Hi - new to the forums, but have been gardening for several years now. I have a shady back yard, and variegated Solomon's Seal looks great amid the solid hostas. Also have variegated petasites gigantea, a variegated porcelain vine (ampelopsis brevipedunculata), variegated lamium 'Hermann's Pride', variegated iris pallida, variegated liriope (yellow/green, and white/green), many variegated hosta (Frances Williams, Revolution, Remember Me, Night Before Xmas), variegated vinca, variegated ivy, variegated sedge, variegated morning glory foliage, several heucheras and hercherellas. That's the back yard. In front, I have the variegated iris again, miscanthus 'morning light', and am growing a first year actinidia kolomitka (kiwi) which should eventually be pink, white, and green leaves. I love the variegation to "punctuate" the sea of green. SusanLynne

I intended to try out walls-o-water this year (or actually Kozy Koats), since I bought them a few years ago and haven't ever taken them out of the package. I think it's too late to really be worth it this year, though, assuming it's worth it at all. My point, though, Remy, is that we're fast approaching the point where the tail end of the long-range weather forecast, which is currently telling me "looks great" is getting very close to the date that I would normally consider safe. Not that I put a lot of stock in a weather report for more than a week out, but it would have to change a *lot* to cause a big problem, and with tiny plants, constructing a cloche out of an old bucket (of which I have several) is easy. It's an interesting proposition for this particular season. The only thing I think I lose is the ability to look at the long-range forecast on my normal plant-out date. Actually, now that I think about it, the easy availability of a long-range weather forecast has certainly made me bolder over the years...but then again, I'm pretty sure my elderly neighbors aren't using that. I understand that we may disagree about the particulars of where our respective comfort levels lie, but if I get to the point where my normal planting date is 10 days away, and the 10-day weather forecast looks great (again, by the standards that caused me to select my normal planting date to begin with), and I know the soil is already warm (because I got a thermometer and checked it), it seems to me that planting should be just fine.

A forest will choke out a thicket, I often recomend that fruit and nut trees be planted on purpose, so that we lock up carbon and produce food for ourselves, and chocke out the brush plants that are unpleasent to walk through. When you go on a hike along a tail it seems that you are always either bordered by clearing/lawn or by a thicket, but once you break through that thicket you can useually travle quite quickly and easily and have plenty of space to move about. The main reasonfor removing trees and brush historicly wasn't to make things more pleasent, it was to open up land for agricultural use. with a field we can grow staple cerial grains, or legumes, or use it as pasture for animals, while some trees may provide seasonal food for some critters it takes alot of work to survive off of them year round (and trust me when I say thing, willow does not taste that good) . Our modenr day lawns were not contrived from thin air, you need to look at were they came from to understand how they fit in. Lawns are popular mainly in the south (sure, lots of people like them, but in the south they are sick for them) the south had a large portion of its caucasian inhabitants come from scotland (the southern drawl is very closely related to the scots accent) in schotland they have huge green field that are kept down to a few inches all summer long, this is because there is alot of rain and people raise sheep. Now, in the south there isn't as much water in the summer, and there aren't as many sheep, but people still liked the look of home so a lawn with mowers and irrigation is what they came up with.

I chose to use a CA-based window company, Sierra-Pacific, for the 99 window and door openings that I have in my new home. The windows are gorgeous and very efficient with aluminum clad exteriors and wood interiors. They offer over 30 different exterior color options. I went with Greek Olive. We also have retractable sliding doors with a 15' opening that we purchased through SP but are actually made by La Cantina. I would definately look into their products. Their customer service was excellent and their territory manager even came to my house to check that everything that was ordered was delivered intact and in perfect condition prior to installation! I had compared bids from Eagle, Hurd, WeatherShield, and a few others. Every manufacturer came in right around the same price but SP product and customer service far exceeded all of them.