Resuming the question by backing up with some arguments from the books: My conclusion of Nitschkes historical analyses could be checked by reading the first pages of each following chapters regarding the stereotypes. In fact, this is not much a conclusion, rather a summary. Because the book is already organized according to the chronological evolution is this an easy thing to do. The most important parts are likely the first and the last chapter. The first garden type, the Heian gardens, imitated and copied some/most nature feature and scenes. The 5th garden type, the last in the book, consists a great deal of the projection of mans mind to a piece of land, floor or roof we call our garden. Nitschke termed the results as mindscapes. If you want to read some sentences in the book, try these ones (and likely others, but these ones Ive looked up yesterday within half an hour): [p106]"The Heian garden imitates the outer forms of nature between the selective landscape of natural features. It seems to me that the Muromachi garden takes a step further: it seeks to imitate the inner form of nature and thereby fathom the secret laws of its proportions and rhythms, energy and movement. Its means a abstract compositions of naturally-accuring materials". [207]"The 5th new garden prototype, which emerged at the start of the 20th century, was initially dominated by carved natural rocks; these were later joined by synthetic materials. This prototype no longer starts from existing models in nature, but is better understood as an intellectual projection onto nature. Its gardens are thus no longer land-scapes but mind-scapes. [233]"Kenzo Tange explains: "We like the carved rock, because it reflects the will of the carver. Neither the natural rocks nor the way they had been placed (in the traditional garden) reflected the slightest trace of human personality. They simply lay quietly where they were, disturbing nothing and giving no hint of a human urge to create something beautiful". Shortly before his death in 1989, the famous sculptor Isamu Naguchi stated in a interview:"The garden is made from a collaboration with nature. Mans hands are hidden by time and by many effects of nature, moss and so forth, so you are hidden. I dont want to be hidden. I want to show, therefore, I am modern. Im not a traditional Ueki-ya, tree trimmer". Ive tried to relate Nitschkes "Japanese Gardens" to Slawsons "Secret teaching in the art of Japanese gardens" in the evolution framework discussed here, and found ground for my thought especially in the parts where Slawson explained the shift of what he termed "feature-oriented design" to "quality-oriented design", started at page 70. He did this with the term Fuzei, which was hard to grasp in the beginning, because I was tied up in my objective-subjective dualism (read below further). Edzard mentioned in his previous comments that Fuzei refers to the objective organization of the site, i.e. the atmosphere of the site "as is". To me this is hard to accept, because a site has firstly to "appear" to me and I must be "open" for him, otherwise it has no meaning for me. Things (or animals or plants) gain meaning to us because they appear to us and only if or because we are open and sensitive to them. I must "add" my subjectivity to feel the atmosphere of the site. Furthermore, these "feeling tones" (a term used by Slawson in discussing Fuzei on pages 71-72,137-138) will getting stronger when we starts giving a thing a NAME of its own. This looks to me as the reason and explanation of the superiority of the Japanese in rock setting as well. They started giving the rocks their own names, and are thereby getting more sensitive to its characters and qualities. If you want to read some sentences in the book, try these ones (and likely others, but these ones Ive looked up yesterday within half an hour): [70]"This is important (the shift to quality-oriented landscape, red), for by paying more attention to these perceptual qualitiessize, shape, texture, configurationof materials, the 15th century manual roots the garden not so much in the natural world as in functioning of human senses that perceive it". [71]"Fuzei occurs 59 times in the Illustrations, and only 4 times in Sakuteiki" [71]"With the Illustrations, we witness the beginning of an awareness of the extend to which such feelings could be generated within the human heart through the pathways of the human senses". [71]"Perhaps this explains the almost schizophrenic tendency in the West to regard the "objective" imitation of nature and the "subjective"expression of emotive qualities in art as mutually exclusive, and to value the first one and then the other in the pendulum swing of history......... There is no reason to conclude that these two instincts are mutually exclusive. In art, as with human life, there is much more to be gained from regarding them as inseperable aspects of a whole". Feeling-tones are also described in pages 136-141. "The Japanese had developed a vocabulary of feeling-tones in conjunction with the art of literatureterms like aware (pathos), okashi (a diverting or pleasing qualilty), yugen (a profound, haunting beauty), or sabi (resigned solitude), but this vocabulary is unfortunately not reflected in the Illustrations". On page138 Slawson shows "only" 3 feeling-tones in English words. My question was/is: are you agree with the evolution summary, and if so, are you happy with it ? My own answer now is: I dont care, because Ive overlooked the significance of gardens as part of nature. Urban gardens are definitely not part of (wild) nature, but are just extentions of our houses. What we do there is just breezing some "fresh" air, sitting, playing, looking. Yes, we grow a tree or two, but I can barely call those trees as a part of nature. This discussion has opened my eyes that these gardens have less to do with nature itself. They can be NATURE-INSPIRED in the upper layer of the design. They can beeither IMAGES of MINDS or SYMBOLS of NATURE or something in between.. I do like both the IMAGES of a nature-inspired garden and art-inspired garden as well, as long as they match my TASTE. So, garden designing is going nowhere in term of "good, objective design" (the 5 gardeners), because "good" seems to be replaced by "taste". And we are now allowed to have our own individual tastes.

Hi Roseberri, Bugs: I do not nothing... sort of. This is a fully Organic garden. All my efforts are placed into soil building, improving the soil food web, adding organic matter, not tilling, etc. I also have defined wild areas and am working on improving insect habitat too. I will post a picture of the Insectenhotel I just completed soon. As a result I just don't have insect problems. I have loads and loads of beneficial insects and they have done a fantastic job. I plant intensively to keep out the weeds, moderate the soil temperature, the beneficial effect it has on the soil food web, reduce watering needs and maximize yields. I tried row gardening once and compared to this it was a complete failure. Beds are the way to go. Also, for water issues, the best place to hold water is in the soil. I don't water half what I did last year. This is a combination of deep watering when i do, mulching, intensive planting, and more organic material in my soil. My July probably averaged 95 and I don't recall any rain either. I hope this helps you out. HerrGothic

Happened to see rmkitchen's reference to this thread and came back and reread my original post. Things change as they go along ! We have been back and forth with Ikea as we tweak our layout - they've been extremely accomodating and I highly recommend them based on the customer service - and as a result we are up around $13,500.00 for RTA cabinetry. Our appliances were just over 13 thousand. The copper countertops did not work out. The quote from the supplier kept edging upwards. We got nervous - not about the dollars but we got the impression that the vendor was either dishonest or inexperienced - neither of which we want to deal with. We ended up deciding on granite. The quotes we were getting ranged from 5 to 9 thousand dollars for twelve linear feet of counter with two cutouts and one 4 foot by 8 foot island. We ended up finding a great supplier/fabricator and bought two slabs of Cactus Boreale. The price we got for the granite, fabrication and install is just under 5 thousand. Budgeting just went right out the window when we decided to do the windows as well. We put in a pair of beautiful french doors with stained glass transoms for just under 10 thousand. At the other end of the room we are doing a window seat in a box bay window. The quote we've gotten for the window there is about 8 thousand (three double hungs with fixed transoms above - Andersen 400 windows - custom stained glass inserts, 2 fixed sidelights). Lighting is where we really lost it. The central fixture over the is (Fire Island Fan d'Lier from Savoy House) was $750.00 - not excessive considering it's a fan/light combination. We economised nicely on the entryway fixture and got that for 110 dollars. For undercabinet lighting we bought some light shelves from Ikea that can be substituted for the bottom of the cabinets we are installing. Three light shelves for 419 dollars. But we'll probably end up putting these in as the tops of the cabinets and installing Xenon undercabinet lighting for another 7 hundred. The dining area is what really put us over the top - we made an impulse buy of a small chandelier-ish fixture that had an amazing metal ceiling medallion. 800 for the light and another 800 for the medallion. Then there were the matching sconces... a steal at 200 each. Our budget was 250 for the fixture so I guess we kind of screwed up there, but the things we got are beautiful. We still need to buy our potlights - about 22 units at 50 dollars each. So far, we have spent 1400 dollars on wire and switches/dimmers/outlets. We'll expect to spend another 500 or so there. So what was supposed to cost "just over 2 thousand" is actually coming in at just under 7 thousand. We've nixed the banquette. We'll keep the window seat portion, but we're doing side cabinets and furniture instead. Cost should be around the same - 6 thousand - but we'll be able to move the furniture wherever we want it to be. Our floor still looks like it's going to cost 5 thousand - but we're vacillating now between jatoba and bamboo... We spent 1500 dollars on two sinks - one copper basin and one stainless single. We're refacing the fireplace for 1400 dollars. Cabinet pulls and "stuff" should be about 25 hundred. We have spent 3 thousand on wood and tile for the ceiling and baseboard. No change so far in the labour cost projections - we're still expecting to spend under 6 thousand there. So we're about halfway through our renovation project. We started thinking that we should be able to do it for about 40 thousand, which quickly escalated to 65 thousand once we seriously started researching. We're up over 80 thousand now. We could certainly do things more cheaply but we could also be spending way more than we are as well - so all in all not too bad - considering the only area that we actually compromised was on the cabinets. :)

Hop bush is a nice idea. Jojoba might also work well and it is indestructable. Citrus would absorb a lot of glare, and might benefit from the poolside humidity, but they have thorns, so you'd have to be attentive to keeping it in bounds. Mexican fan palms and Mediterranean fan palms are easily confused when they are young, as they have the same leaf shape. Most people don't notice they are unrelated. However, their growth patterns as they mature are totally different. Mexican fan palms will leave you with a telephone pole with a plume on top. Mediterranean fan palms peak at only about 15 feet, and even when small, they start send up side trunks to form a very beautiful clump. As they keep sending up these side trunks, there is always a variety of heights and sizes that can give a really good screen. A row of these could become quite beautiful while staying compact (though they do curve outward slightly as they mature. They will need some supplemental water, but not a lot. The basal part of the frond stems have thorns, but the outer fan part you might brush against does not. I've seen olives pruned into a tidy hedge, but I'd be wary of their roots. Pyracanthus (firethorn) have tremendous endurance in the low desert. Dark glossy evergreen foliage. Their creamy flower heads are short-lived, the brilliant berries long lasting. Their only messy season is when the berries drop (once a year, not a daily nuisance). An often forgotten plant that can do well is mediterranean myrtle, myrtus communis (no relation to the southern crepe myrtle). It can be allowed to form a loose shrub, or shorn into a tidy hedge. It's leaves are fragrant. Also look at "heavenly bamboo" not a true bamboo. Genus is Nandina. It has straight slim stalks with leaf clusters that stand out a few inches horizontally, dainty at the top. No thorns. Very slim and compact. creamy colored flowers, orange berries in winter into spring. Grown in sun, the evergreen leaves turn pretty colors in winter, then change back to green in spring. In climates with more moisture, it can be invasive, but that seems not to be a problem in the low desert. Most types of ivy will need shade in the low desert, and a lot of water... which will invite mosquitoes. Among vines, cross vine -- a native of the sandy pine forests of the Southeast -- are unexpectedly successful in the desert. They can become leggy as they age, but they drape back on themselves, giving rich cover. The leaves are evergreen frost and heat tolerant, and then rusty orange trumpet-shaped blossoms in spring. BTW, your HOA rules, regs board by-laws, and CC&Rs should all be posted online. If they are not, maybe grit your teeth and become an ad hoc committee solely for getting that done. It is a convenient place to post the board's contact info, board minutes, committee minutes, annual meeting minutes, blanks of any forms that should be used (as for landscape or architecture changes), neighborhood news, even lists of suggested/recommended/forbidden plants. There may already be such a website you could find by doing a web search of your homeowner's association name. Good luck finding something that will enhance your enjoyment of your pool.