Maja, I haven't tried them in water. I take off the lower leaves, put the stem in rooting hormone, and then put them in the ground. I'm in central Florida and I have sandy soil. If it's a very sunny area, I'll water the plants daily for at least a couple of weeks. This is one of my favorite plants. I just started some 2 weeks ago.

Over on the cooking forum they have something like that. It's a thread that's titled "What's for Dinner?" It's a thread where they post pics and talk about what they've prepared for dinner, or not prepared for dinner, share recipes, and other comments along that line. It's been such a popular thread with some of the folks over there that there are well over 200 threads. I think they're up to "What's for dinner #264 or something like that. I hadn't ever thought of it as being basically a journal type thread, but that's exactly what it is. Is that the kind of thing you're thinking about, where people post about what they've done in the garden that day, or weekend, talk about it, post pics and such? Now, there's pros and cons about the "What's for Dinner threads at the Cooking Forum. The pro is that it's lots of fun for the people that participate, and they've built up quite a friendship and commoradery. The down side, and it's minor, is that the thread moves so fast it's hard to keep up. If you don't check in 2 or 3 times a day, you'll have up to 20 or 30 posts to read, or more, and that's just in one day. So, it's hard to keep up if you don't have time to check in that much. Now, the cooking forum is one of the most active forums on the whole Gardenweb megalopolis, (for good reason, it's a fun forum) so that probably contributes to the high activity. If there were a similar, gardening related thread here on the Texas Gardening forum, it could be just as fun and fulfilling as the journal type thread over on the cooking forum. Sally

In your introductory statement, you say that you're interested in changing "... the front deck into a more pleasant entry way." Let's compare the existing deck to two concepts. Presently, it seems sized such that it could accommodate 3 or 4 people entering. In my concept I haven't the size of the deck much. I've widened it just a little, mainly to allow for building wider steps ... maybe twice as wide as the current steps. It might accommodate an additional person or two. In your concept drawing, you've changed the deck from merely an entrance, to one sized for family gatherings -- lounging, dining, BBQs, etc. Is that how you intend to use the deck? If it is merely an entrance, it does not make sense to overwhelm the space with a lounging and entertaining deck sized for a family ... unless you are receiving visitors in groups numbering into the teens. First, figure out its purpose and base its size on that. Then work out its configuration. Whether its a wood deck or masonry porch structure doesn't matter to its function, as either can do the job. The materials will have more to do with durability, maintenance and the visual, artistic impression that you are trying to make. In general, I think people value masonry porches as the superior ones, b ut it isn't necessarily always that way.

Your dual front and easement entry has good bone structure. What is missing from the landscape perspective is the ground layer of plants. In most cases that would just be lawn, but that is not what you have. It can still be maintained the way you have it now though, looks like pine needles. The ground layer element is what you need to add in some form to add interest and unify the easement gate as part of the whole scene. Pick one species of plant. Place drifts of it on either side of the main gate without hiding the rocks. Plant another smaller drift to the left and out of the way of the easement gate. It would be good for this plant to have contrasting color or texture and year round sculptural presence. A short groundcover height perennial or spreading shrub would work. One plant that comes to mind, though it does not suit your entry well I don't think, is Yucca filamentosa. Your location and actual site conditions will determine what this missing element plant will be. If people come to your ranch and don't know which gate to use, well then, they probably shouldn't be there.