Well... I sent one last picture of my dying aulicum (which is now in the garage) to the good folks at Komoriya and Hiroko did get back to me and said they would send me "2" aulicums! They arrived yesterday and I guess they look OK but they had been peeled which makes me a little nervous... I have to give them credit; they have been very fair and generous with me and this is the second time they have sent a replacement bulb with an "extra" and of course they absorb the postage. These both had stalks, roots and leaves that had been cut so it will be a very long time before I see them bloom. I had asked them but they didn't reply as to which variety of aulicum they sold; does anyone out there have a guess? It is very different than the one I got from Telos. Komoriyas is quite a deep scarlet where the Telos variety was definitely pumpkin orange. Donna

Bad things happen every year at about this time around my house, Susan. For a month or so before the "HOLIDAY SEASON" tra-la-la-la-la, the woman I married not knowing about the holiday mentality embedded in her cosmic being since the Pilgrim days, declares that "we've got to do something with the guest bedroom", or "the carpet in the den needs to be replaced...with tile, AND hardwood", or "this kitchen just WILL NOT DO this year". Being, in spite of the reputation I've cultured with most of my posts regarding our REAL illegal alien problem, of relatively sound mind and acute realization of the repercussions of arguing with such a woman during her "time of the year", most...no, all...of my time becomes consumed with basically rebuilding my house from within. Again. Most of these repairs and updates are invisible to the naked eye of an ordinary human being, and even to her until the HOLIDAY SEASON, tra-la-la-la-la, which, coincidently, begins, for her, right after Labor Day which also happens to be the start of football season...as best as I can remember since I'm always too busy with hammers, and saws and stuff to watch anything other than the highlights on ESPN. Mad! Me? Naw. Bad? Uh-Oh, here she comes. Chuckiebtoo

Thanks for all the great advice. A few comments to the responses above: - I don't think the TV will work in the corner by the fireplace. Given it's size and my reluctance to downsize, it will look too awkward. - The windows in the photo face North and get very little direct sunlight. - Patrick - I like the floor pillows idea. Much cheaper then the custom made cushion we were considering and floor pillows look easier to clean. - Erin - I agree the mantle is too high. Unfortunately, if you look closely at the mantle, the bottle is held in position by a few protruding bricks. Lowering those bricks would be too much a project for me and it doesn't bother me enough to pay someone to fix it. My DW and I are consider Tigerwood / Brazilian Koa for the floors. I've been thinking of your layout suggest combined w/ Bev's. Maybe put the TV on the swivel on the wall by the mickey, with the couch where it is and two chairs with their backs toward the window. That's only seating for 5, but depending on the furniture maybe I could add a third chair or low back love seat in front of the window (kind of like starnold's/awm's suggestion). - I'll have to look at the curved sofa idea. Curious if a sectional would work somehow, too. Thanks for the comments on my dream room :-)

I wouldn't worry if the soil is compact. You can grow tomatoes in clay if you really want to (and there are both pros and cons to this). If your area is arid, you might not have problems with fungal diseases from mud splashing on your leaves, either. With all that ground cover from the grass around, I'm guessing you wouldn't need to worry about that as much, though. That said, however, if you have really loose soil atop clay, tomatoes may hesitate to venture into the clay, and just fill up the loose soil. I've seen this happen in a container with about half clay (on the bottom) and half potting soil (on the top). The clay was almost untouched, by comparison. One thing you can do is grow your tomatoes out bigger before you plant them outdoors (give them more light indoors for faster, stronger growth). You don't need a special grow light (CFLs will work, even if they're not 6500k, but higher color temperatures are better for leaf growth; lower ones are better for flowering and protecting your seedlings from damping off disease, but they'll help leaf growth, too). Then, you can use a post hole digger to dig a narrow, but deep hole, and plant the plant. Because it'll be deep, competing with weeds shouldn't be much of a problem insofar as nutrient competition goes, unless the grass or weeds have deep roots or are parasitic. Tomatoes will also grow roots all along the buried stem. Normally, tomatoes don't need to be planted particularly deep, but it does help them get more water and nutrients. More nutrients doesn't necessarily mean bigger tomatoes. You have to keep in mind that the nutrient balance also matters (not just the pure amount of a certain one). Deep tomatoes seem to be easier to dry farm. However deep you plant them, though, make sure there's lots of foliage up top, still. If you plant them super deep but only leave a few leaves up top, they might take a long time to grow big, but if you have plenty of leaves up top, they should grow fast. If you want big tomatoes (since I brought it up) get a variety that gets big in your climate and conditions, and make sure it gets enough potassium, phosphorus and magnesium. Not all tomatoes are the same, and many have different requirements. Where do you live? I recommend saving your seeds every year (from tomatoes with the traits you like the most) and regrowing them, because it should help whatever variety you're growing to adapt better to your conditions. Landracing could be even better, but you might not have room for that. :) As someone mentioned earlier, container gardening can also be great. I know someone who said she got about 100lbs of tomatoes from one Early Girl tomato plant in a container with nothing but Miracle Gro potting soil. She may have fertilized with Miracle Gro, too, but I think the only fertilizer was that which the soil came fertilized with. The problem with containers is that they can dry out fast in at least some climates. Having a narrow opening at the top may decrease evaporation (but unless your soil drains well, it may make watering take longer).