WOW! And here I thought that no one replied... turns out I just never got any emails about the replies. Anyways, thanks to everyone who did reply for all the hints and tips. In the time that has passed I have walked with my landlord over the whole property and he's all for what I plan on doing here as he's been unlucky with his tenants to date not wanting to do any type of improving upon the aesthetics here. I can understand why the landlord hasn't put any type of money into the place as when we moved in last fall the whole back yard under all those nice shade trees was nothing but dirt. That's why the grass is so patchy back there. The tenant before us had 28 fox-hounds in a big caged in area under those trees... the area is almost completely filled in with grass that was seeded last fall, needs another seeding though. Now that I've had more of a chance to pay attention to just how much sun each area I plan to plant gets I now know better what to plant there. The back of the house gets quite a bit of sun actually, almost 6 full hours of afternoon sun whereas the front gets full morning sun. The place we chose for the veggie garden is in an area that gets sun from about 9am until dusk so it will have enough, plus it's close enough to the water hose! I've also identified some of the "bushes" that I didn't know when I originally posted this thread. There are two large groups of Common or American Elderberry (one that is crowding out my snowball bush) as well as some honeysuckle bushes, a large Mimosa tree that's just about to bloom and a straggly looking red Mulberry. It's difficult to tell at first whether some of the trees are Black Walnut or Tree of heaven but I figured it out as the BW has it's fruits developing. There are still two unidentified bushes but I'll figure it all out. Now that I've bored y'all with my uninteresting story I guess I should end this by saying that I will probably be posting photos of the design I finally chose for this large property. From what I've figured so far, the investment will be no more than about 2-3000. We are planning on staying here for quite a while... don't plan on moving until hubby's ready to retire (15 more years) and the landlord knows that if we do move most of what I plant will be moving with me. Especially the bulbs and anything easily transported to the new place. So once again, thanks for all the replies. ttfn Mystic.

I know this is going to break all of your hearts. But yes, I plead before this bar, that I, MarkyMark of California, hereafter known as "markymark-ca", did, does, and do continues to function in this world as a lawyer. While many a client might wished to seen said markymark-ca dis-barred as much to the level to which such an act must rise has never been met, sadly, that prong was never met. As much as this pains me, and my poor mother who slaved over the stove in Kansas--feeding chickens in the morning, baking bread for noontime dinner, and my poor father slaving over the John Deere---plowing that 340 acres for corn and wheat--- this poor soul did finish law school. And, as noted above, even passed the bar on the first try. (And two other siblings) The one who did NOT go to college worked the oil fields. Lo and behold. They found oil on his land....and the folks now live down the road with a view of Carmel to die for. The farm remains under contract farmers. As for the beforementioned civil action, WTF???????????????? $75 clams for a rider and $35 for a pusher? Do you realize the gold mine in my back yard in Pebble? Hell, there is no limit. I ought to hit the repair shops collecting model and engine numbers. Think of this as a challenge. Hell, I have almost a $1000 worth of claims myself in the backyard. And in defense of lawyer, I do know a poor soul who collected almost $5500 from Walmart in a discrimination suit. Said person was alleged to have been discriminated in hiring against black folk and/or African Americans. This poor soul happens to be from South Africa with Dutch decent....and yes, he did apply and collected. (Footnote) Attorney's got $11,000,000 from a total of 18.5 settlement. And for what it is worth, the beforementioned markymark-ca did crim law.....prosecutorial at federal level... kind of tried to put the bad guys away at times.

On Friday loves2cook4six let us show off our challah on her thread. We have a Gaggenau 30" convection oven (not steam), and to tell you the truth, I am still having a hard time with it. A part of it may be our altitude (5400) which affects baking, and another part may be that I can find no rule with this oven in terms of baking time. Sometimes it takes longer, sometimes a shorter baking period. If there's an auto-convert feature on this oven (because every recipe I have, which is set for sea-level so I've already my hands full trying to figure out how to alter it for the altitude and relative humidity, let alone how much less time or a lower temperature for convection) I have yet to figure it out. Following our tried-and-true (from California) challah recipe, it should have baked for at least 30 minutes: here, it was overcooked at 30 minutes. Good inside -- not quite as chewy as one would expect, and the crust was hard. But tonight we made a (vegan) brownie pizza! getting ready to melt soy butter and unsweetened chocolate -- this is an Emeril pot which we bought sight / hand unseen [I hear you trailrunner and imrainey!] and, luckily enough, we like it! adding Ener-G vegan egg replacer -- it's so-so, but we're trying to get back to our veganism [we fell into vegetarianism during the remodel -- so many things had cheese in it that I just gave in!] -- the children and I do better without dairy, and I think my husband does as well, esp. considering he grew up without it [he's Japanese] singing an ode to brownie pizza -- please notice his middle finger on top of his "little chef" car [he likes "the rat movie," aka Ratatouille, so he will often have a "little chef" when he bakes] decorating with strawberries & blueberries It had a delicious flavor (naturally -- I mean, it's chocolate!) but again, I could not figure out when it was done. The recipe called for it to be done at twelve minutes but it was still wet in the middle (and it's only about 1/4 of an inch thick); so I baked for two more minutes and the crust was so chewy and hard it was dangerous for dental work! So we ate the insides. Waste not want not! To quote our family: "oishii!" (delicious) Ruffin (my youngest) didn't have any (yet) -- he had a scary reaction to the amoxicillin he was prescribed for an ear infection. So to tell you the truth, this baking was therapy for me, to help calm my nerves after the scare in my Little Angel! I don't drink but maybe I should look into it .... I love love LOVE watching all of you in action! I'm keeping good wishes for a speedy and easy recovery for trailrunner's son!

I have 7 flower stems on mine this year, in quite a bit more sun than yours. It gets almost full afternoon sun - something I can get away with here on the cool Washington coast that you may not be able to. It's struggled a little, I dug it up when we moved and it spent a year in a pressed pulp pot. Three years ago, I got it planted and the deer ate the flower stems that season. And some of the leaves, or rather bites from several leaves, not entire leaves. Last year it appeared late, I'd begun to worry about it, then emerged and had about 5 bloom stalks. This is the first year in three it's looked settled in and beginning to perform. The things I'd planted around it that were to provide some dappled shade are taking their time too, and not effective yet. I moved only a few blocks but am still learning the idiosyncrasies of gardening here. With additional space came increased deer presence, ivy, false lily of the valley, and clay ;0)