On leveling ground to make a pond work I have a 16" drop from the high end nearest the house to the 14'at the lower end from the fill needed to provide good runoff of rain. Starting at the high end, I dug the hole down 12", left a 12" wide ledge, went down 16", another 12" ledge and then down another 16". I used the diggings to level everything to about 16" up from the first ledge. Giving me about 48" total depth. I built a form to make trapezoid shaped concrete blocks 3" thick. Lots of work, but then what does a retiree have but time. The shape allowed me to form curved or straight lines around the pond to give it a roughly kidney shape. Ultimately, I used all the dirt to fill the concrete shape with no leftover. I gathered limestone rocks from the hillside beneath the bluffs overlooking the Mississippi River and laid them on the concrete for a rugged, natural look. My grandson found a chunk of limestone with a roughly bowl shape that had a hole worn in the middle. He gave it to me to use as the "spring "inlet to the waterfall used for aeration. All this nearly 15 years ago. There are pictures buried somewhere around here. Maybe I can find them. Oh, yeah, the hole is lined with EPDM pond liner. After a disastrous massive dieoff 3 years ago, I ignored the pond for 2 years and am now trying to rejuvenate it again. So far I put in 12 feeder gold fish last summer. 2 died off, but I now have 10 healthy 4-5" common goldfish swimming in a very bare pond. I am waiting for planting weather so we can have some plant life again. I was at a funeral this morning and saw a nice peace lily. I remember when we had one in a large vase with a Beta living under the plant. Thought when it warms up I might try making a float and put in a peace lily. Thoughts?

Perhaps the most important thing with tomato plants is sunlight, sunlight, sunlight. Temperatures from the lower 50s to upper 80s allow them to grow. Cooler temperatures at night are not generally a problem, but if the temps drop into the upper 30s, you should provide some protection (even if frost isn't predicted, you can easily get it with temps below 40 degrees). One study I saw said that tomatoes germinated best from temperatures in the lower 80s, but grew best from 65 to 75. Don't know how true this is. They don't need massive amounts of water at first, in fact more water can slow them down, but the soil shouldn't be drying out more than about a half inch down. If you tend to have inconsistent weather, with Spring periods of nice sunny days followed by a few days of freezing or snowstorms, then that is one place where Walls of Water might excel Here is an Amazon.com page for about the best price you will see them at: http://www.amazon.com/WALL-O-WATER-3-PACK/dp/B0000DI86C/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top When planting, I generally plant them up to just below a set of good, bushy leaves. But in NO CASE do I plant deeper than about 8 inches. If the plant is longer than that, I tend to tilt it and lay it on its side, so that most of the plant is 4 to 8 inches deep. This is based on tomatoes I had in the past where I planted them up to 1 1/2 feet deep (they were large plants, okay) and later in the summer, I had occasion to dig them up. First of all, production was no better than on a smaller plant, planted only 8 inches deep. Second, all the new roots that had developed were in the first 2 to 6 inches below ground. I don't believe they develop roots from 'fuzz' but from almost anywhere along the stem, particularly at the joints. Lastly, it is very common once you plant ANY tomato plant for it to shut down for 2 weeks or so. This is kind of a SHOCK process as it adjusts to it's new home, but it doesn't mean that nothing is happening. It may be not just adjusting, but actually starting to send out additional roots and otherwise preparing to grow. Warmer temperatures and bright sun (with adequate but not excessive water) speed this process, while cold, wet, cloudy conditions extend this period of time. It is also true that if your plants are well hardened off and able to deal with stress, that they might move through this period better. If you have plants in Walls of Water, some people think that the WOWs may actually help the plant to go through this adjustment period earlier. Other people think that the Walls of Water DESTROY any hardening the plant has been through, and that the plants will delay, again, for a week or two, once you take the Walls of Water off. I personally am not convinced of this. As I said, I am a big believer in walls of water and have enough for over 100 plants at a time. Once you do put the plants out into the ground (hopefully they are exposed to as much sunlight and warm air as you can get) keep the soil moist - damp, but not flooded. In the early days it is generally better to water a little bit in the mornings, every few days than large amounts all at once, and try to avoid watering at night during the cooler weather periods (watering at night chills the plants more from evaporation). Fertilize VERY SMALL amounts perhaps once per week or every other week, rather than large amounts of fertilizer all at once. Fertilizer can stress the plants too, for sure. Avoid excessively windy areas, if possible. Keep weeds away from the plants. If you do all of these things, then, when the weather turns consistently warm and sunny, your plants should take off and grow very well.

arlosmom ~Your new space is so great! It looks fabulous! Congrats on a great job, I know you must love it! So clean and pretty. TRAILRUNNER, I just have to tell you thank you so much for posting the washerwomen art. I have been looking for a painting (or poster of a painting) that I saw in a movie on TCM made in 1948 called "Apartment for Peggy" starring Jeanne Crain and William Holden. They were at the laundromat and when the scene started they had the camera trained on a painting of a woman doing laundry by the river and if memory serves with a laundry basket on her head. I have never forgotten it and have looked for those types of paintings for years for my LR. I love old movies and from time to time it comes on TCM but haven't seen it lately. I think I will be able to find something from the art your posted and at an affordable price! Yea! Thank you so much for posting that link. You just never know what you will find on GW. Thanks again.

Moving from carpet to cement is a HUGE jump. The reason carpet is used on slab is it is warm, it breathes, it keeps the noise down and it is cheap to replace/install. The only floors that will survive this type of event = finished concrete, porcelain tile, stone and epoxy. Everything else will have issues with a floor. A finished concrete floor has a price tag between $5 - $25 per square foot. Carpet will fall below that price tag. A vinyl planked floor will be somewhere in that range with installation. Vinyl planks *can be reused....but the EFFORT to do it is beyond most people's endurance and they find it easier to toss the floor and have a new one installed. And that would be the same place you would be if you have carpet. Back to square one with a more expensive floor than carpet. Sigh. Think hard about hard cold surfaces in that space. Ask yourself, "Can I handle standing on concrete in my socks for 30 minutes - in the winter time?|" If the answer is "No", then you probably want to work with something that offers warmth.