Weeds are a fact, that's a fact. Tom makes a good point that some weeds here and there are nothing to worry about. Those who say (over and over) that all weeds can be controlled by enough mulch are correct, but a constant heavy layer of mulch is plenty of work to maintain and really is only practical for quite small gardens. In my case, where I want to grow enough crops to provide all my pulse and some grain, maintaining a foot of mulch on over a half-acre is not going to happen. Other ways to keep weeds controlled must be utilized, and fortunately the lore to do so exists and it works. IME, grassy weeds are the main problem, and a heavy continual presence of those despite periodic tillage indicates a mineral balance in the soil that is not close to optimum for crop production. What you want to see is the "fertility" weeds, which are easier to control be mechanical means and are much less onerous for the crops. This is achieved mainly by raising calcium.

mountainman_bc: yeah, cold to us means 0C :) There are places in australia that get down to -30C or so, but nobody lives there (ignoring the AAT which gets to -70C ;). However, I do understand basic physics, which means I can work out how much energy I would need under given situtations. Electricity is less efficient than propane for heating in the US because the electricity is mostly made using coal and oil. In canada the electricity is made from hydro (making price comparisons more valid) flash: I'm glad to hear that you are experimenting, I remember when I was 13, we did a lot of really good science experiments using things we could find around the place. I think the most important thing to learn to do is to work out what is going to happen using numbers before trying something. Then if the numbers don't match up, rethink your model. For example, lets say you have a 2mx2mx2m box greenhouse with plastic film walls. The walls are about R 0.2 (you need to look this up, wikipedia has some stuff) and you have a surface area of 20m^2 (5 2x2m sides). This means that for every degree C between the inside and outside you'll need 20/0.2 = 100W of heating output. On a still day. So if it's -20C outside, and you want to grow kava with a minimum temperature of 15C, you'll need a heater that can output 35degC*100W/degC = 3.5kW average (this is a 12kbtu/hour heater) - on a still day. You can work out the loss of R-value resistance due to the wind using a formula (which I can dig up if you want). These sorts of calculations are what engineers and scientists have to do every day in their jobs. For cooling a cheap swamp cooler from the hardware shop, or some foggers work really well!

Ficus Nitida is very nice until it gets caught in a freeze - they go pretty brown if the temp fall below 29F. As for low cost nurseries with a wide selection, my favorite is Mesa Treeland at 2900 S. Countryclub. 480-497-2525. I am sure there are others, but after visiting many they remain my favorite. For very low cost, you can pick a plant that you can grow by splitting off from a starter plant - I believe Oleander is one of these and certainly one of the most common in this area. Also, Pampa Grass is inexpensive and can be divided into additional plants. As for fast growing, Oleander again - Dwarf Carolina Holly, and Chilean Mesquite trees are popular (supposedly no thorns, but often small ones when young).

Hi Prairie_north: Very pretty bloom on your mini-rose. Thank you for the l info. that cracked corn changed from pink (acidic) to purple (neutral) fast. I'm happy with cracked corn in the planting hole (did that last year), so is Momscottagegarden (clay soil). I like what you wrote: "The bed around it was originally amended with peat moss, and has cedar shavings on top. Today I pushed the shavings away, dug up the soil around it, put down some sheep manure, and red lava rock." Peat moss mixed with clay becomes hardened a year later. Cedar shavings is acidic (pH 4) that would leak acid down when it rains (pH of rain is 5.6). Since mini-rose is own-root, the roots are nearer the surface, and is sensitive to acid leaching down. Own-roots do best with organic fertilizer, since it's nearer the surface ... some are wimpy like alfalfa sprouts, versus big-woody-bush-trunk Dr. Huey. Red lava rock is a strong buffer at pH 8. I mulched roses with that during our wet months .. kept roses clean. Blooming takes up lots of potassium & calcium to make those firm petals. After blooming, potassium and calcium are both depleted, plus rain leaches out potassium & calcium & trace elements. Red-lava rock in the planting hole, plus on top provide a continuous supply of potassium to prevent diseases, plus more blooms. Calcium is a strong buffer: I use that in many ways: as granular gypsum (calcium sulfate) to break up clay. If it rains a lot, I put gypsum on top of red-lava-rock. But for Dr. Huey-rootstock, I put dolomitic lime on top, since Dr. Huey likes it alkaline. Best ratio in hydroponics setting is equal nitrogen to potassium, 1/2 phosphorus, and 1/2 calcium. I burnt a few own-roots with either salty manure in hot weather, or high-phosphorus fertilizer like bone meal. My best result in hot weather is alfalfa hay for nitrogen. Timothy hay is much softer, easier to mulch .. that's what I plan to test next. I got amazing result mulching with alfalfa hay in hot weather, best nitrogen-source ever, which beat anything I tested: blood meal, compost, Milorganite, alfalfa pellets, alfalfa meal, corn meal. The problem with alfalfa in smaller particles: they gunk up on top, either souring, or hardening clay further. Alfalfa hay is fluffy, which cools and shade the roots in hot sun, plus it's a strong buffer: neutralize both acidic rain, and alkaline tap water.