Do yourself a HUGE favor...bite the bullet, deal with your impatience, enroll in U of Guelph, and earn your MLA. I'm new around here, thus the late response...but I feel I'm qualified to give you some career advice. I'm a managing partner/owner (and RLA) in a Landscape Architecture and Civil Engineering firm. I'll be very frank with my response...my hope is that you'll take it seriously and not be offended. If I were to get a resume from you with the MLD from Conway as your highest level of education (along with your BA History of course), I wouldn't give you a second thought. With a promising cover letter, I MIGHT peruse your info to find out more about the Conway education but you would not be a candidate for any job openings. With the current massive layoffs in the industry, you will be up against some of the top talent in the field...believe me - I've already laid them off or seen their recently brushed off resumes. To sit for the LARE, in MOST states/provinces you'll have to ALREADY have completed 2+ years of apprenticeship under a licensed landscape architect. On top of that you'll be required to have a BLA or MLA from a CLARB accredited school (schools have to renew their accredidation with CLARB every few years and that in itself is no cakewalk for the institution). There are sometimes (depending on state/province) ways around the education part, and you could very well qualify with your work experience...BUT... And then of course is the test...I worked with a person who sat for it numerous times during a 15+ year career before passing (wasn't good with the grading and construction sections but was a great conceptual designer). And that's just the licensing part. Reading your posts, I believe you're ready to go into a MLA program...and I recommend and encourage you to do so if you're serious about this: "primary interest is along the lines of large scale design, subdivisions, parks, resorts etc." You will never do that type work without being a LICENSED/REGISTERED LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT. The profession is so much broader and truly design-based than plants, patios, and pergolas. I think you've realized that whether you know it or not. When I was in school, we students had an inside joke...we thought it was easier to get a degree in landscape archtecture than it was to quadruple-major in art, horticulture, engineering, and ecology. And for some perspective, you mention "2 of the 3 projects are on a scale that far exceeds garden design or even residential layouts..." In my BLA program (and I'm sure is the same across the board), we would do 4-6 projects on a scale that far exceeds garden design or even residential layouts in one class (each semester)...and that was only our studio course, which was on top of a couple of lecture classes and/or core-related electives. I could go on and on with reasons why you should get your MLA over the Conway certificate, but I don't want to wear my fingers out typing (I've got a little sketching to do tomorrow)...just do yourself, your significant other, and future family a favor and complete your education to prepare you for what (I think) you truly want to do. A few final and perhaps random thoughts: - You mention putting a time constraint on what you want to achieve...with the time constraint you'll never achieve your goal of designing subdivisions, resorts, parks, etc. - Listen to DD when he talks about the rules...they are in place and you have to play by them. - The Univ. of Guelph will prepare you for a great career in Landscape Architecture...my best employee (who I've unfortunately had to lay off) is a graduate and is an extremely talented designer who understands the design process and is effective at commuunicating his design intent, which is always very well thought out. Of all my employees, I think his education prepared him better than most. - You've got to quit equating "landscaping" and "landscape design" with "landscape architecture"...they are two totally different things and are on very different levels. You must embrace that fact. - And on plantings, planting design, and the horticulture end of our profession... There's currently great debate regarding how plants and planting design fit into our profession and if it is or isn't being given it's proper attention. I'm of the opinion that unfortunately it's on its way to being a lost art. IMO, it's our greatest medium, but too many don't appreciate and understand plants as well as they should; and many RLAs deal very minimally with plants and focus instead on other aspects and scales of the profession where individual plants don't come into play . Plantings are VERY IMPORTANT to my designs, but only about 10% of the work I do actually involves plantings...the rest is planning (at varying scales and phases), rezoning, grading/drainage design, hardscape design, construction administration/observation, coordination of plans and designs with other consultants, water quality strategy with my PEs, etc, etc. - Pick up a few books to see if they peak your interest...if so, enroll in Guelph...try these: Landscape Architecture: A Manual of Site Planning and Design by John O. Simonds Site Analysis: Linking Program and Concept in Land Planning and Design by James A. LaGro Jr Design with Nature by Ian L. McHarg The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces by William H. Whyte Those are a few...there are many more. Good Luck!

Chasing pH is a futile endeavor. Well, that depends on what your goals are, what your pH is and your access to resources. You're trying to push your pH from an 8+ in calcareous clay down to a 5.0 and you're on a budget? Yeah. That's pretty futile. Now let's say you've got a pH of 7.5 in a sandy soil with no lime and would like to shift it down to 7.0 or even a little acid so that your maple will stop showing symptoms of alkalinity induced chlorosis. Let's also say you have the means to buy some sulfur (and/or iron sulfate) pre-plant and use acidifying fertilizers to keep the pH down over time? Not futile at all. In fact, it's really common. As free hydrogen is replaced by anions (e.g. calcium, magnesium, sodium, potassium) the pH rises. Well, not really. pH is not a relationship of hydrogen to other cations. pH is an expression of the relationship between hydrogen and hydroxide (OH-). Note that hydroxide is an anion. That's why you can always calculate your pOH if you know your H+ concentration and vice-versa. You will never be able to calculate your pH from your concentration of other cations. At pH 7.0 and above there is no free hydrogen in the soil.Actually, if you have a pH of 7.0, that means that the concentration of hydrogen is exactly the same as the concentration of hydroxide in the soil solution. If you had no hydrogen your pH would be 14 and your pOH would be 0. I think you may be thinking of exchange sites on colloids. If you have a pH of 7.0 or above you may indeed have 0% hydrogen (or actually so close that it is reported as 0% on a base saturation analysis). Also, you can't raise your pH by just picking a cation and increasing it. That's why you won't get an increase in pH from adding gypsum (calcium sulfate) except under special circumstances.

Why do you want the sink and DW in the island? It eats up valuable workspace and puts dirty dishes in the face of anyone sitting at the island. Is it b/c you want to face people while working? Well then look at these statistics works studies have found: 70% of the work done and time spent in the kitchen is spent prepping 20% is spent cleaning up 10% is spent cooking If you want to visit people while working, then it makes the most sense to have your Prep Zone in the island. Add a prep sink in the island and it now becomes a big expanse of workspace for large projects like baking, cake making, homework, school/science fair, gift wrapping, crafts, etc. The above also explains why it's best to have an island all one level...to maximize workspace. If your island is big enough, you can fit two levels, but you should have an island big enough to make both levels a decent size. Is the desk necessary? Most people remodeling are taking desks out of their kitchens b/c they've found they're really nothing more than clutter magnets! With laptop computers becoming more the norm than the exception these days, it can be used just about anywhere...on the island, at a table, etc. You could create a Message/Command Center where the desk is, but don't make it too big and don't put a chair space there. Make it base cabinet (drawers or drawer + ROTS) with an upper cabinet and you can corral the clutter somewhat. Put the family calendar, landline phone/answering machine, charging station, keys, mail organizer, note board, pens/pencils, note pads, etc. in that area. Or, make it a tall cabinet and create an "Organization Closet" that has doors that open out and in and that can be closed to hide the clutter when you have company(Sweeby, the creator of the "Sweeby Test", has one.) Regardless of the option you go with (desk, Message/Command Center, Organization Closet), I'd make it somewhere b/w 24" and 36" wide. Any more and I think you're wasting space that could be used in the kitchen, especially with that pantry taking up so much room. (I'm not saying get rid of it, as a matter of fact I have a corner pantry that I really like, but mine is not in the middle of the kitchen separating key appliances and possibly Zones...let's try to make the pantry work!) Here is a link that might be useful:

Little bit of commentary explaining some thoughts. And that's all these are. The number below are the numbers on the pic. 1. I'm guessing you wouldn't be talked outta those stairs, but that's an alternative - do a doorway in the living room into "closet" of laundry hall. 2. I did show this alternative - kill the inside basement stairs and move the ref to this wall. There's likely 101 reasons you wouldn't like this, but its a really GREAT place for the ref. I think I can hear your screams of "Nooo!" all the way in Baltimore. 3. Aisle widths. Aisles are measured counter to counter. Roughly a counter on a base cabinet on a wall is 25" to 26" deep. An island with one row of cabinetry is usually at least 29" wide at the counter level - this includes a panel on the backs of the cabinets and appropriate overhangs. If You use a tall bank of either shelving or closed cabinets that are 12" deep, your two aisles are about 39". The current recommended minimum aisle is 42" (It changed several years ago - I think partly on account of tall tub dishwashers and 36" wide refrigerators). If you try to have full depth cabinets(25" at the counter) or even a counter depth refrigerator(~28" w/handles) on the opposite wall with the island, both your aisles go down to 31"-33". They might be less depending on "stuff" like how plumb the room is, the exact depth of the ref, etc. That can feel kinda small. You should be able to move something into your existing kitchen to lower the aisle space to try it. 4. Table space. Concerned about the choice of table, simultaneous use of the table and back door, etc. With a 2 foot wide table, with no one occupying the table, it will be 4.5 feet wide and the table edge should be 30" from the wall or 5.2ish feet. When occupied, the wall side has enough space for a seated person(24" beyond the table edge), but when someone sits on the door side, the total width is 6 feet - all the space there is. Assuming that you guys or your friends may not be perfect about tucking in chairs, think about doing either a banquette or purchasing a dining bench for the side up against the wall. It helps with spacing, but might drive you nutz in alignment to the window and wall area. So if you put the bench under the window and run the table in the other direction? 5. Consider moving the range (sorry for calling it a rangetop) closer to the sink and island. I know somebody is thinking about prep between sink and range, but you're more likely to prep on end of island. It's less effort for getting pots full of water and dumping them. 6. Consider a fold-up or drop-in counter to be used only when you need some extra space instead of slightly blocking the stairs all the time.