It's not too late! I'm in your zone but in North Georgia. I've just started winter sowing this past week. I also have red clay. Red clay is usually high in nutrients but lacking in organic matter. You should be able to drastically improve your soil with adding organic matter. I've found the best way to improve my clay soil is laying down builders paper and or cardboard and then covering with a thick mulch of things like straw, hay, leaves etc. The worms will show up under the paper and start breaking it all down and aerating the hard clay underneath and bringing organic matter into it. I also do raised beds but I don't want my whole yard raised beds iykwim. With my raised beds I've just had truckloads of landscapers mix brought in. The clay will take some time to improve though. I'm working on improving most of my yard and it's an acre. The soil was worse than average with all the topsoil having been scraped off and not even grass would grow in most places. :/ I've ordered from Diane's, Swallowtail Seed's and Fedco Seeds this winter. Fedco sells more vegetable seeds but I really like their flower and herb selection because they do have some good things and they offer a LOT of seed for far less than the average asking price. So I buy flower seed from them every year when I order my vegetable garden seeds. My plan this year is to start focusing on seed saving though so I don't have to buy so darn much! Good luck with your new yard!

You took the words right out of my mouth . Where is here? I heard that they thought it might be hardy to around 20F which would mean that I would have to protect it occasionally and possibly loose it an a huge cold front. That is what shovels are for. I lost an 8 ' O. cochenellifera, and a bunch of opuntias during an unusually hard freeze a couple of years ago (12F). O ficas indica is hardy to just above 15. It came back from the ground. @ GS, Thanks I went again and the link did show it. Interesting discussion. Mine looks to be a bit different. These pads are flat elongated but more of the classic wide paddle form associated with opuntia, a darker green, The pony tails were spaced farther apart, but all in all, definitely similar. I have contacts on flicker that are involved in the Mexican cactus scene. maybe , I should shake their tree for information. @ Karen, Your cactus are also rooting and showing growth. Thank you again. Give me a couple of years and I might have some spare pads of this one , but taking into account that every person that passed me as I made my way to the car, asked me where were this plants in the store and if it was the last one, this plant will be making its way into the trade in a hurry. I think that it was grown somewhere near by because others had been munched on by the dreaded cactus coreid bug. I do not think that it is as much of a pest in Arizona and ponts west as it is here. I could be mistaken..

Augie What size and efficiency systems both up and down do you have now-cooling and heating? Any specific issues with existing systems? I will assume you have conventional furnaces now. If you replace only outside condenser and inside evap coil and pair with existing furnace, you are just as well off staying with basic 13 SEER condensers. If you want higher SEER 15+, you must go with either two stage var speed furnace or at very least a single stage furnace model with high eff x-13 blower. I also question the sizing of the furnaces you were quoted. I will give a pass to the dealers on furnace models because these Trane furnaces whether down flow or upflow are adaptable to horizontal application which I suspect is what you have now. In other words, not a big deal. I do take exception to Mike's statement above about a two stage furnace running on low stage 90% of the time. Not true unless you have a true two stage thermostat. In fact if you use the timer on the furnace, you would be running probably 90% of time in high stage. A pet peeve of mine what dealers do to homeowners in this area. And yes a two stage stat costs more but will easily pay for itself. At this moment AHRI site is down. I will look up a system using both two stage furnace XV80 and single stage high eff blower XT80 for upstairs. I also recommend a pleated filter media cabinet that Mike suggested. IMO This post was edited by tigerdunes on Tue, Apr 30, 13 at 7:32

I bought from them about a month ago and they were fine. I received the on-stock items several days before the quoted arrival date and everything was great! When we re-do our upstairs BAs, I will most likely order from them again--assuming their prices are competitive! (But, that's a year or two away--at least!) BTW.......... While researching the best price for my Kohler Vinnata faucet and other miscellaneous items, I noticed that the FaucetDirect.com and ImprovementDirect.com sites had nearly identical websites and prices. So, I gave them a call. Here's the scoop: Prices & shipping are the same. What's different? The restocking fee. Unless you choose the "Assurz" option (and cost!), ImprovementDirect ALWAYS has a restocking for non-defective merchandise. However, FaucetDirect has no restocking fee if you follow a few rules. [See the "Returns" link on the bottom of their page for the rules.] ImprovementDirect is also the parent company for LightingDirect and KitchenDirect.