and even when it should be "put down". It may well be that you will program a life span that could last a century, but most people program a much shorter lifespan for their landscapes. More often than not, it is because they get more enjoyment out of shorter life cycles and more of them in my opinion and observation. You can buy a dozen roses for $40, or you can plant a rose shrub for $20. If it is 5:30 on my anniversary and I'm on my way home I might not have the same set of values that I might have on a Saturday afternoon walking through a nursery. You can wait for spring and summer all winter or you can go to Florida (a Northeast thing). Great subject!

there are java scripts that can do this. you size the java script new window to fit the picture. this can get complicated if you have a lot of different sized pictures you want to do this with. JamesS

No we aren't finished installing yet. We have all the lights mounted, but needed some other interconnect items and had to place another order. They are on the way and hopefully will be here by Friday. Then its just a matter of connecting them up. (holes already drilled also) I do have one section of 30" lights (a 24" and 6" joined together) to the left of my range, but that's just about a 1/10 of the project. I am loving that part so far LOL! play with it all the time, dimming etc I leave it on full during the day and dim it at night. Its a nice white light, and makes my light over the range look wimpy. I guess we're not looking at the same lights at Lowe's. What I saw was like $60 for an 18" bar, and I'm paying $40 for 24" bars. BUT,this price is not their advertised price. They did discount them to match the price on another website.

Steve, We love you here; you are a constant source of information. While we may sometimes disparage you for your odd practices, we still learn a little each time. That is the purpose of this forum.. to learn from the experiences of others.