I don't know if your Home Dopey has the same planting mixes as the ones in SoCal but, Mine has a cactus/succulent mix that is pretty reasonable for potted citrus. I can't remember the brand but was thinking it was Kellogs. It has pumice, fir bark, sand, and not too much peat moss. I certainly would not mix any regular potting mix with it as then you would go from "too much" peat moss to "way, way too much" peat moss. It is not as good as the EB Stone Citrus Cactus mix that is readily available around here but is way better than you would expect to find at a Home Dopey. A wick does help the perched water table a lot.

Robert, I was new to gardening when we lived in Decatur, so I'm afraid I don't have notes to refer back to for specific varieties. That said, I do remember that we had amazing luck with asparagus, which grew so well that it spoiled us for the future - we have not had anywhere near the results here in Indiana and my husband and I still talk about we wish we'd thought to dig some of those plants and bring them with us when we moved. It was probably the soil rather than the variety (or those specific plants), but we just can't seem to get it established here. For tomatoes, they were just hybrids from the big box store ... I'm guessing Early Girl and Better Boy. We got dozens (like 50) from each plant and I remember being completely overwhelmed and having no idea what to do with them all, LOL. We also grew three different types of corn and got what I now know to be a good harvest, but since I was new to gardening, I was all, "OMG, there are little worms in the corn!!" and my husband kept explaining this was common and nothing to freak out about. ;) There was more -- beans, lettuce, peppers, etc. -- but again, just varieties that were available at the local stores. I was more focused on my flower garden at the time and the veggies just seemed to happen without a ton of effort. I had no idea how lucky I was, LOL. Kathy

@jwillhouse - Your plumber has a vested interest in convincing you to buy things with a markup. I can assure you that the same part numbers are the same no matter where the faucet is ordered from. As for your contract with your plumber, is it a time and materials contract or cost plus contract? Your post notes that your plumber lists retail, wholesale, and a 15% markup. If it is a time and materials contract and the 15% is the mark up from wholesale to retail, then it is on the low end of markups. If it is a cost plus contract then the markup is on his actual cost less any rebates, so the 15% should get added to what he actually paid not the listed wholesale price. In a cost plus contract, the 15% is likely unavoidable as it is still a cost even if you buy it somewhere else. Many contractors in a time and materials contract don't allow you to supply your own items. --- While it is absolutely true that you can benefit from sourcing products cheaper from sources other than you plumber, we should recognize that to some extent it is a zero sum game. Most plumbers are not getting rich off a single family home, they are just finding alternative ways to present the profit they need to make. So while adding profit to a faucet may seem like a ripoff, if all the faucets were bid at cost the plumber would likely just charge more for the installation and you would be in the same position. It can still be an advantage to you to get your faucet at a cheaper price if your plumber allows, but don't fall into the trap of thinking you are getting ripped off just because the plumber adds profit there instead of somewhere else.

$350 to crawl up under a sink, remove the clips, break a rusty one, and then tease the silicone out from between it and the counter would be high. However, you also have to shut off the water, disconnect the supply lines, and disconnect the drain lines. All without cracking the old brittle pipes or breaking the old shut off valves that no one has exercised in a decade and are almost frozen shut. Then there is unplugging and disconnecting the disposal, which has a pinhole leak in it because it's a cheap Badger model that the grind chamber is rusting out, and the homeowners Wouldn't be "conned" into replacing something that theY "never" use. The DW drain hose is like iron instead of the flexible plastic it's supposed to be. The new sink has to have the faucet installed too. Then there is the reverse process, which is made MUCH harder because the new sink is deeper than the old one. And the homeowners don't want to replace the waste arm that is almost level now instead of sloped downward. That means the sink will drain slow, because water doesn't really go uphill. But they'll blame the plumber for doing a poor job. And that is just for replacing a plain top mount sink. $350 is not "high" for someone to do that. Not if you want that someone to have proper training and assume the major RISK that working with piping entails. If that's a charge for an uNdermount sink cutting and mounting, again, not high at all. I imagine that very few of you have been to a fabricators shop and seen the $10 million piece of equipment that it takes to do the job well and accurately. CNC equipment ain't cheap. Neither is doing it by hand, if your fabricator is just a small shop with a bridge saw. How long do you think it takes to hand polish a sink edge? Hours, if done properly. That $350? Well, we charge $500 for an undermount sink cutout, Polish, and mount. And my guy doesn't have errors. But, maybe he did in the past, and he knows that $350 doesn't cover the price of him buying you a whole new slab of stone. BTW, the $500 undermount charge still needs the $350 plumbing charge added to it, or call you own More expensive plumber. An average DW, disposal, sink, faucet, whole shebang unhook and new hookup, well, you're not getting that bundle for $350. More like $500, and I'm in a cheap labor market. But, we don't usE or recommend handymen. Just licensed plumbers who have insurance when that Original cheapo kludged saddle tap for your DW line starts pouring water out onto the floor. And this is why it makes no sense to choose the cheapest possible materials. Labor is the expensive component. You'll pay the same $350 to install that $49 23 gauge No name sink as you would a $700 18 gauge Blanco sink.