I have everything on your list. I hauled in good garden soil by the dump truck loads and have clay or sandy soil(depending upon the area) under my good soil. Full sun, no Japanese Beetle damage, no serious deer or rabbit damage except for gaillardia. Gaillardia is munched a bit by either rabbits or deer. Right now, mine are loaded with buds but no munching has taken place at this point. They didn't destroy it last year, so I've left it in place. It is at the very edge of my garden that borders the meadow where the deer and bunnies can reach it, so it's a great test spot. Everything else on your list grows without any damage in my garden (and I have a herd of 20+ that sleep a few feet outside my garden and walk through the actual garden most nights and mornings). Baptisia takes a few years to mature, then it is spectacular. It probably has the shortest bloom season of everything on your list, but the foliage is beautiful to me. Find a permanent spot for it as it doesn't like to be moved once established (in my experience). Asclepias is a host plant for Monarch butterflies. So, if you plant it and they come, the caterpillars will munch it as food. You'll want to hide it back among your other plants unless you don't mind bare stems. My garden is a certified Monarch Waystation, so that's a good thing (to me). Monarch cat on aslepias Nepeta is blooming now and will bloom until frost. I shear mine when the blooms are spent and they come back. Bees love it, so I often have to wait until evening to do the trimming when the bees have given up their work for the day. Nepeta is my "go to" plant -- I use it throughout the garden as edging and as a companion to many other perennials. Nepeta behind the lavender: My lavender is blooming right now. I love my lavender! Plant it high and dry, don't fertilize it much at all, don't water it from above. I trim mine twice a year and get loads of blooms. I use a cordless Black & Decker HedgeHog trimmer to make fast work of all of my perennial trimmings. I've had great luck with agastache 'Blue Fortune' and an orange one (can't recall the name). I had terrible luck with the one called 'Heather Queen' in the drought. It was looking great, but hadn't gotten established well enough. I've seen no signs of it coming back this year. I'm going to try tutti-frutti this year. Blue Fortune Echinacea is one of those that gets deadheaded by the deer or bunnies when the first blooms appear. That's okay with me as I do it myself to promote more blooms. Once my plants were full, the deer left them alone. I tried the Sundown, Sunset, Harvest Moon and Rubinstern last year. The Harvest Moon didn't withstand the drought but they were newly planted last spring (as were all the others). I have written so many articles in my blog about gardening with deer. To see more information about my experience, just browse through this year's and last year's blogs. Hope this is helpful. Cameron Here is a link that might be useful: my gardening blog

Oooo fun! This is the part that Kelly calculates in her REM sleep, I believe. Well, I have all of these plants except sp. Bicolor and sp. Thailand (and the latter is on my Liddle order). I have that exact rubida and rigida, but my lamingtoniae, lobbii, and blashernaezii come from a different source. Definitely go with the rigida! It's leaves are like giant weapons. Soooo kickass! I think the blashernaezii leaves are nice. Like those of siariae, they always look fresh and springlike. You definitely need at least one Hoya of this type in your collection. I haven't had mine for very long, but I can tell you it rooted really easily for me (even after a long trip from Thailand), and has seemed pretty durable so far, so that's a blessing. I don't think this group of Hoyas is the most hardy, but they aren't unpredictably spastic either, like some troublemakers. I like lamingtoniae. It grows pretty steadily for me and it has beautiful unusually delicate leaves. I guess there is some debate over whether what is sold as lamingtoniae is the real lamingtoniae or not. Also, whether it might be rubida. I'm not sure what lamingtoniae Joni sells. I know the leaves of mine very much resemble those of PNG-1 described in this article, and I like it VERY much. It hasn't bloomed yet for me, but it's the one pictured here. The lamingtoniae that I have and the rubida that I have would not be confused for one another, but they are pretty similar overall. I think I prefer the lamingtoniae, but I like them both a lot. I think the rubida is a little heartier. Hoya lobbii is really easy and it has a different look than the typical Hoya too. I think it's so great I just acquired a second one! (Thanks Dee!) You've seen Kelly's plant, so you know what you're getting yourself into with this one. If it were me, I would get: rigida sp. Thailand blashernaezii lamingtoniae but it's pretty much a toss up for lamingtoniae/rubida/lobbii. I think bicolor is spectacular but it's big and I always tell myself: you can have bicolor, or you can have a big one with showy leaves. And then I choose the latter. "The following messages has been paid for The Committee for Mindorensis Appreciation.> Seriously, though. When Joni puts up mindorensis 0768 for sale, buy it. /shakes her fist! ALL OF YOU! For a long time, I couldn't understand why everyone ignored me when I recommended mindorensis leaves. And then I realized that it's because you all thought I was crazy. Because the typical mindorensis has pretty boring verging on bleh leaves. BUT NOT THIS ONE. If you're only going to get one mindorensis/erythrostemma type (and that Thai sp. falls into this category), this is the one to get. It's the magical combination of special leaves and special blooms. And Joni's picture doesn't really do the leaves credit because some of them are almost jade-like succulent.

Just in case anyone checks back I think I found what I love the most. A really nice girl at United Tile helped me out so much. I almost gave up going there because I never got much help. Anyhow, she let me take home sample boards that have been grouted. I can't believe how much this has helped my decision. My mom and dad came over, bless them as they came over ASAP, and right when they walked in they said "that's the one" pointing to the Walker Zanger polished calacatta. They said it just does so much for the kitchen and I totally agree. The 4x12 samples I have are honed which I thought I liked but much prefer the polished as it adds some warmth. I almost threw out the idea of marble. Thank goodness I had a free day to drive to this store! And the girl said if I know a contractor I'll get contractor's price-my brother is a contractor! Yeh! In these picks you will see beveled subway (my 2nd choice), thassos marble (a little too plain), glass subway (way to contemporary now that I see it grouted and too much shine), and the calacatta is the one with the most veining. I sure hope this helps anyone else out there with soapstone unsure of what to do. beveled subway (left) calacatta (next to beveled) glass far right (too glossy and more blue in person-very cold) thassos to the left

Good morning, would love to be able to do a OB in coordination w/ both of you but....I think I am a little too far away(Knoxville) and most importantly, although saving some money sounds great, OB seems like too much of a headache for me. I also don't have the confidence in my knowledge to carry that out. But, I certainly don't mind doing what to spread some of the info. I have collected so far if it helps you make some decisions. I think Alabama,GA, TN areas the markets for pools are similar. Unfortunately, I think yes, one could probably get a pool built in Florida for 20K less than here. Many more PB's there driving the market, also I think it is easier to excavate there(I might be guessing on that) but know it is sandier,less clay than here. The options one PB gave me for pool finishes are Marcite(included) Diamond Brite 4,500 Pebbletec 6,000 Durazzo 6,500. Of course that was for a 41x19 free-form, 3-10ft, so it is not comparing apples to apples. To do that I would have to figure surface area and break it down. The cost for that pool was to 70,500 which included everything but the decking. I had pavers priced, but he gave me option for broom finished concrete, which was $7 sg.ft. As I said, I couldn't afford that one, but it did include alot of upgrades, electric heat pump 8' diving board Letro pool cleaner SWG Durazzo finish Pentair 30"Sand filter and all the assumables like lights,skimmers, drains, excavation, plumbing, etc. Another pool builder priced a 20x 40 gunite rectangle at 50,000 here. including about 1,000 sf broom finish concrete gas heater(I don't want a gas heater so would have to add $$) SWG sand filter dive board and all the assumables. Have you considered a vinyl pool?? Nowadays, you can hardly tell the difference between a gunite and vinyl if you get a cantilever coping, vinyl over step and you have more money that can be put into decking or landscaping. Here a middle of the road price for a 20x40 rectangle 3.5-8ft deep was 41,000. Would be less if you want gas heat instead of heat pump, and that included 1104sg ft broom finish concrete, vinyl over step, SWG,dive board, heat pump, sand filter, skimmers, etc. I understand that a vinyl pool may be a little easier to heat and a little easier to keep the chemicals balanced. When polled, my sons said they actually like swimming in friends vinyl pools better. I don't think I will go vinyl since I need a more custom pool to fit in my space but I would definitely do vinyl if it would work for us. Takes a lot less time to install as well. Well, wish I could spend more time here, but have to get going, part two of celebration weekend, taking second son off to college today. If you have specific questions regarding costs of any options let me know, I will be getting back to this site late tonight probably.