Hi Everyone! Thanks so much for taking the time to post your pictures! As both us Jodi's feel, it will help many to understand the process better. :-) 'Size does matter!' ;-) A little more info about the one I posted . Al, your right about the easy handling. I'm mixing in small batches right now, so it's perfect! Next season, I want screens like yours! So thank you for posting the 'blue prints' for hubby. ;-) This one will be easy for my son too. He's anxious to make his own mixes! Which he should, he has tons of plants and cactus and succulents! Mine is 13" long, 9 wide, and about 5" deep. Not alot of room for it to slosh out. ;-) lol.. I was going to order bonsai screens , but the plants went crazy leafing out! I'm going to see about getting a flat in the next day or so for the 1/4" bark. And for now, I have a huge chunk of 1/2" i'm just using as is, for the 5-1-1 mix. For the 1/16", a kitchen strainer, but I may take insect screen and see about molding it to the inside of the new colander. It would be easier to hold. I have all the sizes of wire, but hubby doesn't have time to make the frames like Al uses, and it would take me a month to find the tools! Hubby let the shed get a little messy. ;-) So, for now, it's find simple ways. :-) JoJo

Gregory! What an absolutely beautiful article and all that you have done..I love teh pictures and that is exactly what I would do to my place if I bought a house down there. I have friends from Thailand that live in St Petersburg and all they do is spend all day in their gardens trying to gorw what they could over seas.. Splendid and I really appreciate you sharing this with us.. What a beautiful family you have too... Thank you Mike:-)))

I think Moe is right. Sometimes it's the auxiliary gadgets that make all the difference in the world. I love that first timer. Just the fact that I can hear it anywhere in the house. And the fact that I must manually shut it off. Those two factors make life in the kitchen so much simpler for this hard of hearing cook.

Omigod that photo of Santorini is gorgeous. What a great inspiration, and what a great idea--I think I'll look for places, too, instead of just pictures of kitchens for inspiration! And I really love that iridescent blue tile. A few thoughts: - Have you considered blue appliances? Or (this would be cheaper) a blue range with the other appliances being stainless or black (whatever you think looks good in context)? Fratelli Onofri has a blue 36" range (the Royal Chiantishire)--it's dark blue--and there are others in dark and/or light blue by, e.g., Aga (the Legacy), Lacanche, the Cornu Fe at Williams Sonoma, and of course special-order colors from Viking and so on. Here's the blue Fratelli: http://fratelliappliances.com/products.php?catid=1&pid=5 It's dark, so potentially a nice contrast with white cabinets and light blue accents (the tile). It's definitely DARK, though, so you may want to order color samples from Eurochef at that link(they send them for free). The Aga Legacy in blue is also dark, and about $2000+ more expensive than the fratelli. Prices just go up from there, but so do your options in terms of what shade of blue. - You'll also want some pops of gold here and there--something that makes you think of the sunset. Brushed brass fixtures, maybe? Or a few golden tiles in the backsplash? - I assume white cabinets is what you're considering. I wonder if there's a way to incorporate the curves in some of those Santorini roofs--perhaps in the style of the door, maybe a half-circle arch motif or something? - Others have already suggested blue counters. That would be GORGEOUS with white cabinets. - What kind of floor do you have? Could you do... let's see... very dark wood, like espresso, to look like earth, the surface of those mountains? Or maybe, depending how it looks with the blues you choose and the white, a Mediterranean-looking floor of terra cotta tiles with painted accent tiles? If you like the dark color idea, either wood or cork or linoleum could work . I mean real, non-vinyl linoleum--it's matte, not shiny, and comes in several nice shades of dark brown, all with swirling like you see in cork, so it looks very natural... for example, look at the walnut and wine barrel here: http://www.forboflooringna.com/Residential/Products/Marmoleum-sheet-tile/Neutral-Color-Collaborators/