Hi trilliumgreen, Well, here's some late interest in your thread. First let me introduce myself. I have no training in landscape architecture or design. But I like to see gardens, I like plants and I spent a lot of time looking at pictures of gardens in books when I was too ill to read during a couple of extended medical treatments. I live on the wet side of the mountains from you. I feel I'm somewhat out of my league posting here, but have some thoughts. Is your garden for grownups, or is it for children too? I ask this because gardens can be magical places for children. You mention the wildflowers near your home; do you see your home environment also as a place for nature? You might think of your garden also as a habitat for birds, butterflies and insects (but not the marmots). For example, for a climber you could consider honeysuckle, as hummingbirds like its flowers. I've seen some very nice gardens in the Denver area, and there are books written by Colorado authors that might be an inspiration for gardening in your dry climate. Perhaps your library could help you with these. "Plant-Driven Design, creating gardens that honor plants, place and spirit" by Scott Ogden & Laren Springer Odgen and "Cutting Edge Gardening in the Itermountain West" by Marcia Tatroe are a couple of these. Both books include quite a few photos with low growing plants in gravel or pavers. Both include plant lists, including some trees. One of the places where I've seen the golden rain tree (Koelreuteria paniculata) was in the Portland Chinese garden; I can see why you are interested in growing it. Tatroe lists it as "xeric", so it should be fine for you. Have you seen Cynthia Kriebe's garden in Ellensburg? Garden photographer Mark Turner likes it so well that he has posted over 100 photos from 4 visits. He names the plants, which is very helpful. The western larch, a deciduous conifer, is in this garden - I think it's a fairly fast grower. I think gardens with a serene and spacious feeling can work well in semi-rural settings because these blend well with the surrounding countryside. For me, using low plants (even in gravel) with tall conifers and upright-growing deciduous trees is a starting point. Best wishes - you should be able to create a garden that brings you and your family great pleasure. -m

I've purchased a few trees from Costco but I don't know if they were from the same supplier. My Greengage plum is out-of-this-world in sweetness. My Red Clapp's Favorite and Moonglow pears have not produced for me yet but the trees are quite healthy. My 4-in-1 cold-hardy plum has done well but I have not pruned it aggressively enough for all the grafts to produce. (It's on Toka and the Toka is taking over, but that's not the trees fault.) I just remembered that I bought an apricot, can't remember which cultivar, it was one of the last of the trees and discounted to $10.00 and it has done very well. I have noticed that the selections that we get here in Denver are all well adapted to our climate, which is really surprising. The trees are bare-root. The only issue I've had is that they put the trees inside and then they break dormancy too early, at least here in Colorado. When I bought my first trees the rootstocks were listed as, "semi-dwarf", but I believe they are now listing the rootstock on the label. I wouldn't hesitate to buy a tree at Costco if it was what I wanted, both cultivar and rootstock. Even with the sad shape that my $10.00 apricot tree was in it pulled through and even produced a few apricots its first season. And as you mentioned, Costco's return policy can't be beat, plus no shipping charge. The trees at Costco have been far better health-wise than Home Depot or Lowe's. I think the other stores just pot up the bare root trees and then let them break dormancy in the pot. At least Costco doesn't pretend that they were pot-grown, which I wouldn't want any way. So, if I were you I'd grab the Loring and Methley. This post was edited by milehighgirl on Wed, Feb 27, 13 at 14:43

Dawn thanks. There are times when you wonder if it is worth it. I had 9 seeds of a scarce variety of bean. I planted them in a bed that I had left mulch on for the last few years. Pulled it back and planted. But left a little old mulch close by. Of the first 3 that sprouted something ate 2/3 of the way through 2 stems and ate the leaves of the 3rd one. So cleaned the mulch away. Had five plants last night. Thought they should be wet enough to make it through the day. By the time I got home all but one looked bad. Two of them revived after I watered them well. Hopefully I can save the 3 to build seed from. Then after dark I decided to fix spaghetti. I went out to the garden and pulled two volunteer garlic plants. Not the biggest of the volunteer plants but 2 which I would have to remove before long. One had a scape. I also pulled 5 onions that are just starting to bulb. I cut them up and put them in the spaghetti sauce. And then I remembered why I garden. The best sauce I've had for almost a year. Nothing like the flavor of fresh garlic and onions. I noticed this evening they are saying 86 tomorrow but have raised the 88 for Friday to 96. Hopefully it won't get that hot. Everything made it through the day except the 2 beans I mentioned above. But know the plants are stressing some although they don't show it yet. I probably wouldn't have fed the tomatoes any N if I hadn't steamed the leaves off some in the WOW's and felt I needed to grow some foliage back. The wind is blowing hard now. Jay

> my questions for the IR griller's out there is do you find that you > wish you had MORE or LESS heat available from the IR burner ... or > is factory stock about "right" I rotisserie two 5-pound chickens regularly on my 1-year old MM grill. Cooking time is a little over two hours. The skin is golden-brown, but I would prefer it to be a bit crispy. Cooking longer to get the crispy skin results in over-cooked meat. So, while I am satisfied with the results from the the factory setup, I would certainly be interested in reading more about cranking up the heat just a little.