Wow, I've never been to FL and am not too familiar with the palms and cycads there but that kinda looks like some sort of ill-conceived sago palm (cycad) without the bulbous trunk part. I'm just attempting humor there as I don't really know. I've had a sago palm in a pot now for 6 years and it has grown alot but not that big but it has similar scaly "bark". Maybe the bulbous part of yours is beneath the ground. You might also try the Palm and Cycads forum. I believe there are knowledgeable people there too and some even from FL. Here is a link that might be useful: http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/palms/

Marcia, I had a few things that survived up until the last day, most of them under sheets. Unfortunately, we had one more day of freeze than was predicted. When I got home from work around noon, they were predicting a low of 41 degrees so I uncovered things and watered them. By 5 pm, they dropped the low to 31 degrees. By 5 am, it was 27 degrees. I believe it was the watering that resulted in much of the freezing on the 11th day. Most of my plants still have life around their base but I don't know what will happen if we get another freeze. The best two flowering plants that were left uncovered were the the flowering maple and two patches of shrimp plants. The shrimp plants were somewhat burned prior to the last freeze but they did have flowers. The flowering maple had flowers for a few days after the freeze but has since lost them and has some leaves turning brown. Plants that survived last years freeze, including the chinese hat and the firespikes were completely burned after about a week. I'm still seeing a number of hummingbirds including a number that weren't banded. Still, all appear to be Ruby-throateds. During the freeze, I saw a dozen or so goldfinches and a couple dozen chippies but those numbers have now dropped. Almost all activity halted for a few days after the second day of above freezing nights but things have gotten back to normal. Around the time I noticed things slowing down, I saw a large light colored bird fly past the windows a few times. We heard a frantic squeal from the tree one night and were able to find a raccoon in the tree. I believe the raccoon was attacking a flying squirrel. The next day, a Black Vulture was eating a squirrel on my roof just above where my wife saw the raccoon. A day later, I saw the big white bird drop down past my kitchen window. I looked out to see a Cooper's Hawk on the ground with a squirrel tail sticking out from under it. It flew off with the squirrel. I also had a stray kitten eating my bird seed on stump where I feed the birds so I do have some deterrents in the yard that may prevent some birds from stopping by. I'm seeing regular Pine Warblers and a Yellow-throated and a Black-and-white. A White-eyed Vireo has become a regular in the yard. saintpfla, The best advise I can give is to hang feeders as well as landscaping. I have a friend who sells the dish type feeders so I would love to endorse their use but unfortunately, many hummingbirds won't use them. There are so many advantages to them over the others but bottom line is if the hummers don't use them, they are useless for anything other than a decoration. I have so many issues with the PerkyPet pinch waist glass feeder with the yellow cage type bee guards but that seems to be the feeder my hummingbirds prefer. Unfortunately, so do the bees. And, my bees get their heads stuck in the bee guards. So, if your feeder isn't attracting the birds, try a different type. I've read some discussion of hummingbirds being less common along coasts but my parents live just inside Mosquito Lagoon on the east coast and they have hummingbirds pretty much year round. I also know of at least one yard in Largo that has had them during a couple of the past few winters. I'm hoping to discover more regarding coastal hummer spots through my floridahummingbirds.net site. The birds that you're seeing for a couple of days are migrants who are most likely not going to be persuaded to stop. You need to keep feeders up past the "end of migration" in hopes that one who is going to stay will find your yard. I hope this helps, Steve in Valrico

..... appears the soil is to water-retentive and compacted. Roots need oxygen to function normally. If the soil doesn't hold enough oxygen or you over-water, The plant's internal water pressure drops, causing loss of turgidity and wilting. The best way to tell if the/a soil is 'completely dry' is by using a tell. Using a 'tell' Over-watering saps vitality and is one of the most common plant assassins, so learning to avoid it is worth the small effort. Plants make and store their own energy source – photosynthate - (sugar/glucose). Functioning roots need energy to drive their metabolic processes, and in order to get it, they use oxygen to burn (oxidize) their food. From this, we can see that terrestrial plants need plenty of air (oxygen) in the soil to drive root function. Many off-the-shelf soils hold too much water and not enough air to support the kind of root health most growers would like to see; and, a healthy root system is a prerequisite to a healthy plant. Watering in small sips leads to avoid over-watering leads to a residual build-up of dissolved solids (salts) in the soil from tapwater and fertilizer solutions, which limits a plant's ability to absorb water – so watering in sips simply moves us to the other horn of a dilemma. It creates another problem that requires resolution. Better, would be to simply adopt a soil that drains well enough to allow watering to beyond the saturation point, so we're flushing the soil of accumulating dissolved solids whenever we water; this, w/o the plant being forced to pay a tax in the form of reduced vitality, due to prolong periods of soil saturation. Sometimes, though, that's not a course we can immediately steer, which makes controlling how often we water a very important factor. In many cases, we can judge whether or not a planting needs watering by hefting the pot. This is especially true if the pot is made from light material, like plastic, but doesn't work (as) well when the pot is made from heavier material, like clay, or when the size/weight of the pot precludes grabbing it with one hand to judge its weight and gauge the need for water. Fingers stuck an inch or two into the soil work ok for shallow pots, but not for deep pots. Deep pots might have 3 or more inches of soil that feels totally dry, while the lower several inches of the soil is 100% saturated. Obviously, the lack of oxygen in the root zone situation can wreak havoc with root health and cause the loss of a very notable measure of your plant's potential. Inexpensive watering meters don't even measure moisture levels, they measure electrical conductivity. Clean the tip and insert it into a cup of distilled water and witness the fact it reads 'DRY'. One of the most reliable methods of checking a planting's need for water is using a 'tell'. You can use a bamboo skewer in a pinch, but a wooden dowel rod of about 5/16” (75-85mm) would work better. They usually come 48” (120cm) long and can usually be cut in half and serve as a pair. Sharpen all 4 ends in a pencil sharpener and slightly blunt the tip so it's about the diameter of the head on a straight pin. Push the wooden tell deep into the soil. Don't worry, it won't harm the root system. If the plant is quite root-bound, you might need to try several places until you find one where you can push it all the way to the pot's bottom. Leave it a few seconds, then withdraw it and inspect the tip for moisture. For most plantings, withhold water until the tell comes out dry or nearly so. If you see signs of wilting, adjust the interval between waterings so drought stress isn't a recurring issue. Al

The original Cape Cod style houses were known for their simplicity and did not have porches, porticos or dormers. Ah, well, clearly I'm not an expert on terms. I just know that I like that exterior look. I know you are resistant to an architect, but really you know enough about what you want, like and don't like that a 3-4 hour consultation would be helpful and I think you would really enjoy the process. No, no, you've got me wrong: I'm not opposed to using an architect. I just think the need should be considered on a case-by-case basis. I'm opposed to someone who's building on a plain lot and who has no unique needs paying to "recreate the wheel". I'm opposed to paying big money to recreate what is already 90% of what the customer wants. And most of us don't have unique needs. I much prefer the floor plan of the new design because of window reasons. Your previous plan had several land-locked rooms, and now with this one, every room -- even the laundry room -- has a window. Plus two of the three bedrooms can have windows on two sides. I also much prefer the central hallway to having to walk through rooms to get to other rooms or having the master bedroom directly off the living room. This is all true. Plus my husband likes the exterior, and it's growing on me. Yet it's the windows that still bother me the most. At this moment -- and I reserve the right to change my mind -- I'm leaning towards going with the modern exterior ... but decorating the interior with more of a Transitional vibe. So the windows need to stay "as is" for the exterior look, but I definitely want them to open for spring /fall breezes! What size eat-in table did you have in mind for eating alone in the future? Neither of the dining rooms in question is particularly large and neither would look or feel strange simply with a smaller table (like 4' x 4') in it. The extra walking room around the table would actually be nice. We have a 42" octagonal table to which my husband is inordinately attached, and it would work perfectly in my "old plan's" breakfast nook with the bay window. Our dining room table adjust from roughly 5' to -- I don't know, really big; it's a lovely table that belonged to my grandparents. If no other tables were ever available again and I were forced to choose between these two, I'd stick with the small table; we rarely ever use our dining room now (though that's partially because it's poorly placed in the house). Actually, it suddenly strikes me that the two dining rooms are essentially identical in size, yet very different in feel.I'm back to work for a summer project this coming week, so I'm putting this on the back burner for a while. I'll come back to it and see how I feel about it in a few weeks. I do appreciate all y'all's thoughts and ideas.