Thanks tj. Acer palmatum 'Sharp's Pygmy' at 12 o'clock, Pinus aristata 'Blue Bear' back and to the right, Pseudotsuga menziesii 'Stormy' middle right, Abies concolor 'Charming Chub' lower right, Picea abies 'Brno' bottom center, Pinus edulis 'Trinidad' middle left, Abies balsamea 'Tyler Blue' behind left which started off fast but has slowed down to 2"-3" of growth per year the last few years. A few will likely be replaced with true minis as they get too big. I have another area to the left of this where I tried to use more minis. It should look decent by next year and I'll post a pic then. Dan

Glad I decided to go past page 1! I went back into the archives and found a photo from when we (me, Mr. Sparks and the friend who's in the pic) built the planter. I THINK you're asking about the contrasting side trim, right? It's actually not a 4x4, but a board that was ripped to two different widths and attached to the corners from the inside, so it looked like a post. (You can see the cut pieces on the left.) We built the planter about 7 years ago and it still looks as good today as it did on day one. I've got the plans somewhere so if you're interested, let me know and I'll dig them up and scan them. They were from a Better Homes and Gardens special interest mag. Looking back, my garden has come a long way. We were still battling the neighbors' bamboo and I was crossing my fingers that it wouldn't invade the planter because I was really, really tired of hacking up my backyard.

Hi Haley, Sorry I just saw your comment. Here are some photos I have in my archive. I can take different angles tonight if these aren't helpful. FWIW, 6 months later and we still love this sink. The dark color matches our black stainless appliances, but also just makes the sink more of a shadow, which is good to avoid drawing eyes to dirty dishes! We use the faucet hose+sprayer to give it a good rinse every evening after cleaning up dinner to keep food from drying in place. We've given it 1 deep cleaning (we also have a grid on the bottom, so deep cleaning involved a thorough cleaning of that, too). The water filter is good for filling water to cook or a tea kettle. The soap dispenser is actually really nice because it keeps the counter tidy. The faucet is touch activated (got it before the remodel) and it's amazingly handy. We added an air button for the disposal (which by code has to have a manual light switch on the wall, which for us is not in reach of the sink) and it has never been pressed accidentally and is very useful so I recommend it. The dishwasher air gap is required by code here so no avoiding that!

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