Aluminum forms aluminum oxide which is very stable and will not react with other chemicals much. Teflon will not change properties unless it heated to above 450 degrees. Both are extremely safe. Theere are billions and billions cookware in use everyday. dcarch

A Fall Follow-Up of the above. The east side and 'front' of my house. It's funny how we start off with one idea for an area and as time goes by, we realize that idea won't really work so we have to shift gears. Without going into too much detail, that's what has happened here. I had an idea that used quite a few hard-line bed definitions and I was going to have my herb garden here. But the summer sun, even though it was only morning sun, quickly let me know the folly of this idea. Now I'm working on building it up to be a 'natural flower garden'. When done, this should be the closest thing I have to a formal bed, without actually being formal. My daughter's Butterfly Bed is really starting to come along in terms of flower varieties. Unfortunately, it still hasn't been too popular with the butterflies. Bees and wasps like it, but not the butterflies. There must be something about this location that really turns them off. Still, while they don't seem to hang out here, the Monarchs keep laying their eggs on the milkweed and the caterpillars keep eating it down. Another angle on her Butterfly garden. From this angle you can see the unused puddling saucer (which needs cleaning) and the hypertufa face from "Nova aka Susan". In the front of this picture is a 'Yellow Salvia' from Karalynn's party. I still can't find any further information on this plant though. The north side, not much has changed... at all. It's hard to get inspired about a side of the house you don't get to see too often except when pulling up. The north steps. Rotting in place. I think I'm going to have to replace them in the spring. If I had this area properly mulched, you would be able to see the four thin sprigs of Fakahatchee grass that I have placed here. Since Fakahatchee is supposed to do well in either Sun or Shade, I figured it would be a perfect choice for an area that gets full sun in the summer and full shade in the winter. Time will tell. The Northwest bed. Really not much has changed here, just a season's worth of growth and the addition of some pentas plants and one Gold Mound Duranta. Everything else was there in the spring, but was MUCH smaller. I can't wait to see how this looks next fall, assuming that large stand of Blue Firespike survives the winter in this bed. The mandarin, which was showing heavy signs of Citrus Greening now seems perfectly healthy. All I've really done is kept it watered and given it monthly applications of micro-nutrients. Another shot of the Northwest bed, just getting a better look at the Pentas and Duranta. A shot of the "Watering Pool" as I like to call it. It's not really big enough to be a pond and a little too big to be simple birdbath, so it's a pool. In the original post, I had said I had the idea of turning this into a sandy, beachy area. Well, the summer rains changed my mind on this. Half the sand I had surrounding this pool ended up in the pool itself. The other half got pounded down into the soil. Another lesson learned: While running the condensation pipe from my AC did indeed keep this pool filled throughout the summer, it actually kept it constantly overflowing, which the lantana did not appreciate one bit. When I finally removed the pipe and this area started to dry up a little, the Pawpaw I had planted here quickly died off. Apparently being constantly watered like that caused the Pawpaw to not send out its roots and so it was not able to adjust when the water stopped. My seating area in the Northwest corner. Last spring this was a lot of grass and two chairs. Now it's a lot of grass, two chairs and a rather full looking Beautyberry shrub. This Beautyberry was started from seed last Fall/Winter, sprouted in Spring and is now this clump. Since neither it nor any of the others flowered at all, I figured they would need another year before they flower and fruit, but this one actually started flowering at the beginning of November is now starting to form its berries. It's a race against time to see if it can finish ripening off the berries before the real cold hits. You can't see them in this shot, but there are two Florida Privets behind the chairs that are coming along nicely as well as a Pineland Lantana. I probably should get another picture of that bed to showcase those plants. The Southwest bed. It has grown in size a bit since last spring. Since the spring, I have designated this as my 'Shrub Bed'. While not everything in this bed is technically a shrub, I'm not planting anything here that will exceed 10-12 ft tall. Well... I DID have a native Persimmon tree sapling here, but a squirrel took care of that for me. Now that I have all the 'foundation' plants done for this bed, I think next spring/summer will be spent filling in the blank spots with more flowery plants... if I can force myself to do 'flowery'. The Vine Trellis Wall. Another lesson learned. I built this with good intentions and a good bit of ignorance. As I have watched those vines getting thicker and thicker over the summer, I have come to the realization that it won't be long before they rip all that pvc latticework right off the side of the shed. The grape vine died over the summer, but in it's place I have put in two Dutchman's Pipevines. Another project for next spring is to build a more utilitarian, sturdier trellis that sits about 18-24" from the wall of the shed instead of right on it. I also need to do some research on how far back I can cut those passionvines and have them survive, but I will wait until after Winter has done its thing. Below the trellis is a stand of Tropical Salvia (great for hummingbirds and Gulf Frits) and a nice ball of Pineland Lantana that doesn't seem to be a HUGE butterfly draw, but all the butterflies do nectar on it from time to time. A Northwest-facing view of the Shrub bed. In the middle of that tan patch is a small Sparkleberry sapling. Over the past couple of weeks the leaves have slowly gone brown and fallen off. I'm hoping this is just the plant going dormant for the winter and not signs that I will be replacing it next spring. The Blue Firespike really dominate this bed thus far, especially from this angle. I'm told they should start sending up their flower spikes in December or January, if a hard frost doesn't set them back. Added this extra shot of Shrub bed. Here you can get a better look at the Firebush and two blueberry shrubs. The Firebush... well... I will never have a garden without a Firebush. After seeing the constant level of activity around this thing over spring, summer and fall, I can't imagine being without one. Butterflies and hummingbirds just can't get enough of this thing. Especially the Zebra Longwings, they almost exclusively nectar on this bush. On either side of the Firebush are my blueberries. Emerald on the left and Jewel on the right. The Jewel is looking better than the Emerald by a fair sight, but I haven't fertilized them at all, simply letting them get established this year, and I think only recently I have managed to get the PH right. The Emerald's leaves were getting worse and worse with that 'burned ashy' look which I understand to be a result of the PH being too high. As of August, this has not gotten any worse and seems to have stabilized, but the bush also hasn't put out any new growth. I know BR is THE GURU when it comes to these plants, but I'm trying to avoid using chemical fertilizers as much as I can. If I end up having to break down and use Miracid or some other fertilizer, I will, but for now I'm just using pine bark, pine needles, left over coffee grounds and pickle juice with applications of compost. The South bed. This bed is in a state of transition. I have been moving plants out of this bed into other areas where I feel they will be happy (or happier) and getting the area ready for being turned into a Tropical bed. I had to move my tomato plants to the wall here as their old location, while being fine for Spring tomatoes, did not work so well for Autumn. The change in the sun's angle and the amount of shade resulted in some very leggy plants. After moving them to this spot, they have recovered some and started putting out fruit. I think I am going to have find a better spot for them next year, perhaps out along the fence line. And the Tropical Corner. This is where I used to have my tomato plants, but as I said, they didn't like this spot for Autumn growth. And so, starting with four banana pups, this bed is going to be the anchor for my Tropical Garden. I have some Persian Shield cuttings in sunken pots that I will be able to move next year if it gets too sunny for them. And there are also two Wild Coffee plants that will likely be planted here. There is also a Porterweed, but I'm keeping a close eye on it for invasive potential. But these will have to wait until spring to be planted along with Bird of Paradise, Heliconias, Gingers and Crotons. As stated in another post, under all that pine bark is a 3" layer of grass clippings (and weed seeds). I have a layer of newspaper between the grass and the pine bark to smother out/inhibit the weed seeds and this area should compost down nicely by spring. Until then I'm not about to dig into it and release those weeds! New additions: These first two are a new bed that I built for the very SW corner of the yard. Currently I have three plantings of Fackahatchee Grass, a Simpson Stopper, native Plumbago (Longtail Skippers love this one), Beautyberry and a Gold Mound Duranta. There's also a bit of Tropical Salvia thrown in to provide some nectar for the butterflies. There are also some plantings of perrenial Blanketflower and Coreopsis that I'm hoping have had enough time to establish to survive the winter and be ready to bloom in spring. As you might be able to see, this bed is currently topped with grass clippings. Over the course of the winter, I will be topping this entire bed with sand and compost and then watering it down into the mulch. Around March I will then paper and mulch the bed once more before spreading Wildflower seeds. My hope is that next year this bed will be covered almost non-stop with pollinator attracting flowers. This is the section along my lanai that I have been having a heck of a time trying to figure out what I want to do with. I finally broke down and figured I would move my herb garden here. It's decent spot where the herbs should get enough sun in the mornings and evenings to be happy, but should be out of the baking, high-noon sun of summer. It could probably stand a bit more soil amendments though. There is also some Blue Firespike here that will help with the transition into the Tropical Bed. So far, aside from the Blue Firespike, I have Lemon Balm, Pineapple Sage, Sweet Basil, Parsley, Rosemary and Thyme. Last but not least, this is the corner of the yard that I really wanted to do something with, but really didn't want to have to deal with it. So I went xeric here. While most of my beds will hopefully get down to very little care once established, this bed should be absolutely no care. I believe everything here is fairly drought resistant and yet won't rot during our summer downpours. So far it's just African Iris, Muhly Grass, Portulaca and bulbine (yellow and orange varieties). This post was edited by Leekle2ManE on Wed, Nov 20, 13 at 20:32

There was fake turf on the playground at a school where my kids attended at one point, and there is maintenance involved with it (replenishing/leveling the infill material). I'm sure it's more frequent at a school where it gets heavy use vs. at a residence. I have a neighbor who has it in the backyard and they have dogs. She said she uses Simple Green to clean up dog messes :-/ Athletes who play and practice on artificial turf have brought up health concerns, so there's controversy around that (without a lot of research), so that's also something to consider for those with young kids and/or pets. I tend toward the other extreme (shying away from chemical fertilizers and pesticides) even it if means not having grass look perfect and green all the time and sharing my landscape with creatures who leave unsightly holes in leaves, etc. I think artificial turf has its place and looks (and functions) great in the right application, but it would really bum me out to go out in my own yard and be walking on plastic.

hydrangeahead, thank you! I do have a question if you've time... Do you know or remember the rock heater brand you use? I've been researching them, and seems a lot break after one year (according to Amazon reviews). So glad you weighed in with your experiences and added info about winterizing and the water lily care. Our pond is now almost complete... We hit the water table while digging so the deepest point is only 2ft, 3 inches (fine for goldfish in zone 7a/b I've read) with the surface water at 6 x 9 ft. plus (got a bit wider). Yes, I know the skimmer is in a terrible location but it was our only option and I will hide it with more rock and a truerock top). We have to build up one side a bit so the water level with be a tad higher (maybe another inch or so). The above photo shows the 'falls' and there's good movement in the water it seems. In addition to the water from the fountain's 'net' there is a fall of water about 5" from the statue's foot coming from a small drilled hole in the topmost rock, and a larger amount of water from underneath the rock the statue is on, flowing under the small rock place in front of it. I'll replace the peagravel in the bottom of the pond with river rock I think, though there is a screen over the bottom drain's intake. In addition to the 'falls', we've got 2 outlets into the pond from the biofilter, one on the right of the pond, and one on the left, with elbows directing the water to flow circular (leaves flow around and into the skimmer easily). Only one outlet comes from the UV as it's rated at 500 gallons for UV but is for a 1000 gall pond. Off to the right is an area for pond runoff when the rains overflow it. We've a lot of landscaping to do yet... and I intend to make a rock cave using pond foam and river rock for the goldfish to hide, although there is one good small cave for an adult fish or two already built in under the statue. We've a frog who moved in well before the pond was finished and he's lived through the entire process : ) Sure glad you mentioned the loss of water - we do occasionally get high wind storms here. Goldfish must be very hardy to have survived that, especially in zone 4b! So glad to hear this, and thank you for telling me how to cut back the lilies. I feel it's the right decision not to add plants so late in the year, and I want the pond healthy before adding the goldfish. I am sorry you lost your koi. I lost only one in our first pitiful pond, and it broke my heart, so I can't imagine losing so many. If anyone has anything else to add, any information is so helpful!