I've said this before, many times, but it seems to me that if the more commonly held notions and circulated information within the growing world weren't so filled with misinformation, myths, fallacies, or half-truths and incomplete bits of flotsam, we might all have a better chance of attaining growing success a lot earlier within our "careers" as gardeners. And, as we're starting to learn, the industry, itself, isn't going to help us because its focus is not on grower success, but wrapped up in the world of achieving financial gain, profit for shareholders and upper management. And this is often done at the expense of product quality, our health, and our planet. At least, that is to say, any of the larger businesses that deal in gardening supplies or mass produced plant materials. And most of these big box stores or large companies have put the smaller, more specialized businesses out of business... because they simply can't compete, price-wise. And then, we have the world wide web, the internet... in which anyone can write anything they like, be it truth or not, fact or fallacy, opinion or just personal experience, and it's our job to sort through it all and pick out the information that's practical, rational, factual, and makes common sense. It's a daunting task, to say the least! And it's made even more difficult because half of what's written is an attempt to sell you a product, and the other half is a mixture of advice written by novices who follow conventional, corporate circulated information and/or methodology, designed to... again... sell products. Or, data collected and published by facilities that... again... are paid to find new ways of pushing products on consumers. And while most fellow growers and gardeners are well-meaning in their attempts to help... the needed facts simply aren't there, or simply aren't whole. And even if they are, how are new growers to know the difference? Or the information imparted is so technically written that newbies give up, unable to grasp all the scientific jargon and make sense of it for practical application. It's incredibly sad that our world is so wrapped up in making money, whether ethically or not, that we've become conditioned to accept or excuse moral bankruptcy as a normal part of our culture, our society. I've often lamented the fact that if I'd just learned a few basic ideas steeped in truth, verified fact, and common sense from the very beginning, I'd be decades beyond where I was just a few short years ago... and I'm no spring chicken, and have been attempting to successfully grow plants in containers since I was fairly young. It's not that I've had no success, at all... it's that most of my growing simply hasn't been as prime as I would have liked. As an example of what I mean by commonly circulated information... or lack thereof... you never hear anyone mention that there are vast differences between growing in the ground, and growing within the confined space and much different environment of containers. But when you think about it, it makes total sense... the two environments are virtually nothing alike, and do not have the same variants at play. Most novice growers tend to think of their potted plants from the plant down... and not from the roots up, as we should. Any plant needs healthy, properly functioning roots in order to maintain a healthy, properly functioning plant above the soil surface. And, as I maintained above, we tend to trust the industry and the products offered retail for our use, grabbing the bagged or pre-packaged products off the store shelves without a second thought. After all, they're dealing in pretty flowers, lawn and garden "care", and things that are supposed to help us. Our mental image of gardening in general may be of Grandma with her straw hat and pocketed apron, her rose clippers or shears in hand, happily tending her flower and vegetable gardens. What we don't envision are all the chemicals used, seeping into our ground water supply and harming us in ways we still haven't figured out completely, the genetically engineered seeds and plants, grown in more of a lab environment than a field, and all the gimmicks advertised and shown, packaged in enough plastic to choke half the animal population to death, etc... As example, all these coconut husk, chunk, or cocopeat products thrust as us recently, extolled for their "green-ness", for being ecologically responsible to our planet... but what most people never think about is the fact that only a very, very small area of our own country can grow this product, and the rest is processed in saline baths using huge motorized machinery, and shipped halfway around the world, burning fossil fuels just to get to us! Does that sound "green" and eco-responsible to you? It doesn't to me, but then... some people aren't given to doing much homework on the items they spend their hard earned incomes on. My point? What was my point... ah, yes. My point is that whether we're a consummate grower or not, we've been and are still being conditioned socially, or culturally, to accept ideas and products that don't necessarily get us from point A to point B... which would be from beginning, or novice grower to skilled gardener, thinking realistically about the planet our progeny will inherit from us, and the knowledge and skills they'll want or need... quite possibly to survive.

We purchased a gooseneck faucet paired with a sidespray. (Perrin & Rowe single handle found on ebay for WAY reduced price). Our decision to go with a sidespray was based purely on aesthetics -- we couldn't find any faucets w/ integrated sprayers that we felt would look right in our kitchen. We haven't installed faucet or sidespray yet, so can't comment on functionality. However, given the regular retail price of this faucet, I'd be pretty shocked if the sidespray turned out to be useless. Then again, I've been shocked before... Regarding your height issue, we found that some of the Rohl faucets (not P&R, though P&R is now owned by Rohl) were much more modestly sized than most, both height-wise and reach-wise. In fact, we are thinking of getting one of those for our prep sink (in the normal kitchen version, not bar version, which tend to have only 5-6" reach). The Rohls we liked all came with sidesprays, and when we handled them in the store, they were BY FAR our favorites -- they just felt incredibly solid and well-designed. Here again, I would be surprised if they weren't useful, but someone who has one would be in a better position to comment. But now I see this HiRise sidespray you posted, and I'm wondering if it could be used entirely on its own at our prep sink, without a main faucet to accompany it? Do you happen to know? Very intriguing... BTW, I've found in past renovations that mixing finishes works a lot better than I would have thought... just my personal experience...

Thanks for the link. I enjoyed it very much and really like the last bit of the article. "In other words, the sooner we confront our possessions, the better. If you are going to put your house in order, do it now." The photo of the messy bedroom isn't my problem. In fact, a speck of dust would die of loneliness in our home (at least that's what my friend always says - while she identifies perfectly with the photo). Ironically, she always criticizes me for being tidy (it makes her "uncomfortable"), but I never bad-mouth her when I have to move 2-weeks worth of opened and unopened mail and discarded fast-food containers on the passenger seat and floor of her car, get stabbed in the foot with a used toothpick sticking out of the floorboard carpet, and find some fallen morsels of chocolate (melted) with my hand when I grab the seatbelt, in order to get in to go someplace with her in her car. And don't EVER pull the visor down or you'll get a shower of receipts that are "filed" there for safe keeping. All the while saying she needs to have her husband clean her car. And I say, "What did he ever do to you to deserve that kind of punishment." All in good fun and laughter, because even with friends, opposites attract. My problem is with redundancy (example: 3 air popcorn poppers - 2 new-in-the box purchased at ridiculously low prices (they never last very long at our house), a glass microwave popcorn popper - but it does a poor job popping corn - lots of old maids, and a Whirley Pop popper - because it's cute) and having well-organized storage in the basement to keep track of it. We are in the middle of down-sizing our possessions and down-sizing to a small condo half the size of our current home, and getting ready for hubby to retire. Both adult children are minimalists and don't seem to want "stuff", so I'm looking for a few good acquaintances who can use the "stuff" and visit the Goodwill with donations weekly. The lessons in the article applies to tidy people too!!! ;-) -Grainlady

First of all, enjoy your new kitchen - it is beautiful; this is just a tiny little problem. it will be fine if you leave as is and never put anything in there. Having just gone through some terrible storms with potential for power outages, I would suggest store one good flashlight and perhaps one or two small ones for family members and several good pillar candles along with a lighter. Even if you have numerous emergency lights in other storage areas, this could be the IMMEDIATE go to place. One other suggestion - one good small hammer and a couple of screwdrivers.:). We can spend ten minutes looking for things like that for a one minute job. I also like the idea of "shoving" plastic bags in there - who needs one of those cutesy little storage containers? I have a messy small cabinet beside my range and that is what I do (the candles are behind the bags) lol