Move along folks, nothing to see here, the show is long gone.

Bill - If you haven't thought about using PVC boxes over your steel pipes, they also work (not structurally sound by themselves, but good over steel supports) and can be quite low maintenance - no warping, no rot, no painting or staining, just an occasional scrub. Some folks don't like the aesthetics, but they are easy. Not sure what colors it's available in other than white, since that's what we've used. You can get it thicker than the typical fence post covers and build your own boxes if wanted. PM2 - The solar panels are great. They provide more than enough power for the shop (except for the 3 phase used by large machines, provided by a generator since we are near the end of the line and don't want to brown out the neighbors) and we use the power grid as our battery so the only cost is the meter fee. (NH has net metering so the meter runs backward when we are generating.) When we eventually have a house down here we will use the extra power to reduce the house bills. Since we have the space, pole mounted panels are more efficient since they don't heat up as much in summer as roof mounted, easily adjust seasonally, and have simple snow removal on the infrequent occasions that they don't self-clear. This picture was taken fairly early on, when the west end of the bed was brand new and the rest of the bed hadn't grown much and I hadn't yet filled in with large perennials and clematis. It gives you a slight idea of what I'm trying to distract from in addition to the solar panels: storage sheds, propane tank, and lots of stored raw material that goes into making bowls and heating the house and shop. (I usually try to take my photos to reduce the visual impact of these since they aren't and won't ever be totally hidden.) From June 2010

New Landscape Message (July 13, 2012) has been posted. Claire

Thanks Jim! Sorry I didnt see your response. I notice that we both reply to messages at the same time pretty often, haha. We got about 2 days in the mid 90s already this year (and more than our fair share of cool weather), but I'm hoping that once (if) the 80s every get consistent the P. geayi will finally flush! I wanted some blooms this year! I agree, Ensetes are definitely one of the fastest growing bananas and I think part of the reason for their fast growth is their cool tolerance which gets them to start growing in the spring when days are only comfortable and not opressively hot. The sabas should get some good growth in with the warmer weather this weekend and hopefully warm weather will be permanent soon! -Alex