You mentioned grasses, I can't see how they would object to something so colorful as Japanese Forest Grass 'Aureola' or some of the Japanese Sedges such as C. elata 'Bowles Golden', or C. morrowii 'Ice Dance'. I like Carex glauca too for it's steel blue color. Tellima grandiflora, Heucheras, Heucherellas, Tiarella, Variegated Solomon's Seal, P. humile, P. biflorum, Pulmonaria - the flowers are so tiny on all of these but many are variegated or just have interesting shapes and texture or all three. Lots of Ferns - Japanese Painted, Ghost Fern. Also comes to mind some of the gingers like European, Asian and Canadian and Mayapple. The flowers sit tucked underneathe the plants. I am jealous as some of these selections would languish here in the Midwest; others do very well but all would look spectacular in your part of the country.

ok! ... Thanks Rhizo : ) The ladybug larva I already guessed right. The expired Fly is the Tachinid, and the Wheel Bug nymph is the one in the jar. So, are all tachinids pretty large. I was under the assumption they were tiny. Pretty nasty sting I just found out about Wheel bugs, huh? That's great! Since I go barefoot in the garden 90% of the time. Oh... the flier that you didn't get... could it possibly be a hover fly that has it's wings closed? Because it's what I assumed was hover flies. I just can't get a good pic of one in flight. Here's another one for I.D.--- he looked like he wasn't taking the weather too great. Once again, Thanks rhizo1. Your help is totally appreciated! Kevin

Yes, that's important. I can count on my fingers the only times I have ever had to pull a chemical out of my arsenal to use on pests outside, and lacebugs on my azaleas (planted across the entire front of my house) were one of them. Those particular lacebugs would have not touched a vegetable plant, however. Soap to the rescue. Sawflies on a rare pine and this time I had to go to carbamil base and be extraordinarily careful as it was near my bees. And hort oil on a large planting of purple leaf wintercreeper. Three times out of twenty six years, not bad.

Wow... Your kitchen is already beautiful. I can understand wanting to make it your own, but just have to say it looks as good as many of the finished kitchens on here. Good to be planning this far ahead! Will the layout change at all or does it work well for you now? As far as picture size, I had to ask this question just last week. I found how to resize them automatically when I downloaded and couldn't remember how to change that option. But now I know. If you go to your upload page and see where it says "more options" in blue right under "Upload now", it gives you the option of choosing the download size. I had medium but have changed to large, and it is much better. I think you can make them smaller but not larger, so you may have to upload them again. Opinions only: 1. Ask your contractor what is the tallest window you could get. That would be my vote... as far down to the counter and as far up to the ceiling as he will allow. (I have an 8' span of windows, two double casements... love them, and wish I could have more. GC allowed me 42" high for my 8' ceilings. I love how easy it is to open them. Caveat -- I have cats, and though they are not supposed to get on the counters, they do, and at night when the bugs come to the windows, they attack the screens, which are on the inside for casements. Didn't think about that until the screens went in. You should be OK with dogs unless they get on the counters to get at the bugs.) Agree with chicagoans on the molding ... yes. Screens, yes, depending on where you are. Will you open the windows a lot? Do you have bugs? (I just reread and saw that I agreed with chicagoans on the other questions too, just missed that fact. : ) ) 2. ? Not sure what your question was. 3. Here are some sinks with low dividers. Sorry, I don't have time to make active links for them, but you can just triple click to highlight, then command/control C, then control V in your empty or highlighted browser. http://www.us.kohler.com/onlinecatalog/detail.jsp?prod_num=5838%2D7U http://www.elkayusa.com/cps/rde/xchg/elkay/hs.xsl/elkay-res-16192.aspx http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/kitchbath/msg0919032530825.html