Melissa, broom is a pain in the neck. I used to love seeing it by the roadsides driving through the Italian landscape; so bright, so perfumed! But I think that is the only good context for it, in a way. It would be OK where it is on my property, if it didn't attract those effing beetles so wildly; in fact, IMO, the beetles exist precisely to keep the broom from taking over the entire world, since they suck the flowers and render them infertile. But the beetles are engineered to be wildly attracted to the colour yelow; that is, the stamens of ALL flowers,and due to the geography (or morphology???) of my land (sharply sloping down from the rose garden into the broom field and below that, oak woods,with a south-west orientation),having broom down there is like rolling out the red carpet for the beetles (well, the yellow carpet). Broom has strong, fibrous tap roots that can push their way through/ between rocks, etc. I think the only way I can do anything with this area is by hacking up the ground with my pick; I can't see just planting baby trees amongst that thuggish broom and hoping them to survive.Also, I'd have to water the babies in their first year, and I think the broom would just flourish all the more. Probably I'll try a mix of things and see what works best,but it will be necessary to work the soil before I plant anything. I probably should saw down all the broom in the area I wish to start cultivating, and maybe put black plastic bags over the stumps of the ones that are too deep rooted to dig up; for shade it might be better to rig up something artificial. I don't think your land was as abused as mine was; this area in question has been so badly eroded; I have to hunt out spots where it will be possible to dig down deep enough to start stuff. The rose garden area was similar when I started about 15 years ago,but I am not going to lug all this heavy clay, etc. all the way down there. To plant the first Leylandii I prepared an area,digging out rocks, putting in organic matter and kitty litter, etc. I'll certainly be watering it in it's first year at least! but the thing about Leylandii is that it was cheap; it's as tall as me and cost me all of 13 euros. So, if with some effort I can get it to establish,I might have a nice start.The thing is, even on the subject of drought resistance, people's experiences and opinions vary greatly with ALL plants, as far as I can see. To me,for example, roses are very drought-resistant once established, but many, many people heartily disagree with this opinion. So I will see what this Leylandii does before I make any decisions. Criteria for a nurse crop would have to be : economic ,(not to say, cheap) and fast-growing. But even for that, I will absolutely have to work on that soil ; as it is now, nothing new can start growing there, I think,except baby broom and maybe brambles (if they manage to compete with the broom)...bart

joy20, all your appliances will have spec sheets and your contractor/cabinet builder should be fully aware of the specs(measurements for depth and width) and if you are having inset doors, they need to accommodate for the doors shutting flush within the cabinet box by building the cabinet box deeper...this is so simple, but critical if they screw it up. Most spec sheets only allow for "overlay doors" - doors that close on the outside of the box, not into it...make sure your carpenter takes this into account! labradoodlemom, benjamin moore's coppermine is the red cabinet...the white cabs are custom to match our trim, but very close to Sherwin Williams Navajo white 6126 Good luck!

My experiences regarding heat tolerance was similar to yours, Diane. I had a bed with multiple Ebb Tides, multiple Love Song, and a couple Cecile Brunner (not the climber) and all roses were very happy because they did not receive afternoon sun and were essentially in the shade during the heat of day. The other Ebb Tides in my garden were in a western exposure, but the sun was filtered from a tree in the vicinity. I knew of Ebb Tide's reputation regarding heat tolerance and was very nice in terms of its garden placement. I lost my Ebb Tide during snowmageddon, but already have a replacment residing in a pot on my covered patio...I am curious as to how it will fare here... My Twilight Zones were definitely more heat tolerant, but my Ebb Tides were never put through the test. I do think that Twilight Zone is more favored by rose growers, especially those with hot dry Summers, and likely due to a lot of the above. One of my Munstead Woods was grown in a full sun western exposure location. I posted the images at one point (years ago). If you love hot pink or fuschia...during a hot dry Summer, it is likely what one will get, however, it took the sun, heat and survived...

I absolutely adored Northern Exposure. I'd forgotten about it until so many people mentioned it here. MASH was awesome. Parts of it haven't aged all that well and it occasionally makes me cringe when I watch it now. I still enjoy it though and I like to think about the ways things have changed since it was filmed, etc.. Boston Legal is my all time favorite series. James Spader and Shatner were gold in that.