I bought a house a year and a half ago and proceeded to rip out all the overgrown shrubs and foundation plantings. Next I installed irrigation throughout the yard (9 zones). Then I built back up the soil where it was low from the shrub removal, and proceeded to incorporate compost and build slightly elevated beds for improved drainage. I started out with lawn sprinklers everywhere and have been converting the beds to drip irrigation. The best method of watering beds is drip irrigation, it's easy, relatively inexpensive and will last many years. Let's be honest, the hardest part of growing plants is remembering to maintain them, and the easier it is the more likely for success. I can't strongly encourage drip irrigation enough, it's been the key to my success with plants, and it's so easy to get started, you just tap off and add as needed. Our first house I did hose end timers and it was great, I got my father started in the same fashion and he's hooked! On the second house I installed bigger mainlines underground like lawn systems, and then have converted them to drip. I still have the lawn irrigation but use the more modern "rotator" nozzles which have a slower water flow. I think people make a big deal about soil types, and it is relevant, but realistically most people are stuck with what they have and the recommendation is always going to be the same: "add organic matter". So for new people, I'd just recommend incorporating as much organic matter over as much and as deep as is reasonable. 90% of all roots exist in the top 18" of soil, and I'd suggest 1 shovel deep is good enough for most plants. So I'll summarize, rip out anything you aren't in love with, add enough soil to make the beds the way you want, incorporate as much organic matter as you can, install irrigation, mulch.

I am a Retired Navy Submariner that has lived all over the country in homes using electric only, oil, and gas heat. Oil heating systems typically have a 270 gallon tank to store the home heating oil, which is essentially diesel fuel with a dye added to allow it to be easily detected if one were to try to sell it for a vehicle and avoid paying all of the taxes. When I lived near Seattle, electricity at that time was VERY cheap between nuclear and hydroelectric sources. We had a brand new home with no A/C and an electric furnace re-purposed from mobile home design. In some of the more built up areas, such as San Diego, we had a Natural Gas Furnace and A/C that we used maybe 3-4 times a year to cool and used the furnace only a few hours a day for maybe 3-4 weeks. In some of the more rural areas we typically had oil as the underground infrastructure for distributing gas just was not economical. (Never had propane.) Back "in the day" oil was cheaper than gas but that certainly is not the case these days. I paid under 10 Cents a gallon for oil in my first home. For the past 23 years I have lived in an affluent MD suburb of our Nations Capitol. My home was built in 1973 and at the time there was a moratorium on new natural gas residential hookups in this area. As a result, the homes built to my north all had natural gas and A/C. My house, and those to my south, all had oil and A/C. In the last five years people with gas furnaces are starting to replace their nearly forty year old furnaces and the same goes for oil furnaces. I have to believe that ALL A/C units have been replaced AT LEAST once and likely two or more times. Two years ago, with lots of help from people here, I replaced my 18 year old A/C and my 37 year old furnace - both of which were functioning just fine. I had yearly furnace servicing done and had the A/C serviced every 2 years. I went the way of getting a Heat Pump and oil furnace (80%) efficiency from Carrier. The last oil delivery I had was in March of 2011, and I still have about 5/8th of a tank left at this time. Gas is still not an option. I also replaced my electric hot water heater with a Heat Pump Hot water heater. That alone is saving me about $50 per month EVERY month. At 30 degrees and below I heat with oil. Above 30 degrees I heat with electricity. I am using much less electricity then before the upgrades and I am also using much less oil. I would observe that based on my neighbors' experience with gas furnaces and my other neighbors' experience with oil furnaces that these residential furnaces are all lasting for something around forty years SO FAR. Oil is costing me $3.38 gallon for the first filling this year and $3.78 for any subsequent fillings thru May. I predict that I will not actually need any oil as my remaining 5/8ths tank will last. Electricity runs something north of 11 Cents per Kwh. Oil tank location varies according to area and local practice. Mine is in my basement in a corner - we don't even think about it. It is odorless and is filled and vented to outside connections when taking on heating oil. I have an oil delivery service that keeps track of my usage and keeps track of degree days and other data and automatically fills my storage tank when they think it is needed. They've been scratching their head since I got the Heat pump. I might add, that my new oil furnace is essentially the same efficiency as the 37 year old that it replaced - my savings are due to the Hot Water Heat Pump and the heat pump and the significantly more efficient cooling by the heat pump. Most of my neighbors still believe Heat Pumps are not an option here in Maryland. They're 20+ years out of date, and are simply wrong... I also spent $1000 bucks to insulate the attic and have recently applied for Sainthood. :-)

Welcome to Melbourne. Only a brave soul would venture to tell you about our climate, it's unreliable to say the least. But judging from what I've read about growing roses in the States, we've probably got it easy. As Jan says, the main difficulty is water. Watering is usually essential in February and March. I'm new to roses, but I'm starting to think that full sun, all day in Melbourne's summer is a bit too much for some. The heat is very dry, but then some years we don't have many sunny hot days. The dry heat probably helps keep mildew and bs down to a dull roar most of the time. The generally milder summer also seems to avoid the summer rest that roses have in warmer climates. There's no need to worry about dramatic weather events, no hurricanes, no floods, no volcanoes. Aphids are a curse all year, if you have roses that keep their leaves. Thrip don't seem to be a problem in my garden. There are no gophers, no deer but watch out for possums, they love new growth and they live everywhere in Melbourne. For more detailed, and expert, advice you could join the Rose Society. Another good spot to see Austins growing is the rose garden at The Briars in Mt Martha. They also sell a wider range of Austins than most nurseries and are happy to chat about rose growing. Enjoy your new garden. Sue

I am in South FL, so no need of a furnace here, but did replace my AC four years ago. Everyone I talked with said that more stages the better. A single stage is just on at full speed and then off. A 2 stage is either on at full speed or a lower speed (usually 50-70%). Carrier also makes a 5 stage (24vna9) and a fully multi-stage Greenspeed that has unlimited stages. I opted for the Carrier 5 stage. It was more than a 2 stage unit, but a few thousand less than the Greenspeed model. If I turn the temp down, it will come on at stage 5 to get the house to that temp, then will regulate that temp using the lower stages (usually stage 1-3). This also keeps the inside humidity between 50-60% which is far better than the 90% outside humidity nwe get in the summer months.