I hope the weather breaks for you all, and those wanting cooler and wet get it. I probably shouldn't rub it in that this is a perfectly lovely season to be gardening in northern California coastal areas, (as long as you aren't on water rationing that is), with gardens full of color and great gardening weather as well. The deer can be rather pesky at this season here too, as the gardens offer so many more tender things than the desiccated natives do, which are mostly in summer dormancy unless they are next to perennial creeks. It is too bad that nursery customers can't always be persuaded to overlook initial size and appearance of small one gallon plants and take one's advice as an article of faith... Of course, it never hurts to have a display garden on hand to show what larger plants look like. I can't imagine that someone wouldn't be impressed with the Carex 'Sparkler' if they saw a mature one, and deer resistant as well! Too picky design clients also get my goat sometimes, and I much prefer the clients that can describe the overall look they are interested in, and leave the detailed plant selection up to me. I still give them the option of saying yes or no when I get the plants on site, or will replace with something new if they really don't like it, but figure they are paying me to give them the easy care/drought tolerant/specific seasonal color in an assemblage that I know will work well over time, and sometimes have to point out the positives of the plants I've selected and the negatives of the ones they may think work better. Of course, there are a million ways to design a garden, and no one way is correct, but years of experience and knowing ultimate sizes of mature plants does count for something.

You will get the answers you need on the Container Gardening forum - this one is more for inground soil issues, composts and mulch. FWIW, Al is one of the most helpful of all GW members - I've known him for years and he will no doubt come to your rescue himself. (personally, I have found that any lack of imprecision regarding the screening and/or rinsing is inconsequential. It all works!!)

Well, many know that spreading gypsum around willy-nilly is a waste of money, petz (cheap has nothing to do with anything when spending money you don't need to spend [wasteful]), and Linda merely wrote up what many know. Sorry you didn't catch that. And sorry you didn't mention that Ca is abundant in the PedOCal region )the Ca in PedOCal) and gypsum isn't needed to release Ca, esp as the OP mentioned 'caliche'. And surely you know, having a horticultural education, that qualifying statements for such an article are the norm, else you'd spend a lot of time writing letters to authors of articles you read. As I said, reread your soil text. The one you saved from your uni education for future use. And it is likely your ag econ text says the same thing: never spend money on a treatment that is not needed. This is not to say that a soil analysis will not find that gypsum is needed. This is to say that automagically stating that one should spread gypsum is not needed. HTH. Dan

Okay-- one at a time: Is applying Versabond directly to plywood (kitchen counter) This can be done, and in fact it's the way I build my countertops-- two layers of 3/4" ply. However, I don't recommend going directly over plywood for DIYers, and in fact, many pros, as well. To start with, Versabond, although it says on the bag that it'll stick to plywood, it won't last very long. You need something with a pliable and tenacious bond, such as Mapei's Kerabond thinset mixed with their Keralastic additive. Additionally, there are many other pitfalls in setting directly over plywood and it's not something I'd really recommend unless you're very familiar with what you're doing. You'd be much better off to instead, use a layer of 3/4" ply, a layer of 1/2" ply, and then either Ditra or 1/4" cement board. You definitely want two layers of plywood underneath, though. bare cement (basement floor) As alice siad, it depends on the condition. If you have alot of cracks in the floor, you may want to put a membrane down first, such as Ditra. If there are only a couple, you might get away with just using a crack supression membrane over the cracks such as Laticrete's 9235 (Blue 92). But membraning the entire floor would be good insurance. One very important note, though-- if you DO have cracks in the slab, check them very carefully. if on ANY ONE of those cracks, one side is higher than the other, you might want to go with a different flooring. There's not a membrane made that'll protect tile from vertical movement between the two sides of a cracked slab. or existing (tight) vinyl tile (kitchen floor) This is copied and pasted from the flooring page of my website: This is a subject that's very hotly debated within the industry. It seems every manufacturer has a thinset that they say can be used over resilient flooring (sheet vinyl) or vinyl tile. The problem with that is twofold. With all the different types of vinyl flooring out now, it's tough to know which ones can, and which ones can't be tiled over. Cushioned vinyl's are out. They can compress, causing voids under the tile, ultimately causing failure. Also, not all sheet vinyl is glued solid to the floor. A lot of times, vinyl installers will only glue the edges and spot glue in the center, and if you thinset the tile to it, it won't stay very long. In my opinion, vinyl tiles are out, as well, due to the fact that the thinset bond is only as good as the bond of the surface under it, and I've seen vinyl tiles ( especially peel and stick) let go way too easily. The same is also true for sheet vinyl. The second problem with tiling over vinyl is the underlayments used for vinyl installation. Normally, in woodframe construction, there are one of several underlayments used-- luan, 1/4" particle board, 1/4" plywood, and sometimes even MDF (medium density fiberboard). ANY of those in a tile subfloor is a guaranteed failure. 1/4" plywood has a nasty habit of delaminating (the layers come apart). Luan has the same problem, plus it can compress to 1/2 its original thickness from normal residential foot traffic (I've seen this happen). Particle board (as well as MDF), just from humidity, can expand enough to pop tile loose. Any of those can cause failure, and unless you pull the vinyl, you don't know for sure whether the vinyl installer just went over the existing subfloor, or added one of the underlayments mentioned. All in all, it's an extremely risky installation, and my question is why, when spending the money it costs for a tile installation, would you want to gamble on it? Here is a link that might be useful: My website's floors page