Hi I just bought a house and I'm looking for Lilac trees, and other small shrubs. I don't mind doing the digging! cnichols@lakeheadu.ca

A site in the Bay area where you can build a house...What a lucky person! I would think that you would want to put the most beautiful and well designed and built structure on your property as possible. Given this rare opportunity, I would suggest that you find an architect - one who designs 'green' and is sensitive to the land. In the end, for many reasons, an architect can save you at least the fee that she or he charges, help you develop and express your own unique vision of home, and create a structure that will be a testament to conscientious building rather than another blight on the land. As an alternative, you may find architecturally designed homes on these websites: healthyhomeplans.com or architecturalhouseplans.com These plans have been designed and built for actual clients, and are offered as an alternative to standard stock plans. If you find a plan, you could take it to an architect or engineer to detail for your particular codes and conditions. I think there are a number of plans that were designed for sloped properties. An architect or engineer could easily modify the plans to work with your conditions. Good luck with your project!

Hello to a Bay Area neighbor! I don't have a specific person to recommend, based on experience, but a great source of names is the link below. Angela Free, Jay Jeffers and Kendall Wilkinson have especially nice portfolios you can look at on their sites. I have a number of designers bookmarked for various reference reasons, and I *think* I may have someone from Oakland as well. You style home is popular there too. If I do, I'll post back. Here is a link that might be useful: SF Showcase Designers

Romogen you're going to be happy with these. I was home this morning and use any excuse to get in the garden... So I dug the Munstead Woods up. One had a huge root system so I put it in a pulp pot I had that is actually sized for trees. It's pretty heavy. My hubby will be able to lift it, but you might need help unloading that one. You can have my metal stamped ID for it too. There's a couple of new canes starting. One may be below the graft but I will let you decide and handle it. :-) The others are smaller, but also have some new canes starting. I havent dug up WC yet. It's pretty tall and has some buds. I was thinking I would trim it down once it blooms, then dig it up. Not a lot, just a little...Just to make traveling easier. Sound good? Or do you want to keep all the height on the longer canes? There is lots of new growth. You can have the metal stamped ID for that one too. :-) I hope to see photos of them flourishing in your yard soon! ;-)