hi..none of my business..but maybe you could give him a year to build up his own resistance? there are alot of non toxic bs sprays, too..it just looks so beautiful against that fence! donna

I'm thinking he'd like something blooming from mid spring to first frost in the fall? Caladium's are great but not a flower, just leafy, plus they have to be replaced every year. Don't get me wrong I love caladium's and have to have them every year :) My question to you is just how big is the area? Do you want something that is perennial or annual? If you have enough room would you like something that blooms in the winter or something that goes dormant in the winter or a combo? Do you want something that doesn't take much work like trimming or dead heading? I have Hellebores and autumn fern on the side of the house that is protected in the winter from ice and snow. I also have Hosta's that are somewhat like caladium's being leafy but they flower, they can take the winter sun but not summer sun. Columbines are good but they don't flower all summer and I have to trim mine all the way down mid summer because they get ragged looking. There are problems with Hosta's that is snails, pill bugs and caterpillars like to eat them. Turks cap are huge and would cover the azaleas. I'd think you'd need something only about a foot to a foot and a half in front. Then maybe a ground cover in the very front? I don't mean to scare you off but it would help if we knew a little more of what your looking for.

I did end up running across one this past weekend at Petal Pushers in Cedar Hill. It's a very small one (maybe 1/2 gallon) but from what I hear, they take off pretty fast. To be honest, with all of the planting I did this weekend, it was nice to have a small hole to dig for once. :)

Day 4 Build (Day 6 calendar) - Gunite I'm a little behind with the progress updates. Going into gunite, we were worried if a few things were going to turn out right. And then inspecting the pool afterwards threw us into a wave of second guessing some of our decisions and designs. Gunite in process Gunite Completed So, here are the things that we fretted over. Tanning Ledge Step location - we moved the steps from far driveway end to the middle. I think it looks much better plus it didn't make sense to have steps going into the deep end. Tanning ledge edge - after moving the steps, we didn't think to extend the tanning ledge. Doh! Bubbler location - managed to get it in. Originally had it in the far flat area but then moved it to bottom of the beach entry. And what's with the return sticking up from the middle of the beach entry? We originally wanted a return that came back across the beach entry to keep it clean. I looked at this and thought they are giving me a bubbler return. But then they said they put an angled jet on the return so it sweeps across. Do you pool builders ever get annoyed with our questions? Beach entry angle - it seem too steep. I'm not sure what my options are. Maybe we can flatten the slope and angle it back into the deck? Would this comprise the pool beam integrity? Weeping wall and moss rock below water line - we wanted the rocks in the water and not above the tile line. I thought they were going to build a ledge into the beam to support the rocks. Instead they angled the beam down. I was told that this is preferred since it can accommodate bigger rocks. Reverse beam - In this area, they also transitioned from the angle too late. We should have more beam and less rock. I was told that they can address this with the rock guys. Deep end step out - We had a seat in the deep end. We thought it would be good to add some steps to make it a deep end step out. I think this turned out well. Spa Oh, where do I begin with the spa? Size - dang this thing looks huge. It seems more like a small wading pool! And it looks really high. I remember making sure it was 18" (vs 12") so that it would be a good seat height from the deck. It just looks like a castle turret now. Multi level spa seating - managed to get a section 21" deep as I wanted to be fully seated and submersed. Never did measure the length of my upper body... Seating - they did a horseshoe seating arrangement. Seems like the wall along the spillway is just wasted space. This was to prevent playing footsies with the person seated across from you. Spillway - we didn't spring for the fancy spillway. Nor did we cut it open as we were hoping the notches would give us a scupper effect. Now I wonder if that was a wise choice. Again, castle turret... Piping - What's the deal with the piping outside the gunite? I know it'll be covered up with the mortar and veneer. Should I be worried about this kind of stuff? In pool table We thought this was a cool idea. Being able to have a drink or a meal while sitting in the pool. Well... Pedestal placement - I posted before that the pedestal had to be a mere 9" from the pool wall to prevent the cleaner from getting in there. I thought that was too close. In actuality, there's no problems. The pedestal itself is very small and the corner seating is wide so it's not like having to shuffle into booth seating at a restaurant. We are planning on using one large oval piece of rock as a table top. Table height - now this is where we didn't think it through (or the PB didn't educate us). The table is going to be at water level. They did standard in-pool bench seating. So it appears that when I sit on the bench, the table is going to be up to my neck! At this point, they can't raise the seat with gunite. The only thing I can think of is adding a layer of flagstone to the bench seating to raise it up a few inches. Any other ideas? Of course we also changed our tile selection for the 3rd time and made some last minute changes to the light locations. All of which I hope were the right decisions. Anyways, enough of my rants. It's good to document this stuff as I'm sure my wife is tired of hearing me talk about these things. Sounds like I'm just a worry wart. We're still very excited and can't wait for the pool to be all done and the backyard mess all cleared up. Cheers! Here is a link that might be useful: Day 4 - Gunite