I live in Long Beach. We do get coastal breezes. But because of our proximity to Palos Verdes Peninsula, the large "hill" blocks the northwesterly sea breezes, so many times Long Beach can reach into the 90s in the summer while south in Huntington Beach or north in Redondo Beach, the temps will be in the 70s. But for the most part, temps keep moderate year round. I'm luck to have a large yard and big enough for several large greenhouses. If do prefer the coast. San Diego county is beautiful. Take a drive down to Quail Botanical Gardens in Northern San Diego county. Vista is nice. Capistrano is nice too. The O.C. is nice, but you will find a lot of track homes. Large homes, yes, but not very big yards. Fullerton is nice. The old part of the city. But it does get warm in the summer. Not too bad. If you go north, try Ventura County. Ventura or Carpinteria. Forget Santa Barbara or Goleta unless you have big bucks. The housing market has slumped. But not to a point where you can buy a house along the coast for less than a million. (Though you will find some nice homes in the $800K) Hard hit areas where homes have been foreclosed will be the outlying suburbs (tract homes) in Corona, Riverside and much of Inland Empire where many new homes were defaulted on. I for one hate these types of neighborhoods. Cookie cutter homes (large) but no yard. And basically but up against near desert. I would avoid Porter Ranch and Santa Clarita. Right now the area is ablaze. Planned neighborhoods, fancy tract homes, and small yards. But again, fire hazard areas. Also we have a bad drought, so you will be limited in watering. And if you do choose to live in a dry area, well, you will have to change your plantings to reflect more native plants, grasses, and cacti. San Bernardino County is up in the foothills. The base of the mountain. Fallbrook is nice, but gets hot in the summer and cold in the winter. Good for fruit that need winter chill. Again, if you want to grow more exotics, more tropicals, then you need to move to the coast. Mornings will have marine overcast. Which is nice. And will burn away to sunny, mild days. You will have more micro-climates too. Here in Long Beach, I grow mainly orchids. But also pineapple, plumeria and hawaiian tea bushes.

What to expect is; A. It will either make it thru unscathed, which is very possible, depending on your lowest temps and how well it was wrapped. B. the top growth could freeze to the ground in which case it will regrow but it will also cut down on how many figs it will have. C. It might not get froze but voles or mice can chew the branches to the ground and sometimes even chew up the roots killing the tree. I've had that happen to my own and a friend had a 6 foot tall tree completely disappear from rodents. You never know until it's time to do the unwrapping. You can buy stuff to keep rodents from chewing the tree, I think it's called "Scoot". If you can't find it you can grind up garlic and rub it on the trunk and lower branches. I couldn't find anything in the stores around here so I went with the garlic, this is my test year for that too. Be prepared for the worst case scenario. Best of luck to you

Folks, We spotted a mountain lion in Hamlin, NY, right off Rt. 19 where the town just put in a new trail system. We had a similar experience to others posted here. Two of saw the cat as were hiking today. At first, I spotted the cat as it ran across the main path, but I thought it was a VERY big fox, because of the red color (not really thinking cougars here). After we got deeper into the woods, on a side trail, we came across it dead on about 100 feet ahead, but thinking at first it was a deer -- until I saw the cat's head, and thought geez, that looks like tiger. Then, I realized OMG --that is, it's a mountain lion! We both saw it at the same time, and I never turned, tucked tail, and ran so fast! We hauled out of there scared skinny that cat saw us. We made a narrow escape, when I saw that head my animal instinct kicked in, I knew we were in big danger. I felt like we were back on the steppes of Africa suddenly exposed, like in a dream, where you are suddenly confronted with an attacker. So there you have it, sighting of cougar along Lake Ontario, western NY, about 30 miles northwest of Rochester. Anyone else care to verify?

4/22/2017 Update It's been more than a month since I started. Mid-March this is what I did to kick start my lawn rehabilitation project: dethatched aerated pulled a few weeds out overseeded with a rye/fescue mix put down 1/4-1/3" of top dressing put down alfalfa meal Front Lawn Color is improving. The lawn is greening up at different rates, almost following the strips of sod that were laid down when the lawn was put down last year. Still patchy in in areas, certainly more than the backyard. Lawn lacks that thick, healthy look. Not sure if the seed I bought was good, if I have not waited long enough or if the birds ate it all. Plenty of rain the last 30 days. Lawn seems to be draining better and is not as boggy. Very few weeds, I pulled maybe 2-3 in this area. White flecks in the pictures are cherry blossom petals. This is probably the best part of the front lawn. Really greened-up well and is very thick and healthy looking. You can see how different strips of original sod are greening at different rates. Backyard Color has improved here too, better than front yard. Still patchy in an area that is typically shady. Seed seemed to take better here and I see lots of new grass sprouting up. Drainage seems to have improved but that's only after 1 month of observation. More weeds in this area, pulled perhaps 10-15 by hand. Questions Aside from cutting and weeding, anything I should be doing at this time? The patchy areas - reseed those or just be more patient?