gardengal48: ok, that is very helpful. Thank you. :-) nwnatural: given the feedback here, and our assessment of the situation, that is the direction we are going. karinl: I am glad to hear that it didnt come off as whining, which was not my intention. I greatly respect the skills and abilities of the people here who work with gardens and landscaping. It is just a bit overwhelming to the rest of us mortals. In terms of the ground cover, this was suggested to us by a friend who is a true gardener, and we have incorporated various types of thyme, teucrium, cerastium, etc. into our design. The problem is that this site was full of weeds when we cleared it to build the house and we need to control that without the use of chemicals if we can avoid it. Based on how the ground cover does, we may be able to slowly incorporate it in other areas, thereby achieving eco-enlightenment. :-) I have included photos below: gweirdo: it is somewhat difficult to answer your question, since we didnt do the landscape design. I can say that our intention was to use drought-tolerant plants that grow well in this area to create an ambiance that defined a place of sanctuary for us. Since a Mediterranean landscape evoked that feeling for us, we began to use that term, perhaps inappropriately. We also wanted to contribute to the land by replacing all the scruffy weeds with plants that would help support the local wildlife (the birds and the bees, not the adolescents in Mini-Coopers). The difficulty is to being able to communicate the experience we want from our garden using the limited lexicon that we have. It is like trying to tell someone from another planet what milk tastes like. We know exactly what we are talking about (fortunately) but no one else does. This probably means we were raised by wolves. To see the details of our design, please go here: http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/load/design/msg0623022121666.html inkognito: I believe I have read enough of your posts to both respect your knowledge and appreciate your writing style. I also believe that you do not mind a bit of verbal jousting, which I am happy to provide. No offense was taken. :-) I will talk to our landscaper about the suggestions you mentioned thank you. We were also concerned about the clean up on gravel, so you are spot on there. springvillegardens: your herb garden is beautiful and the view of the hills is amazing. You have obviously put a great deal of work and love into your creation. Thank you so much for sharing this. frankie_in_zone_7: your vote has been noted and recorded for posterity. I hadnt thought about the linear feet of raking on the paths. Hmmm.... perhaps I need to take up Zen Buddhism. When you say decomposed compacted material, do you mean decomposed gravel and would that be with landscape cloth underneath or not? Thanks.

Castor bean is more likely since I have had that plant before, but the seeds are so distinctive I would have remembered them. Also, my leaves are not at all the kind of maple shape that castor bean has. They are pointed, and in several tiers at the top of the plant. Light green color. They are jaggedy, too, like a Christmas tree shape, a little bit. So frustrating trying to describe it. Definitely not Japanese knotweed, thank goodness :D. I should have pics this afternoon. Janet

It does look like a red-stemmed amaranthus seedling to me, but the color in the pic is kind of washed out, so it's hard to tell for sure. If it's a red-stemmed amaranthus, it will soon develop a feathery read cluster of blossoms, very similar to a celosia. (It's in the same family.)

I used to cook like that a lot; now my children get on me at the dinner table to immediately write down what was used if they like the mixture. Sometimes I can remember most of the ingredients... Once I made a sloppy joe type of meal that everyone loved, but I could not recall what was tossed in to make it so good. About two years later, the distinctive flavor was repeated. Turned out to be some Taco Bell sauce packet extras that someone had left on the kitchen counter. Now my husband occasionally brings them home for me to add to dishes. Yeesh.