when looking at what to plant you should always consider your microclimate first and water requirements. my garden/ landscaping begins with natives to my area or region. second what do they provide me and local species. ex toyon and elderberry are planted for the birds of which we have many in socal and they need us to help. elderberry is also useful to humans and requires little attention after established. i plant non natives for either beauty or food and medicines, but not my first choice for landscaping.

Nik Yes, the panels I am thinking about would be detachable. I also would like to have two "doors" - one for my husband to get to his grill and one to allow us to still go out and sit by the fire pit. I know that will increase the price but I really would like to make it practical and look good. I think we would enjoy sitting on the patio and still being able to see out and have it look really nice during the winter. I will have to get pricing info because I know they are not cheap. Your pergola idea sounds great too. One of the least expensive options I saw was the super clear plastic that you can order is custom sized sheets that has grommets all the way around. My only concern with that one for my patio is that there would be no "door" openings so when my husband would be cooking we would have to take the size down and the top of each panel would be over 10 feet high so that would mean a ladder every time we wanted to go out in the yard. I will let you know if I get any information. I saw the pics of your trees. They look great! I can't believe the prices you got. What Lowes did you find them at? My Lowes never had all those varieties. I only started attempting to grow citrus in June. I just switched to the 5:1:1 mix recently so I am by no means experienced with the different mixes. I chose 5:1:1 because I could find the ingredients easily and after reading on the forum I noted lots of people had success. I know lots have had grea results with the gritty mix too. I have used the pine bark from Home Depot and liked it but I honestly did not sift. I live in basically a zero lot line community so our yard is tiny and I don't have room to store leftover bark and my beds are full of mulch so I don't need any more there. For my situation the 5:1:1 seems to be draining well, easy to find ingredients and I think I will continue with repti-bark because the pieces are nice and tiny and as far as my pots go I am happier with the reptibark ones. Meyer Mike uses both 5:1:1 and gritty mixes and his plants look amazing so I am guessing both are great mixes. He also uses Foliage Pro at every watering - not full strength. He posted lots of great information about pests too. I got some fish emulsion at Home Depot and I am going to add that to my regimen. Kim

awww, 1 yay, 3 nays. :( Thanks for the replies. It makes sense, that's why I asked. I just LOVE that look, think it goes so darn well w/my house. Thank you for the compliment, trini. We just love our place, bought it almost 2 years ago, is a fixer upper. Went from a townhouse to a full acre so we feel like we have a sprawling ponderosa! LOL. I know nothing of gardening/landscaping and plants (never had to) so I am loving this forum! Ok, would the bleeding heart be able to grow (away from the wall) over the garage? Like...3 pots, set away from the wall. One on the left of arch, one on the right of arch, one on right of garage door? What kind of structure (trellis?) would I use? please help me!

Darwinism gardening for fun and happiness, that's my mantra. I'm still experimenting a lot in my yard (somehow, I suspect that will still be true decades from now, it's half the fun.) One of my strategies has been to only water plants when I'm getting them established, and trying to do most of my new plant planting during the rainy season. Then, if they die, because they needed more irrigation, or fertilizer (of which I use almost none) well, our relationship wasn't meant to be. And there are some ornamentals that really take no care _ I'm in love with my chenille, which I got from cuttings from a neighbor, never gets water, never gets fertilized, and just keeps blooming. I had one attacked by bugs and I thought, oh well, that one will die, hope it doesn't take out the one across the yard, because I don't use pesticides either. Well it fought off the bugs and came back great guns. So I've air layered two more and put them out front. That experiment worked and makes me happy. The heliconias I put all over the place.... yeah, they're a little out of control. One aspect of getting rid of grass is you don't mow over areas and stuff can spread pretty quickly without mowing to keep it in check. That said, I still love bringing them into the house in a vase. To me, it's about enjoying my yard/garden. I have plenty of responsibilities at work. I intend to only plant things in my yard that will give me more in terms of enjoyment than they will require in work. That balance is different for each person - babying a tomato plant until I get to eat tomatoes, I love that! When we moved in, in February three years ago, this house had a gorgeous, lush lawn. It doesn't anymore. Just not important to me. So what's left of the grassy areas is full of weeds and dies each winter and I don't care. At that point, I'm playing in the veggie garden. And my veggie garden is just a hobby. I love what we manage to eat, and give to the birds and the bugs what they manage to eat before I catch them and spray soapy water on them. Even my compost makes me happy. Turning junk mail, coffee grounds and kitchen scraps into dirt to improve this soil makes me feel connected with my grandmother, a farmer her whole life. It's like the advice dog trainers give - you're in charge here, don't let the puppy, or the plants, determine what you want to do with your time. Luckily, the plants don't eat the remote control because having 500 channels is suddenly a huge pain in the rear when you have to stand at the TV and click through each one manually to find the weather channel to see if it will ever rain again. :) Susannah