But before you go shopping, I think there should be one more "figure out" on your list: Figure out what YOU want! That means knowing not only all those other figure-outs, but deciding what does and does not appeal to you - formal or casual? lots of annuals or lots of perennials? mostly flowers or all evergreens or great expanses of lawn or fresh vegs or fruit trees or maybe bonsai? is lots of pruning okay or would it better be if the landscape were mostly self-maintaining? Most of us have a general idea of what we like - however, this is *your* landscape so please yourself first - but going through a stack of garden magazines or driving around and just looking at what other folks have done can help clarify your preferences. And self-honesty is supremely important: how much time and effort will you *really* spend each week? Does your idea of a great Saturday mean going boating all day- or pulling weeds all morning followed by hauling mulch for several hours- or laying back in the hammock? The less time you have available in combination with the less effort you may want to expend on the garden means that you need to choose both plants and a planting style that appeals to you esthetically but doesn't require a many hours of labors every week. OTOH, if you adore roses and would rather train canes than relax in a lounge chair, then you can plan your landscape around roses (or whatever the magic plant may be). Knowing what you do -or don't- want will be a big help in narrowing the planting choices to a manageable number, and the rest of "landscaping" is mostly following a few sensible rules (those first figure-outs you listed); setting reasonable and realistic goals; listening to others who have done the same thing [who may or may not be experts, but you can learn lots from somebody else's experience]; and then accepting that both gardens and gardeners change as time passes. Oh yes, and 2 things about hardscape: always make a comfortable weatherproof chair your first purchase, and remember that it's easier to put the path where the wheelbarrow needs to go than it is to fix the lawn after dragging the mulch across the grass because there wasn't a path.

TS Do let us know what the end result of this was and how you handled it and what the teacher and principal have said. As a former teacher I can provide some thought to this- Science in particular, I, as a teacher, was not fond of the book. I found that it was too wordy, didn't teach concepts and worked on vocabulary instead of 'science'. So I followed the idea behind the book but did my own thing. For example, the book might be saying now it's time to study plants and so we studied plants. We planted plants, dissected plants, and so on. Rather than teaching vocab. like many science books do, I taught about plants. The book was a resource. I am just going to say that the teacher may be doing something similar and this may be the answer you get from both teacher and principal. My only thought is that if this is the case, the teacher will be able to back up this method with lesson plans, reasoning and theory behind her actions, and student work that shows she taught them science without the book. Just be open to this but don't hesitate to make the teacher and principal back them up with words. The same may be true with math. I also think that very few teachers who do math make it all the way through the book. That is my experience in almost every grade. But I would certainly expect that the teacher would be able to show that although she didn't give a lot of homework or work out of the book, the kids learned what they were supposed to learn. (She may have provided worksheets or board practice or other types of practice from other sources). What I am saying is look for the quality of education and look for what your child has learned vs. looking for so many chapters in a book to be covered. A couple of resources you might consider buying and keeping on hand for future years that will give you an idea of what your children (through almost all grades) should be learning: William Bennet's book The Educated Child (I think that is what it is called). It takes every subject and discusses age ability, grade expectations, what a good teacher is doing in different grades and subjects and so on. It's a great resource. Also the books in the series "Everything your (grade level) child needs to know" are great. Ginger

The best way to level your lawn is with a tractor and a box blade. For those of you with smaller lawns, or no access to a tractor, here's a summary of how you can level your lawn yourself... 1. Mow with a rotary mower at the mowers lowest setting. 2. Scalp to 1/16 inch with a rented, self powered and propelled, reel mower. The purpose of this is to scalp the yard as low as possible and remove the debris. If you cannot rent a reel mower, mow at the lowest possible setting of whatever you have and remove the debris. 3. Core aerate (if you think you must, sigh) 4. Top dress with [*****your local topsoil*****] mix. 5. Drag a large mat over the topdressing to make it super level. Drag in all directions until you are happy with it. 6. Seed or sod. 7. Roll the seed or sod with a rented water fillable roller. 8. Fertilize. NOTES: 1. This step may hit roots, soil, or hidden rocks in your soil. Be careful. 2. The only way to completely remove the turf and keep the roots alive is to mow as low as possible. This exposes all the high and low spots to make step 4 work better. 3. Dont aerate before step 2 or you will have trouble mowing. If you have low spots you want to raise, dont aerate the low spots but aerate heavily in the high areas so you can sweep all the cores to the low areas. 4. *****Were still working on what to use in this step.***** I also want to come up with an easy way to estimate how much top dressing to buy. Basically you get 1/4 to 1/3 inch per cubic yard per 1,000 square feet. So 4 cubic yards will provide about an inch of cover on 1,000 square feet. There are probably issues with how to get this out of a pile and relatively evenly distributed before dragging. 5. You can use chain link fencing with boards to weight it down or an inverted shipping palate. 6. Use the best seed you can find. It will be the seed with the lowest % weed. 7. The roller is needed to push the seed into the soil and provide good contact. Sod needs to be rolled so that the bottom of all the sod is touching the soil. Roots cannot grow through air. 8. If you were doing this in an organic program, you would fertilize with alfalfa at 20 pounds per 1,000 square feet about 2-3 weeks prior to starting this process. Written By: DCHall_San_Antonio

> The title is Jesus, the Son of Man, by Kahlil Gibran and the print I have is from 1976. Not only is 1976 not old, but Kahlil Gibran was incredibly popular and there are more of his books even older gathering dust on aging college students shelves than you can imagne. So sell it for a buck. Many factors influence the worth of a book, condition being very important. For example, country of printing, and signed. -I have a first edition, first printing When We Were Six, from 1928 (American printing), that cost a few hundred bucks. The same book, first edition, English printing, signed by author and illustrator was going for 10,000 last time I looked. I remember when I visited my college library for the first time - shelves and shelves were filled with what I thought were ancient books (talking 1800s). While some of these probably were valuable, chances are most weren't. I have my sights now on pre revolutionary war titles; not for the worth, but because I think they'd be interesting. Many are out of my ball park. And I'd really love even just a sheet of an illuminated manuscript. In my dreams. If you are thinking about collecting books, choose books that match your interests. I collect children's illustrated pre 1950. Being specific helps you focus, and helps you learn more about the field so you know when someone is selling a 1920 edition of Alice in Wonderland for $500, you know to turn up your nose.