Welcome to the area! I would check and see when the next Master Gardeners class in Greenville County is offered - it may not be offered again until fall. Whenever it is, take it - you will learn a LOT about gardening in general (no matter how much you already know) and about gardening in your area in particular. Plus, you meet fellow gardeners! I second the recommendations to wait for a year to do any major changes, see what you already have (any early bulbs will have grown out and gone dormant by now, for example), and improve the soil as much as possible. Of course, if you REALLY can't stand a certain plant, then take it out, by all means! It is your garden, after all. Even if the previous owner obviously treasured it, you don't have to! I would visit as many nurseries and public gardens as you can, see what grows here, what you like and what you don't, and generally get familiar with conditions that you have, and the conditions that plants require to do well in the area. I don't know where you moved from, but some plants that grew well for you won't do at all, some will need afternoon shade, and some will be annuals instead of perennials, and vice versa. Another good book, while covering a wide area, is the Southern Living Garden Book - it lists plants and cultivars that do well across the south, as well as giving general garden advice. Any of the books by Toby Bost are good, as are books by Alan Armitage, Felder Rushing, etc.. Even though dated, there is a new edition/collection of Elizabeth Lawrence's articles out - although she gardened in Charlotte in the 50's on, many things will carry over. This is getting into the time of year when people stop planting things anyway - it's too hot, both to be working hard out in the sun, and too stressful for trying to get plants established. If there are water restrictions again this summer, you do not want to watch your new purchase wither up and die from lack of water! You may lose a few plants in the existing garden anyway - keep an eye out for signs of stress. Saving the water as you wait for the hot water to get to a given sink may be necessary.

Here is a website that you may find useful.http://www.extension.umn.edu/Garden/ There is a wealth of info there. It really isn't necessary to test your soil every year, I think the recommendation is about every five years. Compost is one of the best things you can do for your soil. You need to be careful adding sand to clay, you can end up with bricks. You can build raised beds, or berms if drainage is a problem.Leaf mold, compost, peat moss....any organic material will be helpful. I am mainly organic but do not rule out synthetic chemicals in some cases. You may want to research IPM (integrated pest management). An excellent book is "The Truth About Organic Gardening" by Jeff Gilman. He talks about and compares synthetic and natural chemicals and their eco impact. If you haven't had a soil test done, it would be a good idea. Also, instead of trying to change your conditions to meet plant needs you may want to choose plants suited to your conditions. Best of luck to you and have fun playing in the dirt.

I have had my BS 36" RNB with grill installed for about two months. So far I love it. It is not perfect but I would buy it again in a heartbeat. The burners are awesome and gorgeous. The oven is huge and accurate. My baking has never been so good. The broiler is terrific. I made some beautiful ribeyes under it yesterday as a change of pace from the grill. The door does not get hot but the kick plate does and so do the knobs. The grill is good but not great. The back runs hotter than the front part so I have to move the food around a bit. I really wanted a grill because we don't have the ability to grill outdoors.

I don't know much about residential MUA, but it seems there are at least three basic decisions: 1) conditioned (or tempered) MUA or not 2) If (1), do you need an energy or heat exchanger 3) local MUA or distributed Let me give you an example from my world. Laboratory fume hoods, like range hoods used to just suck conditioned air from wherever they were located in their leaky buildings. The first one that I worked at in Philadelphia had MUA coming in from right above my head as I worked in front of it. It was not conditioned or tempered. In the winter, a hat was desirable. In the summer, the ice in my ice bucket keeping my enzymes cold in the hood melted very, very quickly. The least expensive MUA in operating and maybe installation costs would be right very near the source of the "problem", probably grates in the floor or counter near the range or cooktop. It would be air straight from outside run through a physical filter. You really want something like an air curtain around the appliance so it does not mix with room air. If there is enough air being exchanged and mixed with conditioned air to make it economic you want an energy recovery or heat recovery exchanger. The choice between them depends on humidity and what you need to do with it. If you are to temper the incoming air, it needs to run by your HVAC systems. Your situation is unusual because you have two separate systems. At that point, with forced air, you are not local anymore. Sometimes in residential forced air, MUA runs through a dehumidifier but is not cooled before being dumped into the duct distribution system. If so, when the cooling kicks on, it is fully conditioned. In your situation, you have to heat with resistance heat if going for lowest installation cost. If you use another fuel for your boiler that is lower cost (natural gas yes, fuel oil or propane, maybe not) it may pay to run the MUA through a small hydrocoil if you feel you need it. Depending on the nature of your boiler and remainder of your hydronic heating system, you may need a buffer tank in your system or it might not be able to support such a small load without short cycling the poor boiler. Here is an idea for you. If you already have an indirect water heater tank on that system, perhaps that could be used as a buffer. You might be able to just have the circulator pump for the indirect tank kick on and run water through the hydrocoil, but you'd want to be able to valve it off during the summer. If you propose this to a hydronic heating person that is not particularly smart or creative, they may look at you like you are from Mars. I think it would work, but may have never been seen on this planet.