greenllama, Welcome to the forum. Your balcony garden is gorgeous! I hope you won't let changing from container gardening to in-ground gardening intimidate you. You can do it. As already has been mentioned here, just take it slow. I wouldn't try to transform the whole back yard in the first year. Our weather here can drive gardeners to distraction, but honestly, most of what happens is pretty easy to overcome. Tornadoes and floods probably are the most challenging, in terms of the amount of time and the recovery time needed. Hail? It happens. You prune off the damage, clean up the mess, hold your head high and carry on. You wont believe how quickly the plants recover and regrow. I am not in the OKC area. I am way down south just north of the Red River across the state line from Gainesville, TX, so the big hail that so often seems to plague a lot of central OK and northern OK normally is not an issue here. I don't know how often the folks in the OKC area get hail, but in my location we get it once or twice a year, here in Love County and only in 1 year of the 15 years we've been here has the hail truly demolished my garden to the point that I just wanted to cry. (I didn't cry though. Oklahoma gardeners don't cry!) That was hail roughly the size of golf balls or slightly larger with a few larger than an extra large hen's egg. I haven't had baseball or softball sized hail since moving here, though we had it a couple of times in Texas before we moved here. We have had hail the size of baseballs to softballs in our county, but about 15 miles north of our house. I hope that size of hail never finds us. I keep floating row cover (both heavyweight and lightweight) handy, as well as bird netting and chicken wire, and can throw those over plants to protect them pretty quickly if hail threatens. I don't worry so much about ornamental plants because they bounce back quickly, but try to protect corn plants (because if the plants' growing tips are damaged, you don't get corn) when they are young and small enough to be covered, and tomato plants for obvious reasons. To me, the fear of having hail hit the garden and destroy it is worse than actually having it happen---so far, the damage we have seen from hail has been far less than I thought it would be when the hail actually was falling. It amazes me how awful the hail sounds hitting the roof, walls and windows and yet, when you walk outside, the damage to plants isn't all that bad. Once we went about 3 or 4 years without hail, but then the law of averages caught up to us and we had it 11 times in one year. Luckily, it was small every time---from pea-sized to nickle-sized, and the damage was minimal. So, I wouldn't worry about it that much----the odds of hail hitting your specific garden real often probably are lower than you think. Even when big hail hits, it often does damage only over a few square miles. Rain rarely damages my garden. I cannot speak for anyone else because some of the folks in other parts of OK get more of those torrential rainstorms with flash flooding than I do. My problem normally is a lack of rain, which is an entirely different issue. The important thing is to either select property with a well-draining sandy loam soil, or be prepared to spend time and money improving dense clay if that is what you end up with. I have mostly clay with a few veins of sand running through it here and there. In the clay-ey areas, I have raised beds where I've done tons of soil amendment. In the areas with the sandier soil, I've done less amending and do not have raised beds.(Raised beds with sandy soil drain too quickly in our climate some years.....) If you've never gardened in the ground in the city, remember that there can be all sorts of buried lines....water lines, sewer lines, gas lines, and in some areas, electric lines, phone lines, etc. so before you dig, call and get the stuff underground marked with little flags so you know where not to dig. Getting the area marked is a free service. Wind is an issue and someone already mentioned the need for windbreaks. I try to site planting beds where they are sheltered from strong north and south winds by buildilngs, trees and shrubs, etc. Where that is not possible, I grow lots of vines on the garden fence to help block wind and also grow tall plants like cannas to serve as wind breaks. I also choose ornamental plants that are pretty tolerant of the kind of conditions we have here. I avoid anything that needs lots of moisture and lots of pampering. I like tough plants that take a lot of weather abuse and just keep blooming their heads off. SInce you're in zone 8 and will be moving to zone 7, you'll have to adjust planting dates a couple of weeks later than what you're used to. I only moved 80 miles north when we left Texas (Fort Worth) and moved here, so can plant almost as early here as we did there as long as I am prepared to toss floating row cover over the plants on occasional late nights. (Don't get me started on the increasing frequency of the occasional late cold nights we've had the last few years! They drive me up the wall.) I'm in a cold microclimate in the Red River Valley so even though my average last frost date is March 28th, in 5 of the last 6 years, we have had sporadic cold nights with freezing temperatures and killing frost through the first week in May. If I didn't have floating row covers, I would be stark raving mad by this point. So, you don't have to fear OK weather too much---you just learn to adopt practices that take into account the fact that our weather conditions change a lot. I try to ignore the weather and do what I need to do on the schedule that is best for me and my plants. For a long time, I would put off planting and put it off and put it off because the chance of hail was in the forecast seemingly every day. I wouldn't transplant plants on a given day because it "might" hail. Of course, it never hailed and I regretted postponing planting. I could wait for three weeks and that hail never came even though it constantly was in the forecast, and then I'd transplant on a sunny morning (with no hail in the forecast), and hail would fall from a storm that afternoon that seemingly popped up out of nowhere. So, I stopped letting the weather control my choices. Now I just plant when I want to and then hope I am at home to cover up plants if the weather starts turning threatening. We certainly cannot control what the weather does here, so we just learn how to work with what we get. I think you'll love living here and gardening here. The people are the best people you'll find anywhere, and the weather is.....hmmmm.......never boring. Because I was an experienced gardener when we moved here, I started really small the first year with two raised beds that I think were about 4' wide and 10' long. I knew better than to create more planting space than I could maintain. I crammed a huge number (as in too many) of plants into those raised beds that first year. Then, every year after that, we broke more ground and improved the soil and built raised beds.. It is smarter to start small with a manageable amount than to bite off more than you can chew and get discouraged because fighting the weeds and pests drive you up the wall. Nothing is more discouraging than seeing a garden that was blissfully beautiful in May be overtaken by grass and weeds by the end of June. Mulch is your friend. Layer it on thickly before the weeds have a chance to get started and then hope that high winds and torrential rainfall don't carry the mulch away. Gardening here is wonderful, but it is not for sissies. (grin) Dawn

I'm not an attorney, but my husband is, and I used to work as a paralegal years ago... Since clchang lives in California, I'll paste in Section 1954 of the California Civil Code: (a) A landlord may enter the dwelling unit only in the following cases: (1) In case of emergency. (2) To make necessary or agreed repairs, decorations, alterations or improvements, supply necessary or agreed services, or exhibit the dwelling unit to prospective or actual purchasers, mortgagees, tenants, workers, or contractors or to make an inspection pursuant to subdivision (f) of Section 1950.5. (3) When the tenant has abandoned or surrendered the premises. (4) Pursuant to court order. (b) Except in cases of emergency or when the tenant has abandoned or surrendered the premises, entry may not be made during other than normal business hours unless the tenant consents to an entry during other than normal business hours at the time of entry. (c) The landlord may not abuse the right of access or use it to harass the tenant. (d) (1) Except as provided in subdivision (e), or as provided in paragraph (2) or (3), the landlord shall give the tenant reasonable notice in writing of his or her intent to enter and enter only during normal business hours. The notice shall include the date, approximate time, and purpose of the entry. The notice may be personally delivered to the tenant, left with someone of a suitable age and discretion at the premises, or, left on, near, or under the usual entry door of the premises in a manner in which a reasonable person would discover the notice. Twenty-four hours shall be presumed to be reasonable notice in absence of evidence to the contrary. The notice may be mailed to the tenant. Mailing of the notice at least six days prior to an intended entry is presumed reasonable notice in the absence of evidence to the contrary. (2) If the purpose of the entry is to exhibit the dwelling unit to prospective or actual purchasers, the notice may be given orally, in person or by telephone, if the landlord or his or her agent has notified the tenant in writing within 120 days of the oral notice that the property is for sale and that the landlord or agent may contact the tenant orally for the purpose described above. Twenty-four hours is presumed reasonable notice in the absence of evidence to the contrary. The notice shall include the date, approximate time, and purpose of the entry. At the time of entry, the landlord or agent shall leave written evidence of the entry inside the unit. (3) The tenant and the landlord may agree orally to an entry to make agreed repairs or supply agreed services. The agreement shall include the date and approximate time of the entry, which shall be within one week of the agreement. In this case, the landlord is not required to provide the tenant a written notice. (e) No notice of entry is required under this section: (1) To respond to an emergency. (2) If the tenant is present and consents to the entry at the time of entry. (3) After the tenant has abandoned or surrendered the unit. The above language refers to Civil Code Section 1950.5(f), which is regarding the landlord's right to enter the premises for purposes of inspection after the tenant has given notice that they will be vacating. The last thing you want to do as a tenant -- that is, if you like where you live and you don't want to have to find another place and move -- is to tick off your landlord. So, don't be making threats. You could let your landlord know that you're concerned that perhaps a former tenant still has a key, so you have installed a hidden security camera to capture anyone entering the apartment. If the landlord just thinks you have one, that may be enough to keep him/her out. If the landlord says, "oh, that's not possible because we change the locks between tenants," you could respond with, "well, I know it's not you coming into my place, because I know you wouldn't violate California Civil Code Section 1954, so I'm really concerned about this. And I've already gotten the camera hooked up." The string/paper,whatever in the doorjam works really well, too (been there, done that). You could also print out the language of California Civil Code Section 1954, and tape it to the inside of your front door. The landlord would have to see it on the way out if he/she is, indeed, entering when you're not there. That will certainly let the person know that you are aware of your rights...

I had the same problem. It was horrendous. We were harassed by a nut who lived below us for 4 years in our apartment building, and who called our walking "stomping". We are an older quiet couple, don't entertain at home, have the entire apartment covered with 2 layers of rugs and walk in our bare feet. Like the above, we go to bed late, but our main habits are reading, TV at low volume and getting bedtime snacks. But this was not good enough for the neurotic man below us who gradually escalated his complaints every time we tried to be even quieter, and we were already quiet - nobody in our entire lives had ever complained about us and we have lived in apartments all our lives. We never play loud music, and we as I said walk in socks on two layers of rugs, wall-to-wall rugs. In the end as we decided to consult a lawyer and fight back, he moved out! What a relief! And the strange thing is, this couple actually caused US problems beyond their harassment of us through emails, verbal complaints and trumping up complaints to the Board. Ever since he moved in, the bed we slept in had strange sensations running through it. It's hard to explain but the only apt analogy is Havana syndrome. There were odd sensory movements coming through our mattress, and interfered with our sleep on a daily basis. A couple of months before they moved, my husband finally got the nerve to question him about if he had any electronic equipment right under our bed that might be causing these strange sensations. He completely denied it and showed us their bedroom which had a work area (hidden) not quite directly under our bed. I know this person had a background in science and don't know what he was up to with his computer under our bed. I know this sounds absolutely nuts, but after they moved out these sensations abruptly stopped. I'll never know what caused these weird sensations in our bed, but they were extremely disconcerting. I never complained publicly because how do you explain this? One more thing, I was always wondering when we lived there if he was trying to intimidate us, as older people, out of our apartment, because we own one of the prized top floor apartments in the building.

Rick, The last 4 are Tracy's trees. The others I got from a collector in Florida. The pool just has regular screen around it but it blocks out about 50% of the sun. Which is a good thing in Florida. You can tell the difference as soon as you walk outside the screen on the concrete pad. Todd, The babies are in leftover gritty (poultry grit, Turface, Pine Bark Fines) mix that I already had made up with pea gravel on the top. The last 4 are in a mix of GS2, Course Perlite or Pumice, Fir Bark or Coco Chips. I think the BigF is my favorite.